Genesis 11–21

Now the whole world had one language and a common form of speech. And as people journeyed eastward, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar instead of mortar. “Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower whose top reaches the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of all the earth.”

But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building. And the LORD said, “If they have begun to do this as one people speaking the same language, then nothing they devise will be beyond them. Come, let Us go down and confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” So the LORD scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they stopped building the city. Therefore it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of all the earth.

This is the account of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad. And after he had become the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters. Arphaxad was the father of Shelah, and Shelah was the father of Eber. Eber was the father of Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, and Terah. And Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Now this is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran became the father of Lot. Abram and Nahor took wives; Abram’s wife was Sarai, and Sarai was barren. Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, and his daughter-in-law Sarai and set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.

Then the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country, your kindred, and your father’s house to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”

So Abram departed, as the LORD had directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the possessions and people they had accumulated, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they arrived, Abram traveled through the land as far as Shechem to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So Abram built an altar there to the LORD, and he moved on, pitching his tent and building another altar, and he continued toward the Negev.

Now there was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a time. Abram told Sarai to say that she was his sister, because he feared that the Egyptians would kill him on account of her beauty. Pharaoh took Sarai into his house, but the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his house with severe plagues because of Abram’s wife Sarai. So Pharaoh summoned Abram, returned Sarai, and sent Abram away with all that belonged to him.

So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him. Now Abram had become extremely wealthy in livestock, silver, and gold. From the Negev he went from place to place until he returned to Bethel, to the site between Bethel and Ai where his tent had formerly been, to the place of the altar he had made previously. And there Abram called on the name of the LORD. Now Lot, who was traveling with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. But the land could not support both of them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were unable to dwell together, and quarreling arose between their herdsmen.

So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers. Is not all the land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you go to the left, I will go to the right; if you go to the right, I will go to the left.” Lot looked out and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the LORD. So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and journeyed eastward. Thus they separated from each other. Abram lived in Canaan, but Lot settled among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom.

After Lot had departed, the LORD said to Abram, “Lift up your eyes from where you are and look northward and southward, eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if one could count the dust, then your descendants also could be counted. Get up and walk through the land, through its length and breadth, for I will give it to you.” So Abram moved his tent and came to live by the oaks of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.

In those days kings from Shinar, Ellasar, Elam, and Goiim went to war against the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela. After years of subjection, rebellion broke out, and the invading kings defeated many peoples. They also captured all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and took Lot, Abram’s nephew, along with his possessions, because he was living in Sodom.

Then one who had escaped came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew. When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household and pursued as far as Dan. During the night Abram divided his forces against them, routed them, and recovered all the goods, as well as Lot, the women, and the other people.

After Abram returned from defeating the kings, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh. Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I will accept nothing belonging to you, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’”

After these events the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” But Abram replied, “O Lord GOD, what can You give me, since I remain childless?” Then the LORD brought him outside and said, “Look now at the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” And He said, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

He also said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” Abram asked, “How can I know that I will possess it?” So the LORD told him to bring a heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon. Abram brought them, cut the larger animals in two, and arranged the halves opposite each other, but he did not cut the birds. Then birds of prey descended on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.

As the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and suddenly great terror and darkness came over him. Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land not their own, where they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will depart with many possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will return here.”

After the sun had set and darkness had fallen, behold, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I have given this land.”

Now Abram’s wife Sarai had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “Please go to my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.” And Abram listened to Sarai. Hagar conceived, and when she saw that she was pregnant, her mistress became contemptible in her eyes. Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and Hagar fled from her.

The angel of the LORD found Hagar by a spring in the wilderness and said, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority.” He also said, “I will greatly multiply your offspring.” And he told her, “You are now pregnant and will bear a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard your affliction.”

So Hagar gave this name to the LORD who had spoken to her: “You are the God who sees me.” Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram named him Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be blameless. I will confirm My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.” God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, “for I have made you a father of many nations.” He also said that kings would descend from him and that He would establish an everlasting covenant with Abraham and his descendants, giving them the land of Canaan.

God said further, “You must keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you. This is My covenant which you are to keep: Every male among you must be circumcised. You are to circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.”

Then God said, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. You shall call him Isaac.” Abraham fell facedown and laughed, wondering if a son could be born to a man a hundred years old and a woman ninety years old. But God declared that Sarah would bear Isaac, and that His covenant would be established with Isaac.

Then Abraham took his son Ishmael and every male born in his household and circumcised them on that very day, just as God had told him.

Then the LORD appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing nearby. Abraham hurried to meet them, bowed low, and offered water, rest, bread, curds, milk, and a tender calf.

Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you at this time next year, and your wife Sarah will have a son.” Sarah listened from the tent and laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?” But the LORD said, “Is anything too difficult for the LORD?”

Then the men set out toward Sodom, and the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD.”

Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will You really sweep away the righteous with the wicked?” He pleaded for Sodom, asking whether the city would be spared for the sake of fifty, then forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty, and finally ten righteous people. And the LORD said that for the sake of ten He would not destroy it.

The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. He brought them into his house and prepared a meal for them. But the men of Sodom surrounded the house and demanded the visitors. Then the angels struck the men with blindness.

The angels told Lot to gather his family and leave, for they were about to destroy the place. Lot hesitated, but the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and daughters and led them safely out because of the LORD’s compassion. They said, “Flee for your lives! Do not look back.”

Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah and overthrew those cities. But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. Abraham rose early and saw smoke rising from the land. Yet God remembered Abraham and brought Lot out of the catastrophe.

Lot and his two daughters lived in a cave in the mountains. The daughters said, “There is no man on earth to come to us,” and they made their father drink wine and lay with him. Thus were born Moab and Ben-ammi.

Now Abraham moved to the region of the Negev and stayed between Kadesh and Shur. There Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her. But God came to Abimelech in a dream and said, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman.” God told Abimelech that Abraham was a prophet and would pray for him.

So Abimelech rose early, summoned his servants, confronted Abraham, and said, “What have you done to us?” Abraham explained his fear and said, “She actually is my sister—the daughter of my father, though not of my mother; and she became my wife.”

Then Abimelech brought sheep and cattle, male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and he restored Sarah to him. Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants, so that they could bear children again.

Now the LORD attended to Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what He had promised. So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised. Abraham named his son Isaac. And Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears of this will laugh with me.”

The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast. But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, and she said, “Cast out that slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son shall never share the inheritance with my son Isaac!” This matter distressed Abraham greatly, but God said, “Listen to Sarah, because your offspring will be reckoned through Isaac. But I will also make a nation of the slave woman’s son, because he is your offspring.”

Early the next morning Abraham sent Hagar away with bread and a skin of water. She wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba, and when the water was gone she put the boy under a bush and wept. Then God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar, saying, “Do not be afraid.” God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. God was with the boy as he grew up in the wilderness.

At that time Abimelech and Phicol said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do.” So Abraham and Abimelech made a covenant at Beersheba concerning a disputed well. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the LORD, the Eternal God.