Genesis 5:1-26:18
Living Bible
5 Here is a list of some of the descendants of Adam[a]—the man who was like God from the day of his creation. 2 God created man and woman and blessed them, and called them Man from the start.
3-5 Adam: Adam was 130 years old when his son Seth was born,[b] the very image of his father in every way. After Seth was born, Adam lived another 800 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 930.
6-8 Seth: Seth was 105 years old when his son Enosh was born. Afterwards he lived another 807 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 912.
9-11 Enosh: Enosh was ninety years old when his son Kenan was born. Afterwards he lived another 815 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 905.
12-14 Kenan: Kenan was seventy years old when his son Mahalalel was born. Afterwards he lived another 840 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 910.
15-17 Mahalalel: Mahalalel was sixty-five years old when his son Jared was born. Afterwards he lived 830 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 895.
18-20 Jared: Jared was 162 years old when his son Enoch was born. Afterwards he lived another 800 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 962.
21-24 Enoch: Enoch was sixty-five years old when his son Methuselah was born. Afterwards he lived another 300 years in fellowship with God, and produced sons and daughters; then, when he was 365, and in constant touch with God, he disappeared, for God took him!
25-27 Methuselah: Methuselah was 187 years old when his son Lamech was born; afterwards he lived another 782 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 969.
28-31 Lamech: Lamech was 182 years old when his son Noah was born. Lamech named him Noah (meaning “Relief”) because he said, “He will bring us relief from the hard work of farming this ground which God has cursed.” Afterwards Lamech lived 595 years, producing sons and daughters, and died at the age of 777.
32 Noah: Noah was 500 years old and had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
6 1-2 Now a population explosion took place upon the earth. It was at this time that beings from the spirit world[c] looked upon the beautiful earth women and took any they desired to be their wives. 3 Then Jehovah said, “My Spirit must not forever be disgraced in man, wholly evil as he is. I will give him 120 years to mend his ways.”
4 In those days, and even afterwards, when the evil beings from the spirit world were sexually involved with human women, their children became giants, of whom so many legends are told. 5 When the Lord God saw the extent of human wickedness, and that the trend and direction of men’s lives were only towards evil, 6 he was sorry he had made them. It broke his heart.
7 And he said, “I will blot out from the face of the earth all mankind that I created. Yes, and the animals too, and the reptiles and the birds. For I am sorry I made them.”
8 But Noah was a pleasure to the Lord. Here is the story of Noah: 9-10 He was the only truly righteous man living on the earth at that time. He tried always to conduct his affairs according to God’s will. And he had three sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 Meanwhile, the crime rate was rising rapidly across the earth, and, as seen by God, the world was rotten to the core.
12-13 As God observed how bad it was, and saw that all mankind was vicious and depraved, he said to Noah, “I have decided to destroy all mankind; for the earth is filled with crime because of man. Yes, I will destroy mankind from the earth. 14 Make a boat from resinous wood, sealing it with tar; and construct decks and stalls throughout the ship. 15 Make it 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. 16 Construct a skylight all the way around the ship, eighteen inches below the roof; and make three decks inside the boat—a bottom, middle, and upper deck—and put a door in the side.
17 “Look! I am going to cover the earth with a flood and destroy every living being—everything in which there is the breath of life. All will die. 18 But I promise to keep you safe in the ship, with your wife and your sons and their wives. 19-20 Bring a pair of every animal—a male and a female—into the boat with you, to keep them alive through the flood. Bring in a pair of each kind of bird and animal and reptile. 21 Store away in the boat all the food that they and you will need.” 22 And Noah did everything as God commanded him.
7 Finally the day came when the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the boat with all your family, for among all the people of the earth, I consider you alone to be righteous. 2 Bring in the animals, too—a pair of each, except those kinds I have chosen for eating and for sacrifice: take seven pairs of each of them, 3 and seven pairs[d] of every kind of bird. Thus there will be every kind of life reproducing again after the flood has ended. 4 One week from today I will begin forty days and nights of rain; and all the animals and birds and reptiles I have made will die.”
5 So Noah did everything the Lord commanded him. 6 He was 600 years old when the flood came. 7 He boarded the boat with his wife and sons and their wives, to escape the flood. 8-9 With him were all the various kinds of animals—those for eating and sacrifice, and those that were not, and the birds and reptiles. They came into the boat in pairs, male and female, just as God commanded Noah.
10-12 One week later, when Noah was 600 years, two months, and seventeen days old, the rain came down in mighty torrents from the sky, and the subterranean waters burst forth upon the earth for forty days and nights. 13 But Noah had gone into the boat that very day with his wife and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives. 14-15 With them in the boat were pairs of every kind of animal—domestic and wild—and reptiles and birds of every sort. 16 Two by two they came, male and female, just as God had commanded. Then the Lord God[e] closed the door and shut them in.
17 For forty days the roaring floods prevailed, covering the ground and lifting the boat high above the earth. 18 As the water rose higher and higher above the ground, the boat floated safely upon it; 19 until finally the water covered all the high mountains under the whole heaven, 20 standing twenty-two feet and more above the highest peaks. 21 And all living things upon the earth perished—birds, domestic and wild animals, and reptiles and all mankind— 22 everything that breathed and lived upon dry land. 23 All existence on the earth was blotted out—man and animals alike, and reptiles and birds. God destroyed them all, leaving only Noah alive, and those with him in the boat. 24 And the water covered the earth 150 days.
8 God didn’t forget about Noah and all the animals in the boat! He sent a wind to blow across the waters, and the floods began to disappear, 2 for the subterranean water sources ceased their gushing, and the torrential rains subsided. 3-4 So the flood gradually receded until, 150 days after it began, the boat came to rest upon the mountains of Ararat. 5 Three months later,[f] as the waters continued to go down, other mountain peaks appeared.
6 After another forty days, Noah opened a porthole 7 and released a raven that flew back and forth[g] until the earth was dry. 8 Meanwhile he sent out a dove to see if it could find dry ground, 9 but the dove found no place to light, and returned to Noah, for the water was still too high. So Noah held out his hand and drew the dove back into the boat.
10 Seven days later Noah released the dove again, 11 and this time, toward evening, the bird returned to him with an olive leaf in her beak. So Noah knew that the water was almost gone. 12 A week later he released the dove again, and this time she didn’t come back.
13 Twenty-nine days after that,[h] Noah opened the door to look, and the water was gone. 14 Eight more weeks went by. Then at last the earth was dry. 15-16 Then God told Noah, “You may all go out. 17 Release all the animals, birds, and reptiles, so that they will breed abundantly and reproduce in great numbers.” 18-19 So the boat was soon empty. Noah, his wife, and his sons and their wives all disembarked, along with all the animals, reptiles, and birds—all left the ark in pairs and groups.
20 Then Noah built an altar and sacrificed on it some of the animals and birds God had designated[i] for that purpose. 21 And Jehovah was pleased with the sacrifice[j] and said to himself, “I will never do it again—I will never again curse the earth, destroying all living things, even though man’s bent is always toward evil from his earliest youth, and even though he does such wicked things. 22 As long as the earth remains, there will be springtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night.”
9 God blessed Noah and his sons and told them to have many children and to repopulate the earth.
2-3 “All wild animals and birds and fish will be afraid of you,” God told him; “for I have placed them in your power, and they are yours to use for food, in addition to grain and vegetables. 4 But never eat animals unless their life-blood has been drained off. 5-6 And murder is forbidden. Man-killing animals must die, and any man who murders shall be killed; for to kill a man is to kill one made like God. 7 Yes, have many children and repopulate the earth and subdue it.”
8 Then God told Noah and his sons, 9-11 “I solemnly promise you and your children[k] and the animals you brought with you—all these birds and cattle and wild animals—that I will never again send another flood to destroy the earth. 12 And I seal this promise with this sign: 13 I have placed my rainbow in the clouds as a sign of my promise until the end of time, to you and to all the earth. 14 When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will be seen in the clouds, 15 and I will remember my promise to you and to every being, that never again will the floods come and destroy all life. 16-17 For I will see the rainbow in the cloud and remember my eternal promise to every living being on the earth.”
18 The names of Noah’s three sons were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham is the ancestor of the Canaanites.)[l] 19 From these three sons of Noah came all the nations of the earth.
20-21 Noah became a farmer and planted a vineyard, and he made wine. One day as he was drunk and lay naked in his tent, 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and went outside and told his two brothers. 23 Then Shem and Japheth took a robe and held it over their shoulders and, walking backwards into the tent, let it fall across their father to cover his nakedness as they looked the other way. 24-25 When Noah awoke from his drunken stupor, and learned what had happened and what Ham, his younger son, had done, he cursed Ham’s descendants:[m]
“A curse upon the Canaanites,” he swore.
“May they be the lowest of slaves
To the descendants of Shem and Japheth.”
26-27 Then he said,
“God bless Shem,
And may Canaan be his slave.[n]
God bless Japheth,
And let him share the prosperity of Shem,
And let Canaan be his slave.”
28 Noah lived another 350 years after the flood 29 and was 950 years old at his death.
10 These are the families of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who were the three sons of Noah; for sons were born to them after the flood.
2 The sons[o] of Japheth were: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, Tiras.
3 The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, Togarmah.
4 The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, Dodanim.
5 Their descendants became the maritime nations in various lands, each with a separate language.
6 The sons of Ham were: Cush, Mizraim, Put, Canaan.
7 The sons of Cush were: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, Sabteca.
The sons of Raamah were: Sheba, Dedan.
8 One of the descendants[p] of Cush was Nimrod, who became the first of the kings. 9 He was a mighty hunter, blessed of God,[q] and his name became proverbial. People would speak of someone as being “like Nimrod—a mighty hunter, blessed of God.” 10 The heart of his empire included Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh in the land of Shinar. 11-12 From there he extended his reign to Assyria. He built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and Resen (which is located between Nineveh and Calah), the main city of the empire.
13-14 Mizraim was the ancestor[r] of the people inhabiting these areas: Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom came the Philistines), and Caphtorim.
15-19 Canaan’s oldest son was Sidon, and he was also the father of Heth; from Canaan descended these nations: Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites, Hamathites. Eventually the descendants of Canaan spread from Sidon all the way to Gerar, in the Gaza strip; and to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, near Lasha.
20 These, then, were the descendants of Ham, spread abroad in many lands and nations, with many languages.
21 Eber descended from Shem, the oldest brother of Japheth. 22 Here is a list of Shem’s other descendants: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, Aram.
23 Aram’s sons[s] were: Uz, Hul, Gether, Mash.
24 Arpachshad’s son was Shelah, and Shelah’s son was Eber.
25 Two sons were born to Eber: Peleg (meaning “Division,” for during his lifetime the people of the world were separated and dispersed), and Joktan (Peleg’s brother).
26-30 Joktan was the father[t] of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abima-el, Sheba, Ophir, Havi-lah, Jobab.
These descendants of Joktan lived all the way from Mesha to the eastern hills of Sephar.
31 These, then, were the descendants of Shem, classified according to their political groupings, languages, and geographical locations.
32 All of the men listed above descended from Noah, through many generations, living in the various nations that developed after the flood.
11 At that time all mankind spoke a single language. 2 As the population grew and spread eastward, a plain was discovered in the land of Babylon and was soon thickly populated. 3-4 The people who lived there began to talk about building a great city, with a temple-tower reaching to the skies—a proud, eternal monument to themselves.
“This will weld us together,” they said, “and keep us from scattering all over the world.” So they made great piles of hard-burned brick, and collected bitumen to use as mortar.
5 But when God came down to see the city and the tower mankind was making, 6 he said, “Look! If they are able to accomplish all this when they have just begun to exploit their linguistic and political unity, just think of what they will do later! Nothing will be unattainable for them![u] 7 Come, let us go down and give them different languages, so that they won’t understand each other’s words!”
8 So, in that way, God scattered them all over the earth; and that ended the building of the city. 9 That is why the city was called Babel (meaning “confusion”), because it was there that Jehovah confused them by giving them many languages, thus widely scattering them across the face of the earth.
10-11 Shem’s line of descendants included Arpachshad, born two years after the flood when Shem was 100 years old; after that he lived another 500 years and had many sons and daughters.
12-13 When Arpachshad was thirty-five years old, his son Shelah was born,[v] and after that he lived another 403 years and had many sons and daughters.
14-15 Shelah was thirty years old when his son Eber was born, living 403 years after that, and had many sons and daughters.
16-17 Eber was thirty-four years old when his son Peleg was born. He lived another 430 years afterwards and had many sons and daughters.
18-19 Peleg was thirty years old when his son Reu was born. He lived another 209 years afterwards and had many sons and daughters.
20-21 Reu was thirty-two years old when Serug was born. He lived 207 years after that, with many sons and daughters.
22-23 Serug was thirty years old when his son Nahor was born. He lived 200 years afterwards, with many sons and daughters.
24-25 Nahor was twenty-nine years old at the birth of his son Terah. He lived 119 years afterwards and had sons and daughters.
26 By the time Terah was seventy years old, he had three sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
27 And Haran had a son named Lot. 28 But Haran died young, in the land where he was born (in Ur of the Chaldeans), and was survived by his father.
29 Meanwhile, Abram married his half sister[w] Sarai, while his brother Nahor married their orphaned niece, Milcah, who was the daughter of their brother Haran; and she had a sister named Iscah. 30 But Sarai was barren; she had no children. 31 Then Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (his son Haran’s child), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, and left Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; but they stopped instead at the city of Haran and settled there. 32 And there Terah died at the age of 205.[x]
12 God had told Abram, “Leave your own country behind you, and your own people, and go to the land I will guide you to. 2 If you do, I will cause you to become the father of a great nation; I will bless you and make your name famous, and you will be a blessing to many others.[y] 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and the entire world will be blessed because of you.”[z]
4 So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed him, and Lot went too; Abram was seventy-five years old at that time. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all his wealth—the cattle and slaves he had gotten in Haran—and finally arrived in Canaan. 6 Traveling through Canaan, they came to a place near Shechem, and set up camp beside the oak at Moreh. (This area was inhabited by Canaanites at that time.)
7 Then Jehovah appeared to Abram and said, “I am going to give this land to your descendants.” And Abram built an altar there to commemorate Jehovah’s visit. 8 Afterwards Abram left that place and traveled southward[aa] to the hilly country between Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he made camp, and made an altar to the Lord and prayed to him. 9 Thus he continued slowly southward to the Negeb, pausing frequently.
10 There was at that time a terrible famine in the land: and so Abram went on down to Egypt to live. 11-13 But as he was approaching the borders of Egypt, he asked Sarai his wife to tell everyone that she was his sister! “You are very beautiful,” he told her, “and when the Egyptians see you they will say, ‘This is his wife. Let’s kill him and then we can have her!’ But if you say you are my sister, then the Egyptians will treat me well because of you, and spare my life!” 14 And sure enough, when they arrived in Egypt everyone spoke of her beauty. 15 When the palace aides saw her, they praised her to their king, the Pharaoh, and she was taken into his harem.[ab] 16 Then Pharaoh gave Abram many gifts because of her—sheep, oxen, donkeys, men and women slaves, and camels.
17 But the Lord sent a terrible plague upon Pharaoh’s household on account of her being there. 18 Then Pharaoh called Abram before him and accused him sharply. “What is this you have done to me?” he demanded. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? 19 Why were you willing to let me marry her, saying she was your sister? Here, take her and be gone!” 20 And Pharaoh sent them out of the country under armed escort—Abram, his wife, and all his household and possessions.
13 1-2 So they left Egypt and traveled north into the Negeb—Abram with his wife, and Lot, and all that they owned, for Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold. 3-4 Then they continued northward toward Bethel where he had camped before, between Bethel and Ai—to the place where he had built the altar. And there he again worshiped the Lord.
5 Lot too was very wealthy, with sheep and cattle and many servants.[ac] 6 But the land could not support both Abram and Lot with all their flocks and herds. There were too many animals for the available pasture. 7 So fights broke out between the herdsmen of Abram and Lot, despite the danger they all faced[ad] from the tribes of Canaanites and Perizzites present in the land. 8 Then Abram talked it over with Lot. “This fighting between our men has got to stop,” he said. “We can’t afford to let a rift develop between our clans. Close relatives such as we are must present a united front! 9 I’ll tell you what we’ll do. Take your choice of any section of the land you want, and we will separate. If you want that part over there to the east, then I’ll stay here in the western section. Or, if you want the west, then I’ll go over there to the east.”
10 Lot took a long look at the fertile plains of the Jordan River, well watered everywhere (this was before Jehovah destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah); the whole section was like the Garden of Eden,[ae] or like the beautiful countryside around Zoar in Egypt. 11 So that is what Lot chose—the Jordan Valley to the east of them. He went there with his flocks and servants, and thus he and Abram parted company. 12 For Abram stayed in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain, settling at a place near the city of Sodom. 13 The men of this area were unusually wicked, and sinned greatly against Jehovah.
14 After Lot was gone, the Lord said to Abram, “Look as far as you can see in every direction, 15 for I am going to give it all to you and your descendants. 16 And I am going to give you so many descendants that, like dust, they can’t be counted! 17 Hike in all directions and explore the new possessions I am giving you.” 18 Then Abram moved his tent to the oaks of Mamre, near Hebron, and built an altar to Jehovah there.
14 Now war filled the land—Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goiim 2 fought against: Bera, king of Sodom, Birsha, king of Gomorrah, Shinab, king of Admah, Shemeber, king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (later called Zoar).
3 These kings (of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela) mobilized their armies in Siddim Valley (that is, the valley of the Dead Sea). 4 For twelve years they had all been subject to King Chedorlaomer, but now in the thirteenth year, they rebelled.
5-6 One year later, Chedorlaomer and his allies arrived and the slaughter began. For they were victorious over the following tribes at the places indicated: the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim; the Zuzim in Ham; the Emim in the plain of Kiriathaim; the Horites in Mount Seir, as far as El-paran at the edge of the desert.
7 Then they swung around to Enmishpat (later called Kadesh) and destroyed the Amalekites, and also the Amorites living in Hazazan-tamar.
8-9 But now the other army, that of the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela (Zoar), unsuccessfully[af] attacked Chedorlaomer and his allies as they were in the Dead Sea Valley (four kings against five). 10 As it happened, the valley was full of asphalt pits. And as the army of the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some slipped into the pits, and the remainder fled to the mountains. 11 Then the victors plundered[ag] Sodom and Gomorrah and carried off all their wealth and food, and went on their homeward way, 12 taking with them Lot—Abram’s nephew[ah] who lived in Sodom—and all he owned. 13 One of the men who escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was camping among the oaks belonging to Mamre the Amorite (brother of Eshcol and Aner, Abram’s allies).
14 When Abram learned that Lot had been captured, he called together the men born into his household, 318 of them in all, and chased after the retiring army as far as Dan. 15 He divided his men and attacked during the night from several directions, and pursued the fleeing army to Hobah, north of Damascus, 16 and recovered everything—the loot that had been taken, his relative Lot, and all of Lot’s possessions, including the women and other captives.
17 As Abram returned from his strike against Chedorlaomer and the other kings at the valley of Shaveh (later called King’s Valley), the king of Sodom came out to meet him, 18 and Melchizedek, the king of Salem (Jerusalem), who was a priest of the God of Highest Heaven, brought him bread and wine. 19-20 Then Melchizedek blessed Abram with this blessing:
“The blessing of the supreme God, Creator of heaven and earth, be upon you, Abram; and blessed be God, who has delivered your enemies over to you.”
Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the loot.
21 The king of Sodom told him, “Just give me back my people who were captured; keep for yourself the booty stolen from my city.”
22 But Abram replied, “I have solemnly promised Jehovah, the supreme God, Creator of heaven and earth, 23 that I will not take so much as a single thread from you, lest you say, ‘Abram is rich because of what I gave him!’ 24 All I’ll accept is what these young men of mine have eaten; but give a share of the loot to Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, my allies.”
15 Afterwards Jehovah spoke to Abram in a vision, and this is what he told him: “Don’t be fearful, Abram, for I will defend you. And I will give you great blessings.”
2-3 But Abram replied, “O Lord Jehovah, what good are all your blessings when I have no son? For without a son, some other member of my household[ai] will inherit all my wealth.”
4 Then Jehovah told him, “No, no one else will be your heir, for you will have a son to inherit everything you own.”
5 Then God brought Abram outside beneath the nighttime sky and told him, “Look up into the heavens and count the stars if you can. Your descendants will be like that—too many to count!” 6 And Abram believed God; then God considered him righteous on account of his faith.
7 And he told him, “I am Jehovah who brought you out of the city of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land.”
8 But Abram replied, “O Lord Jehovah, how can I be sure that you will give it to me?” 9 Then Jehovah told him to take a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove and a young pigeon, 10 and to slay them and to cut them apart down the middle, and to separate the halves, but not to divide the birds. 11 And when the vultures came down upon the carcasses, Abram shooed them away.
12 That evening as the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a vision of terrible foreboding, darkness, and horror.
13 Then Jehovah told Abram, “Your descendants will be oppressed as slaves in a foreign land for 400 years. 14 But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and at the end they will come away with great wealth. 15 (But you will die in peace, at a ripe old age.) 16 After four generations they will return here to this land; for the wickedness of the Amorite nations living here now[aj] will not be ready for punishment until then.”
17 As the sun went down and it was dark, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch that passed between the halves of the carcasses. 18 So that day Jehovah made this covenant with Abram: “I have given this land to your descendants from the Wadi-el-Arish[ak] to the Euphrates River. 19-21 And I give to them these nations: Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, Jebusites.”
16 But Sarai and Abram had no children. So Sarai took her maid, an Egyptian girl named Hagar, 2-3 and gave her to Abram to be his second wife.
“Since the Lord has given me no children,” Sarai said, “you may sleep with my servant girl, and her children shall be mine.”
And Abram agreed. (This took place ten years after Abram had first arrived in the land of Canaan.) 4 So he slept with Hagar, and she conceived; and when she realized she was pregnant, she became very proud and arrogant toward her mistress Sarai.
5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “It’s all your fault. For now this servant girl of mine despises me, though I myself gave her the privilege of being your wife. May the Lord judge you for doing this to me!”[al]
6 “You have my permission to punish the girl as you see fit,” Abram replied. So Sarai beat her and she ran away.
7 The Angel of the Lord found her beside a desert spring along the road to Shur.
8 The Angel: “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
Hagar: “I am running away from my mistress.”
9-12 The Angel: “Return to your mistress and act as you should, for I will make you into a great nation. Yes, you are pregnant and your baby will be a son, and you are to name him Ishmael (‘God hears’), because God has heard your woes. This son of yours will be a wild one—free and untamed as a wild ass! He will be against everyone, and everyone will feel the same toward him. But he will live near the rest of his kin.”
13 Thereafter[am] Hagar spoke of Jehovah—for it was he who appeared to her—as “the God who looked upon me,” for she thought, “I saw God and lived to tell it.”
14 Later that well was named “The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.” It lies between Kadesh and Bered.
15 So Hagar gave Abram a son, and Abram named him Ishmael. 16 (Abram was eighty-six years old at this time.)
17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, God appeared to him and told him, “I am the Almighty; obey me and live as you should. 2-4 I will prepare a contract between us, guaranteeing to make you into a mighty nation. In fact you shall be the father of not only one nation, but a multitude of nations!” Abram fell face downward in the dust as God talked with him.
5 “What’s more,” God told him, “I am changing your name. It is no longer ‘Abram’ (‘Exalted Father’), but ‘Abraham’ (‘Father of Nations’)—for that is what you will be. I have declared it. 6 I will give you millions of descendants who will form many nations! Kings shall be among your descendants! 7-8 And I will continue this agreement between us generation after generation, forever, for it shall be between me and your children as well. It is a contract that I shall be your God and the God of your posterity. And I will give all this land of Canaan to you and them, forever. And I will be your God.
9-10 “Your part of the contract,” God told him, “is to obey its terms. You personally and all your posterity have this continual responsibility: that every male among you shall be circumcised; 11 the foreskin of his penis shall be cut off. This will be the proof that you and they accept this covenant. 12 Every male shall be circumcised on the eighth day after birth. This applies to every foreign-born slave as well as to everyone born in your household. This is a permanent part of this contract, and it applies to all your posterity. 13 All must be circumcised. Your bodies will thus be marked as participants in my everlasting covenant. 14 Anyone who refuses these terms shall be cut off from his people; for he has violated my contract.”
15 Then God added, “Regarding Sarai your wife—her name is no longer ‘Sarai’ but ‘Sarah’ (‘Princess’). 16 And I will bless her and give you a son from her! Yes, I will bless her richly, and make her the mother of nations! Many kings shall be among your posterity.”
17 Then Abraham threw himself down in worship before the Lord, but inside he was laughing in disbelief![an] “Me, be a father?” he said in amusement. “Me—100 years old? And Sarah, to have a baby at 90?”
18 And Abraham said to God, “Yes, do bless Ishmael!”
19 “No,” God replied, “that isn’t what I said. Sarah shall bear you a son; and you are to name him Isaac (‘Laughter’), and I will sign my covenant with him forever, and with his descendants. 20 As for Ishmael, all right, I will bless him also, just as you have asked me to. I will cause him to multiply and become a great nation. Twelve princes shall be among his posterity. 21 But my contract is with Isaac, who will be born to you and Sarah next year at about this time.”
22 That ended the conversation and God left. 23 Then, that very day, Abraham took Ishmael his son and every other male—born in his household or bought from outside—and cut off their foreskins, just as God had told him to. 24-27 Abraham was ninety-nine years old at that time, and Ishmael was thirteen. Both were circumcised the same day, along with all the other men and boys of the household, whether born there or bought as slaves.
18 The Lord appeared again to Abraham while he was living in the oak grove at Mamre. This is the way it happened: One hot summer afternoon as he was sitting in the opening of his tent, 2 he suddenly noticed three men coming toward him. He sprang up and ran to meet them and welcomed them.
3-4 “Sirs,” he said, “please don’t go any farther. Stop awhile and rest here in the shade of this tree while I get water to refresh your feet, 5 and a bite to eat to strengthen you. Do stay awhile before continuing your journey.”
“All right,” they said, “do as you have said.”
6 Then Abraham ran back to the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick! Mix up some pancakes![ao] Use your best flour, and make enough for the three of them!” 7 Then he ran out to the herd and selected a fat calf and told a servant to hurry and butcher it. 8 Soon, taking them cheese and milk and the roast veal, he set it before the men and stood beneath the trees beside them as they ate.
9 “Where is Sarah, your wife?” they asked him.
“In the tent,” Abraham replied.
10 Then the Lord said, “Next year[ap] I will give you and Sarah a son!” (Sarah was listening from the tent door behind him.) 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were both very old, and Sarah was long since past the time when she could have a baby.
12 So Sarah laughed silently. “A woman my age have a baby?” she scoffed to herself. “And with a husband as old as mine?”
13 Then God said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ 14 Is anything too hard for God? Next year, just as I told you, I will certainly see to it that Sarah has a son.”
15 But Sarah denied it. “I didn’t laugh,” she lied, for she was afraid.
16 Then the men stood up from their meal and started on toward Sodom; and Abraham went with them part of the way.
17 “Should I hide my plan from Abraham?” God asked. 18 “For Abraham shall become a mighty nation, and he will be a source of blessing for all the nations of the earth. 19 And I have picked him out to have godly descendants and a godly household—men who are just and good—so that I can do for him all I have promised.”
20 So the Lord told Abraham, “I have heard that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah are utterly evil, and that everything they do is wicked. 21 I am going down to see whether these reports are true or not. Then I will know.”
22-23 So the other two went on toward Sodom, but the Lord remained with Abraham a while. Then Abraham approached him and said, “Will you kill good and bad alike? 24 Suppose you find fifty godly people there within the city—will you destroy it, and not spare it for their sakes? 25 That wouldn’t be right! Surely you wouldn’t do such a thing, to kill the godly with the wicked! Why, you would be treating godly and wicked exactly the same! Surely you wouldn’t do that! Should not the Judge of all the earth be fair?”
26 And God replied, “If I find fifty godly people there, I will spare the entire city for their sake.”
27 Then Abraham spoke again. “Since I have begun, let me go on and speak further to the Lord, though I am but dust and ashes. 28 Suppose there are only forty-five? Will you destroy the city for lack of five?”
And God said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five.”
29 Then Abraham went further with his request. “Suppose there are only forty?”
And God replied, “I won’t destroy it if there are forty.”
30 “Please don’t be angry,” Abraham pleaded. “Let me speak: suppose only thirty are found there?”
And God replied, “I won’t do it if there are thirty there.”
31 Then Abraham said, “Since I have dared to speak to God, let me continue—suppose there are only twenty?”
And God said, “Then I won’t destroy it for the sake of the twenty.”
32 Finally, Abraham said, “Oh, let not the Lord be angry; I will speak but this once more! Suppose only ten are found?”
And God said, “Then, for the sake of the ten, I won’t destroy it.”
33 And the Lord went on his way when he had finished his conversation with Abraham. And Abraham returned to his tent.
19 That evening the two angels came to the entrance of the city of Sodom, and Lot was sitting there as they arrived. When he saw them he stood up to meet them, and welcomed them.
2 “Sirs,” he said, “come to my home as my guests for the night; you can get up as early as you like and be on your way again.”
“Oh, no thanks,” they said, “we’ll just stretch out here along the street.”
3 But he was very urgent, until at last they went home with him, and he set a great feast before them, complete with freshly baked unleavened bread. After the meal, 4 as they were preparing to retire for the night, the men of the city—yes, Sodomites, young and old from all over the city—surrounded the house 5 and shouted to Lot, “Bring out those men to us so we can rape them.”
6 Lot stepped outside to talk to them, shutting the door behind him. 7 “Please, fellows,” he begged, “don’t do such a wicked thing. 8 Look—I have two virgin daughters, and I’ll surrender them to you to do with as you wish. But leave these men alone, for they are under my protection.”
9 “Stand back,” they yelled. “Who do you think you are? We let this fellow settle among us and now he tries to tell us what to do! We’ll deal with you far worse than with those other men.” And they lunged at Lot and began breaking down the door.
10 But the two men reached out and pulled Lot in and bolted the door 11 and temporarily blinded the men of Sodom so that they couldn’t find the door.
12 “What relatives do you have here in the city?” the men asked. “Get them out of this place—sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone else. 13 For we will destroy the city completely. The stench of the place has reached to heaven and God has sent us to destroy it.”
14 So Lot rushed out to tell his daughters’ fiancés, “Quick, get out of the city, for the Lord is going to destroy it.” But the young men looked at him as though he had lost his senses.
15 At dawn the next morning the angels became urgent. “Hurry,” they said to Lot, “take your wife and your two daughters who are here and get out while you can, or you will be caught in the destruction of the city.”
16 When Lot still hesitated, the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and rushed them to safety, outside the city, for the Lord was merciful.
17 “Flee for your lives,” the angels told him. “And don’t look back. Escape to the mountains. Don’t stay down here on the plain or you will die.”
18-20 “Oh no, sirs, please,” Lot begged, “since you’ve been so kind to me and saved my life, and you’ve granted me such mercy, let me flee to that little village over there instead of into the mountains, for I fear disaster in the mountains. See, the village is close by and it is just a small one. Please, please, let me go there instead. Don’t you see how small it is? And my life will be saved.”
21 “All right,” the angel said, “I accept your proposition and won’t destroy that little city. 22 But hurry! For I can do nothing until you are there.” (From that time on that village was named Zoar, meaning “Little City.”)
23 The sun was rising as Lot reached the village. 24 Then the Lord rained down fire and flaming tar from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah, 25 and utterly destroyed them, along with the other cities and villages of the plain, eliminating all life—people, plants, and animals alike. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back as she was following along behind him and became a pillar of salt.
27 That morning Abraham was up early and hurried out to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 He looked out across the plain to Sodom and Gomorrah and saw columns of smoke and fumes, as from a furnace, rising from the cities there. 29 So God heeded Abraham’s plea and kept Lot safe, removing him from the maelstrom of death that engulfed the cities.
30 Afterwards Lot left Zoar, fearful of the people there, and went to live in a cave in the mountains with his two daughters. 31 One day the older girl said to her sister, “There isn’t a man anywhere in this entire area that our father would let us marry. And our father will soon be too old for having children. 32 Come, let’s fill him with wine and then we will sleep with him, so that our clan will not come to an end.” 33 So they got him drunk that night, and the older girl went in and had sexual intercourse with her father; but he was unaware of her lying down or getting up again.
34 The next morning she said to her younger sister, “I slept with my father last night. Let’s fill him with wine again tonight, and you go in and lie with him, so that our family line will continue.” 35 So they got him drunk again that night, and the younger girl went in and lay with him, and, as before, he didn’t know that anyone was there. 36 And so it was that both girls became pregnant from their father. 37 The older girl’s baby was named Moab; he became the ancestor of the nation of the Moabites. 38 The name of the younger girl’s baby was Benammi; he became the ancestor of the nation of the Ammonites.
20 Now Abraham moved south to the Negeb and settled between Kadesh and Shur. One day, when visiting the city of Gerar, 2 he declared that Sarah was his sister! Then King Abimelech sent for her, and had her brought to him at his palace.
3 But that night God came to him in a dream and told him, “You are a dead man, for that woman you took is married.”
4 But Abimelech hadn’t slept with her yet, so he said, “Lord, will you slay an innocent man? 5 He told me, ‘She is my sister,’ and she herself said, ‘Yes, he is my brother.’ I hadn’t the slightest intention of doing anything wrong.”
6 “Yes, I know,” the Lord replied. “That is why I held you back from sinning against me; that is why I didn’t let you touch her. 7 Now restore her to her husband, and he will pray for you (for he is a prophet) and you shall live. But if you don’t return her to him, you are doomed to death along with all your household.”
8 The king was up early the next morning, and hastily called a meeting of all the palace personnel and told them what had happened. And great fear swept through the crowd.
9-10 Then the king called for Abraham. “What is this you’ve done to us?” he demanded. “What have I done that deserves treatment like this, to make me and my kingdom guilty of this great sin? Who would suspect that you would do a thing like this to me? Whatever made you think of this vile deed?”
11-12 “Well,” Abraham said, “I figured this to be a godless place. ‘They will want my wife and will kill me to get her,’ I thought. And besides, she is my sister—or at least a half sister (we both have the same father)—and I married her. 13 And when God sent me traveling far from my childhood home, I told her, ‘Have the kindness to mention, wherever we come, that you are my sister.’”
14 Then King Abimelech took sheep and oxen and servants—both men and women—and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him.
15 “Look my kingdom over, and choose the place where you want to live,” the king told him. 16 Then he turned to Sarah. “Look,” he said, “I am giving your ‘brother’ a thousand silver pieces as damages for what I did, to compensate for any embarrassment and to settle any claim against me regarding this matter. Now justice has been done.”
17 Then Abraham prayed, asking God to cure the king and queen and the other women of the household, so that they could have children; 18 for God had stricken all the women with barrenness to punish Abimelech for taking Abraham’s wife.
21 1-2 Then God did as he had promised, and Sarah became pregnant and gave Abraham a baby son in his old age, at the time God had said; 3 and Abraham named him Isaac (meaning “Laughter!”). 4-5 Eight days after he was born, Abraham circumcised him, as God required. (Abraham was 100 years old at that time.)
6 And Sarah declared, “God has brought me laughter! All who hear about this shall rejoice with me. 7 For who would have dreamed that I would ever have a baby? Yet I have given Abraham a child in his old age!”
8 Time went by and the child grew and was weaned; and Abraham gave a party to celebrate the happy occasion. 9 But when Sarah noticed Ishmael—the son of Abraham and the Egyptian girl Hagar—teasing[aq] Isaac, 10 she turned upon Abraham and demanded, “Get rid of that slave girl and her son. He is not going to share your property with my son. I won’t have it.”
11 This upset Abraham very much, for after all, Ishmael too was his son.
12 But God told Abraham, “Don’t be upset over the boy or your slave-girl wife; do as Sarah says, for Isaac is the son through whom my promise will be fulfilled. 13 And I will make a nation of the descendants of the slave girl’s son, too, because he also is yours.”
14 So Abraham got up early the next morning, prepared food for the journey, and strapped a canteen of water to Hagar’s shoulders and sent her away with their son. She walked out into the wilderness of Beersheba, wandering aimlessly.
15 When the water was gone she left the youth in the shade of a bush 16 and went off and sat down a hundred yards or so away. “I don’t want to watch him die,” she said, and burst into tears, sobbing wildly.
17 Then God heard the boy crying, and the Angel of God called to Hagar from the sky, “Hagar, what’s wrong? Don’t be afraid! For God has heard the lad’s cries as he is lying there. 18 Go and get him and comfort him, for I will make a great nation from his descendants.”
19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well; so she refilled the canteen and gave the lad a drink. 20-21 And God blessed the boy and he grew up in the wilderness of Paran, and became an expert archer. And his mother arranged a marriage for him with a girl from Egypt.
22 About this time King Abimelech and Phicol, commander of his troops, came to Abraham and said to him, “It is evident that God helps you in everything you do; 23 swear to me by God’s name that you won’t defraud me or my son or my grandson, but that you will be on friendly terms with my country, as I have been toward you.”
24 Abraham replied, “All right, I swear to it!” 25 Then Abraham complained to the king about a well the king’s servants had taken violently away from Abraham’s servants.
26 “This is the first I’ve heard of it,” the king exclaimed, “and I have no idea who is responsible. Why didn’t you tell me before?”
27 Then Abraham gave sheep and oxen to the king, as sacrifices to seal their pact.
28-29 But when he took seven ewe lambs and set them off by themselves, the king inquired, “Why are you doing that?”
30 And Abraham replied, “They are my gift to you as a public confirmation that this well is mine.”
31 So from that time on the well was called Beer-sheba (“Well of the Oath”), because that was the place where they made their covenant. 32 Then King Abimelech and Phicol, commander of his army, returned home again. 33 And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree beside the well and prayed there to the Lord, calling upon the Eternal God. 34 And Abraham lived in the Philistine country for a long time.
22 Later on, God tested Abraham’s faith and obedience.[ar]
“Abraham!” God called.
“Yes, Lord?” he replied.
2 “Take with you your only son—yes, Isaac whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah and sacrifice him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I’ll point out to you!”
3 The next morning Abraham got up early, chopped wood for a fire upon the altar, saddled his donkey, and took with him his son Isaac and two young men who were his servants, and started off to the place where God had told him to go. 4 On the third day of the journey Abraham saw the place in the distance.
5 “Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told the young men, “and the lad and I will travel yonder and worship, and then come right back.”
6 Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering upon Isaac’s shoulders, while he himself carried the knife and the flint for striking a fire. So the two of them went on together.
7 “Father,” Isaac asked, “we have the wood and the flint to make the fire, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?”
8 “God will see to it, my son,” Abraham replied. And they went on.
9 When they arrived at the place where God had told Abraham to go, he built an altar and placed the wood in order, ready for the fire, and then tied Isaac and laid him on the altar over the wood. 10 And Abraham took the knife and lifted it up to plunge it into his son, to slay him.
11 At that moment the Angel of God shouted to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Yes, Lord!” he answered.
12 “Lay down the knife; don’t hurt the lad in any way,” the Angel said, “for I know that God is first in your life—you have not withheld even your beloved son from me.”
13 Then Abraham noticed a ram caught by its horns in a bush. So he took the ram and sacrificed it, instead of his son, as a burnt offering on the altar. 14 Abraham named the place “Jehovah provides”—and it still goes by that name to this day.
15 Then the Angel of God called again to Abraham from heaven. 16 “I, the Lord, have sworn by myself that because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your beloved son from me, 17 I will bless you with incredible blessings and multiply your descendants into countless thousands and millions, like the stars above you in the sky, and like the sands along the seashore. They will conquer their enemies, 18 and your offspring[as] will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth—all because you have obeyed me.”
19 So they returned to his young men and traveled home again to Beer-sheba.
20-23 After this, a message arrived that Milcah, the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor, had borne him eight sons. Their names were: Uz, the oldest, Buz, the next oldest, Kemuel (father of Aram), Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, Bethuel (father of Rebekah).
24 He also had four other children from his concubine, Reumah: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, Maacah.
23 1-2 When Sarah was 127 years old, she died in Hebron in the land of Canaan; there Abraham mourned and wept for her. 3 Then, standing beside her body, he said to the men of Heth:
4 “Here I am, a visitor in a foreign land, with no place to bury my wife. Please sell me a piece of ground for this purpose.”
5-6 “Certainly,” the men replied, “for you are an honored prince of God among us; it will be a privilege to have you choose the finest of our sepulchres, so that you can bury her there.”
7 Then Abraham bowed low before them and said, 8 “Since this is your feeling in the matter, be so kind as to ask Ephron, Zohar’s son, 9 to sell me the cave of Mach-pelah, down at the end of his field. I will of course pay the full price for it, whatever is publicly agreed upon, and it will become a permanent cemetery for my family.”
10 Ephron was sitting there among the others, and now he spoke up, answering Abraham as the others listened, speaking publicly before all the citizens of the town: 11 “Sir,” he said to Abraham, “please listen to me. I will give you the cave and the field without any charge. Here in the presence of my people, I give it to you free. Go and bury your dead.”
12 Abraham bowed again to the men of Heth, 13 and replied to Ephron, as all listened: “No, let me buy it from you. Let me pay the full price of the field, and then I will bury my dead.”
14-15 “Well, the land is worth 400 pieces of silver,” Ephron said, “but what is that between friends? Go ahead and bury your dead.”
16 So Abraham paid Ephron the price he had suggested—400 pieces of silver, as publicly agreed. 17-18 This is the land he bought: Ephron’s field at Mach-pelah, near Mamre, and the cave at the end of the field, and all the trees in the field. They became his permanent possession, by agreement in the presence of the men of Heth at the city gate. 19-20 So Abraham buried Sarah there, in the field and cave deeded to him by the men of Heth as a burial plot.
24 Abraham was now a very old man, and God blessed him in every way. 2 One day Abraham said to his household administrator, who was his oldest servant,
3 “Swear by Jehovah, the God of heaven and earth, that you will not let my son marry one of these local girls, these Canaanites. 4 Go instead to my homeland, to my relatives, and find a wife for him there.”
5 “But suppose I can’t find a girl who will come so far from home?” the servant asked. “Then shall I take Isaac there, to live among your relatives?”
6 “No!” Abraham warned. “Be careful that you don’t do that under any circumstance. 7 For the Lord God of heaven told me to leave that land and my people, and promised to give me and my children this land. He will send his angel on ahead of you, and he will see to it that you find a girl from there to be my son’s wife. 8 But if you don’t succeed, then you are free from this oath; but under no circumstances are you to take my son there.”
9 So the servant vowed[at] to follow Abraham’s instructions.
10 He took with him ten of Abraham’s camels loaded with samples of the best of everything his master owned and journeyed to Iraq, to Nahor’s village. 11 There he made the camels kneel down outside the town, beside a spring. It was evening, and the women of the village were coming to draw water.
12 “O Jehovah, the God of my master,” he prayed, “show kindness to my master Abraham and help me to accomplish the purpose of my journey. 13 See, here I am, standing beside this spring, and the girls of the village are coming out to draw water. 14 This is my request: When I ask one of them for a drink and she says, ‘Yes, certainly, and I will water your camels too!’—let her be the one you have appointed as Isaac’s wife. That is how I will know.”
15-16 As he was still speaking to the Lord about this, a beautiful young girl[au] named Rebekah arrived with a water jug on her shoulder and filled it at the spring. (Her father was Bethuel the son of Nahor and his wife Milcah.) 17 Running over to her, the servant asked her for a drink.
18 “Certainly, sir,” she said, and quickly lowered the jug for him to drink. 19 Then she said, “I’ll draw water for your camels, too, until they have enough!”
20 So she emptied the jug into the watering trough and ran down to the spring again and kept carrying water to the camels until they had enough. 21 The servant said no more, but watched her carefully to see if she would finish the job,[av] so that he would know whether she was the one. 22 Then at last, when the camels had finished drinking, he produced a quarter-ounce gold earring[aw] and two five-ounce gold bracelets for her wrists.
23 “Whose daughter are you, miss?” he asked. “Would your father have any room to put us up for the night?”
24 “My father is Bethuel,” she replied. “My grandparents are Milcah and Nahor. 25 Yes, we have plenty of straw and food for the camels, and a guest room.”
26 The man stood there a moment with head bowed, worshiping Jehovah. 27 “Thank you, Lord God of my master Abraham,” he prayed; “thank you for being so kind and true to him, and for leading me straight to the family of my master’s relatives.”
28 The girl ran home to tell her folks,[ax] 29-30 and when her brother Laban saw the ring, and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists, and heard her story, he rushed out to the spring where the man was still standing beside his camels, and said to him, 31 “Come and stay with us, friend;[ay] why stand here outside the city when we have a room all ready for you, and a place prepared for the camels!”
32 So the man went home with Laban, and Laban gave him straw to bed down the camels, and feed for them, and water for the camel drivers to wash their feet. 33 Then supper was served. But the old man said, “I don’t want to eat until I have told you why I am here.”
“All right,” Laban said, “tell us your errand.”
34 “I am Abraham’s servant,” he explained. 35 “And Jehovah has overwhelmed my master with blessings so that he is a great man among the people of his land. God has given him flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, and a fortune in silver and gold, and many slaves and camels and donkeys.
36 “Now when Sarah, my master’s wife, was very old, she gave birth to my master’s son, and my master has given him everything he owns. 37 And my master made me promise not to let Isaac marry one of the local girls,[az] 38 but to come to his relatives here in this far-off land, to his brother’s family,[ba] and to bring back a girl from here to marry his son. 39 ‘But suppose I can’t find a girl who will come?’ I asked him. 40 ‘She will,’ he told me—‘for my Lord, in whose presence I have walked, will send his angel with you and make your mission successful. Yes, find a girl from among my relatives, from my brother’s family. 41 You are under oath to go and ask. If they won’t send anyone, then you are freed from your promise.’
42 “Well, this afternoon when I came to the spring I prayed this prayer: ‘O Jehovah, the God of my master Abraham, if you are planning to make my mission a success, please guide me in this way: 43 Here I am, standing beside this spring. I will say to some girl who comes out to draw water, “Please give me a drink of water!” 44 And she will reply, “Certainly! And I’ll water your camels too!” Let that girl be the one you have selected to be the wife of my master’s son.’
45 “Well, while I was still speaking these words, Rebekah was coming along with her water jug upon her shoulder; and she went down to the spring and drew water and filled the jug. I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’ 46 She quickly lifted the jug down from her shoulder so that I could drink, and told me, ‘Certainly, sir, and I will water your camels too!’ So she did! 47 Then I asked her, ‘Whose family are you from?’ And she told me, ‘Nahor’s. My father is Bethuel, the son of Nahor and his wife Milcah.’ So I gave her the ring and the bracelets. 48 Then I bowed my head and worshiped and blessed Jehovah, the God of my master Abraham, because he had led me along just the right path to find a girl from the family of my master’s brother.[bb] 49 So tell me, yes or no. Will you or won’t you be kind to my master and do what is right? When you tell me, then I’ll know what my next step should be, whether to move this way or that.”
50 Then Laban and Bethuel replied, “The Lord has obviously brought you here, so what can we say? 51 Take her and go! Yes, let her be the wife of your master’s son, as Jehovah has directed.”
52 At this reply, Abraham’s servant fell to his knees before Jehovah. 53 Then he brought out jewels set in solid gold and silver for Rebekah, and lovely clothing; and he gave many valuable presents to her mother and brother. 54 Then they had supper, and the servant and the men with him stayed there overnight. But early the next morning he said, “Send me back to my master!”
55 “But we want Rebekah here at least another ten days or so!” her mother and brother exclaimed. “Then she can go.”
56 But he pleaded, “Don’t hinder my return; the Lord has made my mission successful, and I want to report back to my master.”
57 “Well,” they said, “we’ll call the girl and ask her what she thinks.”
58 So they called Rebekah. “Are you willing to go with this man?” they asked her.
And she replied, “Yes, I will go.”
59 So they told her good-bye, sending along the woman who had been her childhood nurse, 60 and blessed her with this blessing as they parted:
“Our sister,
May you become
The mother of many millions!
May your descendants
Overcome all your enemies.”
61 So Rebekah and her servant girls mounted the camels and went with him.
62 Meanwhile, Isaac, whose home was in the Negeb, had returned to Beer-lahai-roi. 63 One evening as he was taking a walk out in the fields, meditating, he looked up and saw the camels coming. 64 Rebekah noticed him and quickly dismounted.
65 “Who is that man walking through the fields to meet us?” she asked the servant.
And he replied, “It is my master’s son!”[bc] So she covered her face with her veil. 66 Then the servant told Isaac the whole story.
67 And Isaac brought Rebekah into his mother’s tent, and she became his wife. He loved her very much, and she was a special comfort to him after the loss of his mother.
25 1-2 Now Abraham married again. Keturah was his new wife, and she bore him several children: Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, Shuah. 3 Jokshan’s two sons were Sheba and Dedan. Dedan’s sons were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim. 4 Midian’s sons were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah.[bd]
5 Abraham deeded everything he owned to Isaac; 6 however, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them off into the east, away from Isaac.
7-8 Then Abraham died, at the ripe old age of 175, 9-10 and his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Mach-pelah near Mamre, in the field Abraham had purchased from Ephron the son of Zohar, the Hethite, where Sarah, Abraham’s wife, was buried.
11 After Abraham’s death, God poured out rich blessings upon Isaac. (Isaac had now moved south to Beer-lahai-roi in the Negeb.)
12-15 Here is a list, in the order of their births, of the descendants of Ishmael, who was the son of Abraham and Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s slave girl: Nebaioth, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, Kedemah. 16 These twelve sons of his became the founders of twelve tribes that bore their names. 17 Ishmael finally died at the age of 137, and joined his ancestors.[be] 18 These descendants of Ishmael were scattered across the country from Havilah to Shur (which is a little way to the northeast of the Egyptian border in the direction of Assyria). And they were constantly at war with one another.
19 This is the story of Isaac’s children: 20 Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram. Rebekah was the sister of Laban. 21 Isaac pleaded with Jehovah to give Rebekah a child, for even after many years of marriage[bf] she had no children. Then at last she became pregnant. 22 And it seemed as though children were fighting each other inside her!
“I can’t endure this,” she exclaimed. So she asked the Lord about it.
23 And he told her, “The sons in your womb shall become two rival nations. One will be stronger than the other; and the older shall be a servant of the younger!”
24 And sure enough, she had twins. 25 The first was born so covered with reddish hair that one would think he was wearing a fur coat! So they called him “Esau.”[bg] 26 Then the other twin was born with his hand on Esau’s heel! So they called him Jacob (meaning “Grabber”). Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.
27 As the boys grew, Esau became a skillful hunter, while Jacob was a quiet sort who liked to stay at home. 28 Isaac’s favorite was Esau, because of the venison he brought home, and Rebekah’s favorite was Jacob.
29 One day Jacob was cooking stew when Esau arrived home exhausted from the hunt.
30 Esau: “Boy, am I starved! Give me a bite of that red stuff there!” (From this came his nickname “Edom,” which means “Red Stuff.”)
31 Jacob: “All right, trade me your birthright for it!”
32 Esau: “When a man is dying of starvation, what good is his birthright?”
33 Jacob: “Well then, vow to God that it is mine!”
And Esau vowed, thereby selling all his eldest-son rights to his younger brother. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread, peas, and stew; so he ate and drank and went on about his business, indifferent to the loss of the rights he had thrown away.[bh]
26 Now a severe famine overshadowed the land, as had happened before, in Abraham’s time, and so Isaac moved to the city of Gerar where Abimelech, king of the Philistines, lived.
2 Jehovah appeared to him there and told him, “Don’t go to Egypt. 3 Do as I say and stay here in this land. If you do, I will be with you and bless you, and I will give all this land to you and to your descendants, just as I promised Abraham your father. 4 And I will cause your descendants to become as numerous as the stars! And I will give them all of these lands; and they shall be a blessing to all the nations of the earth. 5 I will do this because Abraham obeyed my commandments and laws.”
6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar. 7 And when the men there asked him about Rebekah, he said, “She is my sister!” For he feared for his life if he told them she was his wife; he was afraid they would kill him to get her, for she was very attractive. 8 But sometime later, King Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out of a window and saw Isaac and Rebekah making love.
9 Abimelech called for Isaac and exclaimed, “She is your wife! Why did you say she is your sister?”
“Because I was afraid I would be murdered,” Isaac replied. “I thought someone would kill me to get her from me.”
10 “How could you treat us this way?” Abimelech exclaimed. “Someone might carelessly have raped her, and we would be doomed.” 11 Then Abimelech made a public proclamation: “Anyone harming this man or his wife shall die.”
12 That year Isaac’s crops were tremendous—100 times the grain he sowed. For Jehovah blessed him. 13 He was soon a man of great wealth and became richer and richer. 14 He had large flocks of sheep and goats, great herds of cattle, and many servants. And the Philistines became jealous of him. 15 So they filled up his wells with earth—all those dug by the servants of his father Abraham.
16 And King Abimelech asked Isaac to leave the country. “Go somewhere else,” he said, “for you have become too rich and powerful for us.”
17 So Isaac moved to Gerar Valley and lived there instead. 18 And Isaac redug the wells of his father Abraham, the ones the Philistines had filled after his father’s death, and gave them the same names they had had before, when his father had named them.
Footnotes
- Genesis 5:1 Here is a list of some of the descendants of Adam, literally, “This is the roll of Adam’s descendants.” the man who was like God, literally, “in the likeness of God.”
- Genesis 5:3 when his son Seth was born, or by Hebrew usage, “when his son, the ancestor (of Seth) was born.” So also in vv. 6, 9, 15, 18, 21, 25, 28, 32. the very image of his father in every way, literally, “in his own likeness, after his image.” After Seth was born, or by Hebrew usage, “After this ancestor of Seth was born.”
- Genesis 6:1 beings from the spirit world, literally, “sons of God,” used here in the sense of his created, supernatural beings, but no longer godly in character (v. 3). Some commentators believe that the expression “sons of God” refers to the “godly line” of Seth, and “daughters of men” to women from the line of Cain.
- Genesis 7:3 seven pairs, literally, “the male and female.”
- Genesis 7:16 the Lord God, literally, “Jehovah.”
- Genesis 8:5 Three months later, literally, “On the first day of the tenth month.”
- Genesis 8:7 a raven that flew back and forth. Apparently lighting from time to time upon carcasses of dead animals floating on the water. The dove that Noah next dispatched would not alight on such floating carrion and was thus a good indication of the water level.
- Genesis 8:13 Twenty-nine days after that, literally, “In the 601st year, in the first month, the first day of the month.”
- Genesis 8:20 some of the animals and birds God had designated, literally, “clean,” i.e., ritually approved by God.
- Genesis 8:21 And Jehovah was pleased with the sacrifice, literally, “And Jehovah smelled the delicious odor.”
- Genesis 9:9 you and your children, literally, “your seed.”
- Genesis 9:18 Ham is the ancestor of the Canaanites. Ham was not the ancestor of the Negro, as was once erroneously supposed.
- Genesis 9:24 he cursed Ham’s descendants, literally, “cursed be Canaan.” The Canaanites were Ham’s descendants.
- Genesis 9:26 God bless Shem, and may Canaan be his slave, or “Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem, and may the Canaanites be Shem’s slaves.”
- Genesis 10:2 sons, or “descendants.”
- Genesis 10:8 One of the descendants, or “The son.”
- Genesis 10:9 a mighty hunter, blessed of God, or “a mighty hunter against the Lord.”
- Genesis 10:13 ancestor, or “father.”
- Genesis 10:23 sons, or “descendants.”
- Genesis 10:26 father, or “ancestor.”
- Genesis 11:6 Language is the basis on which science feeds upon itself and grows. This was the beginning of an explosion of knowledge, nipped in the bud because of wrong motives and wrong use of the knowledge gained. Similarity with today’s world is significant.
- Genesis 11:12 his son Shelah was born, or by Hebrew usage, “there was born to him the ancestor of Shelah.” So also throughout the remainder of the chapter.
- Genesis 11:29 half sister, implied; see 20:12. orphaned niece, Milcah, implied.
- Genesis 11:32 age of 205, implied. The Samaritan Pentateuch says that Terah died when he was 145 years old, so that his death occurred in the year of Abraham’s departure from Haran. This is more consistent with 11:26 and 12:4. See also Acts 7:4.
- Genesis 12:2 you will be a blessing to many others, or “I will make your name so famous that it will be used to pronounce blessings on others.”
- Genesis 12:3 the entire world will be blessed because of you, or “the nations will bless themselves because of you.”
- Genesis 12:8 traveled southward, implied.
- Genesis 12:15 into his harem, literally, “into the household of Pharaoh.”
- Genesis 13:5 many servants, implied; literally, “many tents.”
- Genesis 13:7 despite the danger they all faced, implied.
- Genesis 13:10 Garden of Eden, literally, “Garden of Jehovah.”
- Genesis 14:8 unsuccessfully, implied.
- Genesis 14:11 the victors plundered, implied.
- Genesis 14:12 Abram’s nephew, literally, “Abram’s brother’s son.”
- Genesis 15:2 some other member of my household was Eliezer of Damascus.
- Genesis 15:16 Amorite nations living here now, implied.
- Genesis 15:18 Wadi-el-Arish, literally, “River of Egypt,” at the southern border of Judah.
- Genesis 16:5 May the Lord judge you for doing this to me, literally, “Let the Lord judge between me and you.”
- Genesis 16:13 Thereafter, implied.
- Genesis 17:17 inside he was laughing in disbelief, implied.
- Genesis 18:6 pancakes, probably some sort of tortilla.
- Genesis 18:10 Next year, literally, “When life would be due.”
- Genesis 21:9 teasing, or “mocking,” whether in innocent fun or otherwise is not clear in the text.
- Genesis 22:1 faith and obedience, implied.
- Genesis 22:18 your offspring, or “your seed.”
- Genesis 24:9 the servant vowed, literally, “the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master and swore to him that.”
- Genesis 24:15 a beautiful young girl, literally, “a virgin.” the son of Nahor, Abraham’s brother.
- Genesis 24:21 to see if she would finish the job, implied.
- Genesis 24:22 gold earring, literally, “nose-ring.”
- Genesis 24:28 the girl ran home to tell her folks. Doubtless to tell them that a messenger had arrived from her great-uncle.
- Genesis 24:31 friend, literally, “blessed of Jehovah.”
- Genesis 24:37 local girls, literally, “daughters of the Canaanites.”
- Genesis 24:38 to his brother’s family, literally, “to my father’s house.”
- Genesis 24:48 a girl from the family of my master’s brother, literally, “my master’s brother’s daughter.”
- Genesis 24:65 It is my master’s son, literally, “It is my master.”
- Genesis 25:4 Midian’s sons were . . . and Eldaah. The text adds, “All these were the children of Keturah.”
- Genesis 25:17 and joined his ancestors, literally, “and was gathered to his people.”
- Genesis 25:21 even after many years of marriage, implied in vv. 20 and 26.
- Genesis 25:25 Esau sounds a little like the Hebrew word for “hair.”
- Genesis 25:34 indifferent to the loss of the rights he had thrown away, literally, “thus did Esau consider his birthright to be of no value.”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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