Journey Through God's Word

¹Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.

²I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.

³I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

⁴So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

⁵Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan.

⁶Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land.

⁷Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

⁸And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.

⁹So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.

¹After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

²But Abram said, “Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”

³Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!”

⁴And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.”

⁵Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”

⁶And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

⁷Then He said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.”

⁸And he said, “Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?”

⁹So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”

¹⁰Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two.

¹¹And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

¹²Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him.

¹³Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.

¹⁴And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

¹⁵Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age.

¹⁶But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

¹⁷And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces.

¹⁸On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—

¹⁹the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites,

²⁰the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,

²¹the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

¹When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.

²And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.”

³Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying:

⁴“As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.

⁵No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.

⁶I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.

⁷And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.

⁸Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

⁹And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.

¹⁰This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised;

¹¹and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.

¹²He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant.

¹³He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

¹⁴And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”

¹⁵Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.

¹⁶And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.”

¹⁷Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”

¹⁸And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”

¹⁹Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.

²⁰And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.

²¹But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.”

²²Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.

²³So Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very same day, as God had said to him.

²⁴Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

²⁵And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

²⁶That very same day Abraham was circumcised, and his son Ishmael;

²⁷and all the men of his house, born in the house or bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.