Journey Through God's Word

¹The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.

²I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.

³I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”

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

⁵He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all his wealth — his livestock and all the people he had taken into his household at Haran — and headed for the land of Canaan. When they arrived in Canaan,

⁶Abram traveled through the land as far as Shechem. There he set up camp beside the oak of Moreh. At that time, the area was inhabited by Canaanites.

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

⁸After that, Abram traveled south and set up camp in the hill country, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built another altar and dedicated it to the LORD, and he worshiped the LORD.

⁹Then Abram continued traveling south by stages toward the Negev.

¹Some time later, the LORD spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.”

²But Abram replied, “O Sovereign LORD, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth.

³You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.”

⁴Then the LORD said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.”

⁵Then the LORD took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”

⁶And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith.

⁷Then the LORD told him, “I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession.”

⁸But Abram replied, “O Sovereign LORD, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?”

⁹The LORD told 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.”

¹⁰So Abram presented all these to him and killed them. Then he cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side; he did not, however, cut the birds in half.

¹¹Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses, but Abram chased them away.

¹²As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a terrifying darkness came down over him.

¹³Then the LORD said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years.

¹⁴But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth.

¹⁵(As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.)

¹⁶After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.”

¹⁷After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses.

¹⁸So the LORD made a covenant with Abram that day and said, “I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River —

¹⁹the land now occupied by the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,

²⁰Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,

²¹Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”

¹When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai — ‘God Almighty.’ Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life.

²I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants.”

³At this, Abram fell face down on the ground. Then God said to him,

⁴“This is my covenant with you: I will make you the father of a multitude of nations!

⁵What’s more, I am changing your name. It will no longer be Abram. Instead, you will be called Abraham, for you will be the father of many nations.

⁶I will make you extremely fruitful. Your descendants will become many nations, and kings will be among them!

⁷“I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you, from generation to generation. This is the everlasting covenant: I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

⁸And I will give the entire land of Canaan, where you now live as a foreigner, to you and your descendants. It will be their possession forever, and I will be their God.”

⁹Then God said to Abraham, “Your responsibility is to obey the terms of the covenant. You and all your descendants have this continual responsibility.

¹⁰This is the covenant that you and your descendants must keep: Each male among you must be circumcised.

¹¹You must cut off the flesh of your foreskin as a sign of the covenant between me and you.

¹²From generation to generation, every male child must be circumcised on the eighth day after his birth. This applies not only to members of your family but also to the servants born in your household and the foreign-born servants whom you have purchased.

¹³All must be circumcised. Your bodies will bear the mark of my everlasting covenant.

¹⁴Any male who fails to be circumcised will be cut off from the covenant family for breaking the covenant.”

¹⁵Then God said to Abraham, “Regarding Sarai, your wife — her name will no longer be Sarai. From now on her name will be Sarah.

¹⁶And I will bless her and give you a son from her! Yes, I will bless her richly, and she will become the mother of many nations. Kings of nations will be among her descendants.”

¹⁷Then Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he laughed to himself in disbelief. “How could I become a father at the age of 100?” he thought. “And how can Sarah have a baby when she is ninety years old?”

¹⁸So Abraham said to God, “May Ishmael live under your special blessing!”

¹⁹But God replied, “No — Sarah, your wife, will give birth to a son for you. You will name him Isaac, and I will confirm my covenant with him and his descendants as an everlasting covenant.

²⁰As for Ishmael, I will bless him also, just as you have asked. I will make him extremely fruitful and multiply his descendants. He will become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.

²¹But my covenant will be confirmed with Isaac, who will be born to you and Sarah about this time next year.”

²²When God had finished speaking, he left Abraham.

²³On that very day Abraham took his son, Ishmael, and every male in his household, including those born there and those he had bought. Then he circumcised them, cutting off their foreskins, just as God had told him.

²⁴Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised,

²⁵and Ishmael, his son, was thirteen.

²⁶Both Abraham and his son, Ishmael, were circumcised on that same day,

²⁷along with all the other men and boys of the household, whether they were born there or bought as servants. All were circumcised with him.