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Sarah Renewed
20 Then Abraham journeyed from there to the land of the Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he was dwelling as an outsider in Gerar, 2 Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” So King Abimelech of Gerar sent for and took Sarah. 3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, “Behold, you are as good as dead, because of the woman whom you have taken—since she is a married woman.”
4 Now Abimelech had not come near her. So he said, “My Lord, will You slay a nation, even though innocent? 5 Didn’t he say to me, ‘She’s my sister’? And she herself even said, ‘He’s my brother.’ I did this with integrity of my heart and guiltlessness of my hands.”
6 Then God said to him in a dream, “Yes, I myself knew that you did this with integrity of your heart, so I, yes I Myself prevented you from sinning against Me. That is why I did not allow you to touch her. 7 So now, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet. And let him pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, know that you will surely die—you and all who are yours.”
8 Abimelech rose early in the morning, called all his servants and spoke all these words in their ears—and the men were very frightened. 9 Then Abimelech called to Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us, and how have I sinned against you, that you brought great sin upon me and my kingdom? You’ve done to me things that should not be done!” 10 Abimelech also said to Abraham, “What motivated you to do this thing?”
11 Abraham said, “Because I thought, ‘There is certainly no fear of God in this place, so they’ll kill me, because of my wife.’ 12 And besides, she really is my sister. She’s my father’s daughter, though not my mother’s daughter. Then she became my wife. 13 So when God made me wander away from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is your loyalty that you must show me: in every place we go, say of me, ‘He is my brother.’”
14 Then Abimelech took sheep, cattle, male slaves and female slaves and gave them to Abraham, and returned his wife Sarah to him. 15 Then Abimelech said, “Look, my land is before you. Dwell wherever it pleases you.” 16 At the same time he said to Sarah, “Look, I’ve given a thousand shekels to your brother. Look, it is compensation for everything that happened—so to everyone with you, you are vindicated.”
17 Then Abraham prayed to God and God healed Abimelech, his wife and his female slaves so that they could bear children. 18 For Adonai had completely locked up every womb in Abimelech’s household because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
Birth of Isaac
21 Then Adonai visited Sarah just as He had said, and Adonai did for Sarah just as He had spoken. 2 So Sarah became pregnant and gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time that God had told him. 3 Abraham named his son who was born to him—whom Sarah bore for him—Isaac. 4 Then Abraham circumcised Isaac, his eight-day-old son, just as God had commanded him. 5 Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac his son was born to him.
6 So Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me! Everyone who hears will laugh with me.” 7 She also said, “Who would have said to Abraham, ‘Sarah has nursed children’? For I have given birth to a son in his old age!”
Ishmael Banished, Yet Delivered
8 The child grew and was weaned—Abraham made a big feast on the day Isaac was weaned. 9 But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian whom she had born to Abraham—making fun. 10 So she said to Abraham, “Drive out this female slave and her son, for the son of this female slave will not be an heir with my son—with Isaac.”
11 Now the matter was very displeasing in Abraham’s eyes on account of his son. 12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not be displeased about the boy and your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her voice. For through Isaac shall your seed be called. 13 Yet I will also make the son of the slave woman into a nation, because he is your seed.”
14 So Abraham got up early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away. She went and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
15 When the water from the skin was finished, she abandoned the child under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went and sat herself down opposite, about a bowshot away, for she had said, “I can’t bear to see the child dying!” So she sat down opposite and lifted up her voice and wept.
17 Then God heard the boy’s voice and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and He said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid, because God has heard the boy’s voice where he is. 18 Get up! Lift the boy up, and hold on to him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation.”
19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water, and she went and filled the water skin, and gave the boy a drink.
20 God was with the boy and he grew. He dwelled in the wilderness and became an archer. 21 He dwelled in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
Covenant of Abimelech and Abraham
22 Now it came about at that same time that Abimelech—with Phicol the commander of his army—said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do. 23 So now, make a pledge to me here, by God, that you will not violate your word with me or with my descendants or with my offspring. As I have shown loyalty to you, show the same to me, and to the land in which you have lived as an outsider.”
24 Abraham said, “I make a pledge.” 25 Now Abraham had rebuked Abimelech because of the well of water that Abimelech’s servants had seized. 26 So Abimelech said, “I don’t know who did this thing. Nor did you tell me, nor did I hear about it until today.”
27 Then Abraham took a flock of sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant. 28 Abraham set seven young ewe-lambs apart from the flock of sheep by themselves. 29 Abimelech said to Abraham, “What do these seven ewe-lambs that you’ve set by themselves mean?”
30 He said, “You are to accept the seven ewe-lambs from my hand, so that they may be a witness for me that I dug this well.” 31 That is why that place is named Beer-sheba, because there both of them made a pledge, 32 and they made a covenant in Beer-sheba. Then Abimelech got up, with Phicol the commander of his army, and they returned to the land of the Philistines.
33 Then he planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba and called there on the Name of Adonai, the Everlasting God. 34 He lived as an outsider in the land of the Philistines for many days.
The Binding of Isaac
22 Now it was after these things that God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham.”[a]
“Hineni,” he said.
2 Then He said, “Take your son, your only son whom you love[b]—Isaac—and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains about which I will tell you.”
3 So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. He split wood for the burnt offering, and got up and went to the place about which God had told him. 4 On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from a distance. 5 Abraham said to his young men, “Sit yourselves down here with the donkey. As for me and the young man, we’ll go over there, worship and return to you.”
6 Then Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and put it on Isaac his son. In his hand he took the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.
7 Then Isaac said to Abraham his father, “My father?”
Then he said, “Here I am, my son.”
He said, “Look. Here’s the fire and the wood. But where’s the lamb for a burnt offering?”
8 Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself a lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”
The two of them walked on together. 9 Then they came to the place about which God had told him, and Abraham built the altar there, laid out the wood, bound up Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. [c] 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.
11 But the angel of Adonai called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham! Abraham!”
He said, “Hineni!”
12 Then He said, “Do not reach out your hand against the young man—do nothing to him at all. For now I know that you are one who fears God—you did not withhold your son, your only son, from Me.”
13 Then Abraham lifted up his eyes and behold, there was a ram, just caught in the thick bushes by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 Abraham named that place, Adonai Yireh,—as it is said today, “On the mountain, Adonai will provide.”
15 The angel of Adonai called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, “By myself I swear—it is a declaration of Adonai—because you have done this thing, and you did not withhold your son, your only son, [d] 17 I will richly bless you and bountifully multiply your seed like the stars of heaven, and like the sand that is on the seashore, and your seed will possess the gate of his enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed—because you obeyed My voice.”[e]
19 Then Abraham returned to his young men and they got up and went together to Beer-sheba. Then Abraham dwelled in Beer-sheba.
20 Now it was after these things that it was told to Abraham, “Look, Milcah has also borne sons to Nahor your brother: 21 Uz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram, 22 Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Yidlaph and Bethuel.” 23 Then Bethuel fathered Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. 24 His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash and Maacah.
Judging the Fruit
15 “Watch out for false prophets,[a] who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruit. Grapes aren’t gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles, are they? 17 Even so, every good tree produces good fruit, but the rotten tree produces bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree produce good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. 20 So then, you will recognize them by their fruit.
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, and drive out demons in Your name, and perform many miracles in Your name?’ 23 Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Get away from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’”[b]
Building on a Firm Foundation
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house; and yet it did not fall, for its foundation had been built on the rock. 26 Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”
28 Now when Yeshua had finished these words, the crowds were astounded at His teaching, 29 for He was teaching them as one having authority and not as their Torah scholars.
Our Righteous Judge
Psalm 9
1 For the music director, to the tune of “The Death of the Son,” a psalm of David.
2 I will praise Adonai with my whole heart.
I will tell about all Your wonders.
3 I will be glad and rejoice in You.
I will sing praise to Your Name, Elyon!
4 When my enemies turn back,
they stumble and perish before You.
5 For You upheld my right and my cause.
You sat upon the throne, judging righteously.
6 You rebuked the nations,
You destroyed the wicked—
blotting out their name forever and ever.
7 The enemy is finished, in ruins forever.
You overturned their cities—
even the memory of them has perished.
8 But Adonai reigns forever.
He established His throne for judgment.
9 He judges the world in righteousness
and governs the peoples justly.
10 Adonai is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a high tower in times of trouble.
11 Those who know Your Name trust You—
for You, Adonai, never have forsaken those who seek You.
12 Sing praises to Adonai, who dwells in Zion.
Declare His deeds among the peoples.
16 to deliver you from a seducing woman—
a wayward wife with seductive words,
17 who forsakes the partner of her youth
and forgets the covenant of her God.
18 For her house sinks down to death
and her tracks to the dead.
19 None who go to her return
nor reach the paths of life.
20 So you will walk in the way of good men
and keep to the paths of the righteous.
21 For the upright will dwell in the land
and the blameless will remain in it.
22 But the wicked will be cut off from the land
and the treacherous uprooted from it.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.