The Holy Bible

Abram said to the king of Sodom, "I lift my hand to God Most High, who created heaven and earth, * that I will not take a thread or a sandal strap, or anything that is yours, lest you say, 'I have made Abram rich.' * Except for what the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me: Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; they shall take their portion."

CH. 15

15 After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision of the night, saying, "Do not fear, Abram; I am your shield, and your reward shall be very great." * And Abram said, "Lord, Lord, what will you give me, since I die childless, and the son of my household is Eliezer of Damascus?" * And Abram said, "Because you have not given me offspring, a servant born in my house will be my heir." * And immediately a voice came to him and said, "He shall not be your heir, but he who shall come forth from your own body shall be your heir." * And he brought him outside and said to him, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." And he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." * And Abram believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. * And he said to him, "I am the Lord God who brought you out of the land of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess." * And Abram said, "Lord, Lord, how shall I know that I will possess it?" * And he said to him, "Take for me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." * And he took all these, and cut them in the middle, and placed them opposite each other; but the birds he did not cut. * And birds came down upon the carcasses, and Abram sat by them. * And as the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, fear and darkness came upon him. * And it was said to Abram, "Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not their own, and they will serve them, and they will oppress and afflict them for four hundred years. * But the nation whom they shall serve, I will judge; and after that they shall come out with great possessions. * And you shall go to your fathers in peace, buried in a good old age. * And in the fourth generation they shall return here; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full until now." * And when the sun was setting, flames appeared, and behold, a smoking furnace, and torches of fire passed between those pieces. * On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your offspring I will give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates: * the Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, * and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaim, * and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."

CH. 16

16 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bore him no children; and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. * And Sarai said to Abram in the land of Canaan, "Since the Lord has restrained me from bearing, go in to my maid, so that I may have a son through her." And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. * And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. * And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she was pregnant, her mistress was despised in her eyes. * And Sarai said to Abram, "My wrong be upon you; I gave my maid into your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes. May the Lord judge between me and you." * And Abram said to Sarai, "Behold, your maid is in your hands; do to her what is pleasing in your eyes." And Sarai afflicted her, and she fled from her face. * An angel of the Lord found her at a fountain of water in the wilderness, at the fountain that is on the way to Shur. * And the angel of the Lord said to her, "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where are you coming from and where are you going?" And she said, "I am fleeing from the face of Sarai my mistress." * The angel of the Lord said to her, "Return to your mistress and submit under her hand." * And the angel of the Lord said to her, "I will multiply your offspring, and it shall be beyond counting for multitude." * And the angel of the Lord said to her, "Behold, you are pregnant, and you shall bear a son, and you shall call his name Ishmael, for the Lord has heard your affliction. * And he shall be a wild man; his hand shall be against everyone, and everyone's hand against him, and he shall dwell in the face of all his brothers." * And Hagar called the name of the Lord who spoke to her and said, "You are God who looked upon me," because she said, "Have I truly seen the one who appeared to me?" * For that reason, she called the well, "The Well of the One who looked upon me"; and behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered. * And Hagar bore a son to Abram, and she called the name of her son whom Hagar bore to him, Ishmael. * And Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.

CH. 17

And Abram was ninety-nine years old, and the Lord God appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am your God; walk before me and be blameless. * And I will set my covenant between me and you, and I will multiply you very, very much." * And Abram fell upon his face; and God spoke to him and said, "And behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. * And your name shall no longer be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the father of many nations. * And I will make you very fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come forth from you. * And I will establish my covenant between me and you, and between your offspring after you in their generations, as an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. * And I will give to you and to your offspring after you this land in which you have lived as sojourners, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. * But you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you in their generations. * And this is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you, and between your offspring after you in their generations: * Every male among you shall be circumcised, and you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. * And an eight-day-old child among you shall be circumcised, every male in your generations, the home-born and the silver-bought, and from every foreigner who is not of your offspring, he shall surely be circumcised, the home-born of your house and...