Genesis 16
Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar.
And Sarai said to Abram, “Look, יהוה has kept me from bearing. Consort with my maid; perhaps I shall have a child through her.” And Abram heeded Sarai’s request.
So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took her maid, Hagar the Egyptian—after Abram had dwelt in the land of Canaan ten years—and gave her to her husband Abram as concubine.
He cohabited with Hagar and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was lowered in her esteem.
And Sarai said to Abram, “The wrong done me is your fault! I myself put my maid in your bosom; now that she sees that she is pregnant, I am lowered in her esteem. יהוה decide between you and me!”
Abram said to Sarai, “Your maid is in your hands. Deal with her as you think right.” Then Sarai treated her harshly, and she ran away from her.
A messenger of יהוה found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the road to Shur,
and said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” And she said, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.”
And the messenger of יהוה said to her, “Go back to your mistress, and submit to her harsh treatment.”
And the messenger of יהוה said to her,
“I will greatly increase your offspring,
And they shall be too many to count.”
The messenger of יהוה said to her further,
“Behold, you are pregnant
And shall bear a son;
You shall call him Ishmael,
For יהוה has paid heed to your suffering.
He shall be a wild ass of a person;
His hand against everyone,
And everyone’s hand against him;
He shall dwell alongside of all his kin.”
And she called יהוה who spoke to her, “You Are El-roi,” by which she meant, “Have I not gone on seeing after my being seen!”
Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it is between Kadesh and Bered.—
Hagar bore a son to Abram, and Abram gave the son that Hagar bore him the name Ishmael.
Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
17
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, יהוה appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am El Shaddai. Walk in My ways and be blameless.
I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will make you exceedingly numerous.”
Abram threw himself on his face; and God spoke to him further,
“As for Me, this is My covenant with you: You shall be the father of a multitude of nations.
And you shall no longer be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I make you the father of a multitude of nations.
I will make you exceedingly fertile, and make nations of you; and kings shall come forth from you.
I will maintain My covenant between Me and you, and your offspring to come, as an everlasting covenant throughout the ages, to be God to you and to your offspring to come.
I assign the land you sojourn in to you and your offspring to come, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting holding. I will be their God.”
God further said to Abraham, “As for you, you and your offspring to come throughout the ages shall keep My covenant.
Such shall be the covenant between Me and you and your offspring to follow which you shall keep: every male among you shall be circumcised.
You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and that shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you.
And throughout the generations, every male among you shall be circumcised at the age of eight days. As for the homeborn slave and the one bought from an outsider who is not of your offspring,
they must be circumcised, homeborn and purchased alike. Thus shall My covenant be marked in your flesh as an everlasting pact.
And if any male who is uncircumcised fails to circumcise the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from kin; he has broken My covenant.”
And God said to Abraham, “As for your wife Sarai, you shall not call her Sarai, but her name shall be Sarah.
I will bless her; indeed, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she shall give rise to nations; rulers of peoples shall issue from her.”
Abraham threw himself on his face and laughed, as he said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man a hundred years old, or can Sarah bear a child at ninety?”
And Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live by Your favor!”
God said, “Nevertheless, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac; and I will maintain My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring to come.
As for Ishmael, I have heeded you. I hereby bless him. I will make him fertile and exceedingly numerous. He shall be the father of twelve chieftains, and I will make of him a great nation.
My covenant I will maintain with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year.Then Abraham took his son Ishmael, and all his homeborn slaves and all those he had bought, every male in Abraham’s household, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins on that very day, as God had spoken to him.
Done speaking with him, God was gone from Abraham.
Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin,
and his son Ishmael was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
Thus Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised on that very day; and all [men of] his household, his homeborn slaves and those that had been bought from outsiders, were circumcised with him.
18. Vayera
יהוה appeared to him by the terebinths of Mamre; he was sitting at the entrance of the tent as the day grew hot.
Looking up, he saw three figures standing near him. Perceiving this, he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them and, bowing to the ground, he said, “My lords! If it please you, do not go on past your servant.
Let a little water be brought; bathe your feet and recline under the tree.
And let me fetch a morsel of bread that you may refresh yourselves; then go on—seeing that you have come your servant’s way.” They replied, “Do as you have said.”
Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quick, three seahs of choice flour! Knead and make cakes!”
Then Abraham ran to the herd, took a calf, tender and choice, and gave it to a servant-boy, who hastened to prepare it.
He took curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared and set these before them; and he waited on them under the tree as they ate.
They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he replied, “There, in the tent.”
Then one said, “I will return to you next year, and your wife Sarah shall have a son!” Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent, which was behind him.
Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years; Sarah had stopped having her periods.
And Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “Now that I’ve lost the ability, am I to have enjoyment—with my husband so old?”
Then יהוה said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I in truth bear a child, old as I am?’
Is anything too wondrous for יהוה ? I will return to you at the same season next year, and Sarah shall have a son.”
Sarah lied, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was frightened. Came the reply, “You did laugh.”
The agents set out from there and looked down toward Sodom, Abraham walking with them to see them off.
Now יהוה had said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham is to become a great and populous nation and all the nations of the earth are to bless themselves by him?
For I have singled him out, that he may instruct his children and his posterity to keep the way of יהוה by doing what is just and right, in order that יהוה may bring about for Abraham what has been promised him.”
Then יהוה said, “The outrage of Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their sin so grave!
I will go down to see whether they have acted altogether according to the outcry that has reached Me; if not, I will take note.”
The agents went on from there to Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before יהוה.
Abraham came forward and said, “Will You sweep away the innocent along with the guilty?
What if there should be fifty innocent within the city; will You then wipe out the place and not forgive it for the sake of the innocent fifty who are in it?
Far be it from You to do such a thing, to bring death upon the innocent as well as the guilty, so that innocent and guilty fare alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”
And יהוה answered, “If I find within the city of Sodom fifty innocent ones, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.”
Abraham spoke up, saying, “Here I venture to speak to my lord, I who am but dust and ashes:
What if the fifty innocent should lack five? Will You destroy the whole city for want of the five?” “I will not destroy if I find forty-five there.”
But he spoke up again, and said, “What if forty should be found there?” “I will not do it, for the sake of the forty.”
And he said, “Let not my lord be angry if I go on: What if thirty should be found there?” “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
And he said, “I venture again to speak to my lord: What if twenty should be found there?” “I will not destroy, for the sake of the twenty.”
And he said, “Let not my lord be angry if I speak but this last time: What if ten should be found there?” “I will not destroy, for the sake of the ten.”
Having finished speaking to Abraham, יהוה departed; and Abraham returned to his place.
19
The two messengers arrived in Sodom in the evening, as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to greet them and, bowing low with his face to the ground, he said, “Please, my lords, turn aside to your servant’s house to spend the night, and bathe your feet; then you may be on your way early.” But they said, “No, we will spend the night in the square.”
But he urged them strongly, so they turned his way and entered his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
They had not yet lain down, when the town council [and] the militia of Sodom —insignificant and influential alike, the whole assembly without exception—gathered about the house.
And they shouted to Lot and said to him, “Where are the ones who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may be intimate with them.”
So Lot went out to them to the entrance, shut the door behind him, and said, “I beg you, my friends, do not commit such a wrong.
Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you please; but do not do anything to the others, since they have come under the shelter of my roof.”
But they said, “Stand back! The fellow,” they said, “came here as an alien, and already he acts the ruler! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” And they pressed hard against that householder —against Lot—and moved forward to break the door.
But the agents stretched out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.
And the people who were at the entrance of the house, low and high alike, they struck with blinding light, so that they were helpless to find the entrance.
Then the agents said to Lot, “Whom else have you here? Sons-in-law, your sons and daughters, or anyone else that you have in the city—bring them out of the place.
For we are about to destroy this place; because the outcry against them before יהוה has become so great that יהוה has sent us to destroy it.”
So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, “Up, get out of this place, for יהוה is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law as one who jests.
As dawn broke, the messengers urged Lot on, saying, “Up, take your wife and your two remaining daughters, lest you be swept away because of the iniquity of the city.”
Still he delayed. So the agents seized his hand, and the hands of his wife and his two daughters—in יהוה’s mercy on him—and brought him out and left him outside the city.
When they had brought them outside, one said, “Flee for your life! Do not look behind you, nor stop anywhere in the Plain; flee to the hills, lest you be swept away.”
But Lot said to them, “Oh no, my lord!
You have been so gracious to your servant, and have already shown me so much kindness in order to save my life; but I cannot flee to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die.
Look, that town there is near enough to flee to; it is such a little place! Let me flee there—it is such a little place—and let my life be saved.”
He replied, “Very well, I will grant you this favor too, and I will not annihilate the town of which you have spoken.
Hurry, flee there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Hence the town came to be called Zoar.
As the sun rose upon the earth and Lot entered Zoar,
יהוה rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah sulfurous fire from יהוה out of heaven—annihilating those cities and the entire Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation of the ground.
Lot’s wife looked back, and she thereupon turned into a pillar of salt.
Next morning, Abraham hurried to the place where he had stood before יהוה, and, looking down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the Plain, he saw the smoke of the land rising like the smoke of a kiln.
Thus it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the Plain and annihilated the cities where Lot dwelt, God was mindful of Abraham and removed Lot from the midst of the upheaval.
Lot went up from Zoar and settled in the hill country with his two daughters, for he was afraid to dwell in Zoar; and he and his two daughters lived in a cave.
And the older one said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to consort with us in the way of all the world.
Come, let us make our father drink wine, and let us lie with him, that we may maintain life through our father.”
That night they made their father drink wine, and the older one went in and lay with her father; he did not know when she lay down or when she rose.
The next day the older one said to the younger, “See, I lay with Father last night; let us make him drink wine tonight also, and you go and lie with him, that we may maintain life through our father.”
That night also they made their father drink wine, and the younger one went and lay with him; he did not know when she lay down or when she rose.
Thus the two daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father.
The older one bore a son and named him Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today.
And the younger also bore a son, and she called him Ben-ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites of today.
20
Abraham journeyed from there to the region of the Negeb and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he was sojourning in Gerar, Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” So King Abimelech of Gerar had Sarah brought to him.
But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “You are to die because of the woman that you have taken, for she is a married woman.”
Now Abimelech had not approached her. He said, “O lord, will You slay people even though innocent?
He himself said to me, ‘She is my sister’! And she also said, ‘He is my brother.’ When I did this, my heart was blameless and my hands were clean.”
And God said to him in the dream, “I knew that you did this with a blameless heart, and so I kept you from sinning against Me. That was why I did not let you touch her.
Therefore, restore the man’s wife—since he is a prophet, he will intercede for you—to save your life. If you fail to restore her, know that you shall die, you and all that are yours.”
Early next morning, Abimelech called his servants and told them all that had happened; and they were greatly frightened.
Then Abimelech summoned Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? What wrong have I done that you should bring so great a guilt upon me and my kingdom? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.
What, then,” Abimelech demanded of Abraham, “was your purpose in doing this thing?”
“I thought,” said Abraham, “surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.
And besides, she is in truth my sister, my father’s daughter though not my mother’s; and she became my wife.
So when God made me wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘Let this be the kindness that you shall do me: whatever place we come to, say there of me: He is my brother.’”
Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and male and female slaves, and gave them to Abraham; and he restored his wife Sarah to him.
And Abimelech said, “Here, my land is before you; settle wherever you please.”
And to Sarah he said, “I herewith give your brother a thousand pieces of silver; this will serve you as vindication before all who are with you, and you are cleared before everyone.”
Abraham then prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his slave girls, so that they bore children; for יהוה had closed fast every womb of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, the wife of Abraham.
21
יהוה took note of Sarah as promised, and יהוה did for Sarah what had been announced.
Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken.
Abraham gave his newborn son, whom Sarah had borne him, the name of Isaac.
And when his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him.
Now Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter; everyone who hears will laugh with me.”
And she added,
“Who would have said to Abraham
That Sarah would suckle children!
Yet I have borne a son in his old age.”
The child grew up and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.
Sarah saw the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham playing.
She said to Abraham, “Cast out that slave-woman and her son, for the son of that slave shall not share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”
The matter distressed Abraham greatly, for it concerned a son of his.
But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed over the boy or your slave; whatever Sarah tells you, do as she says, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be continued for you.
As for the son of the slave-woman, I will make a nation of him, too, for he is your seed.”
Early next morning Abraham took some bread and a skin of water, and gave them to Hagar. He placed them over her shoulder, together with the child, and sent her away. And she wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
When the water was gone from the skin, she left the child under one of the bushes, and went and sat down at a distance, a bowshot away; for she thought, “Let me not look on as the child dies.” And sitting thus afar, she burst into tears.
God heard the cry of the boy, and a messenger of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heeded the cry of the boy where he is.
Come, lift up the boy and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him.”
Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went and filled the skin with water, and let the boy drink.
God was with the boy and he grew up; he dwelt in the wilderness and became skilled with a bow.
He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
At that time Abimelech and Phicol, chief of his troops, said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything that you do.
Therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my kith and kin, but will deal with me and with the land in which you have sojourned as loyally as I have dealt with you.”
And Abraham said, “I swear it.”
Then Abraham reproached Abimelech for the well of water which the servants of Abimelech had seized.
But Abimelech said, “I do not know who did this; you did not tell me, nor have I heard of it until today.”
Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a pact.
Abraham then set seven ewes of the flock by themselves, and Abimelech said to Abraham, “What mean these seven ewes which you have set apart?”
He replied, “You are to accept these seven ewes from me as proof that I dug this well.”
Hence that place was called Beer-sheba, for there the two of them swore an oath.
When they had concluded the pact at Beer-sheba, Abimelech and Phicol, chief of his troops, departed and returned to the land of the Philistines.
[Abraham] planted a tamarisk at Beer-sheba, and invoked there the name of יהוה, the Everlasting God.And Abraham resided in the land of the Philistines a long time.
