Genesis:20-23
nsb@Genesis:20:1 @ Abraham moved from Mamre to the southern part of Canaan and lived between Kadesh and Shur. Later, while he was living in Gerar,
nsb@Genesis:20:2 @ he said that his wife Sarah was his sister. So King Abimelech of Gerar had Sarah brought to him.
nsb@Genesis:20:3 @ God appeared to the king in a dream and said: »You are going to die, because you have taken this woman. She is already married.«
nsb@Genesis:20:4 @ Abimelech had not come near her. He said: »Lord, I am innocent! Would you destroy my people and me?
nsb@Genesis:20:5 @ »Abraham said that she was his sister. She said the same thing. I did this with a clear conscience. I have done no wrong!«
nsb@Genesis:20:6 @ God said to him in a dream: »Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience. In fact, I kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her.
nsb@Genesis:20:7 @ »Give the mans wife back to him now. He is a prophet. He will pray for you, and you will live. But if you do not give her back, you and all who belong to you are doomed to die.«
nsb@Genesis:20:8 @ So Abimelech got up early in the morning. He called all his servants and told them everything. The men were very afraid.
nsb@Genesis:20:9 @ Then Abimelech called Abraham. He said to him: »What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you? You have brought a great sin on me and on my kingdom. You have done to me things that ought not to be done.«
nsb@Genesis:20:10 @ Abimelech also asked Abraham: »What were you thinking when you did this?«
nsb@Genesis:20:11 @ Abraham said: »I thought that because there are no people who reverence God in this place, I would be killed because of my wife.
nsb@Genesis:20:12 @ »Besides, she is my sister. She is my fathers daughter, but not my mothers. She is also my wife.
nsb@Genesis:20:13 @ »When God had me leave my fathers home and travel around, I said to her: 'Do me a favor: Wherever we go, say that I am your brother.'"
nsb@Genesis:20:14 @ Abimelech took sheep, cattle, and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham. He also gave his wife Sarah back to him.
nsb@Genesis:20:15 @ Abimelech said: »Look, here is my land. Live anywhere you like.
nsb@Genesis:20:16 @ He said to Sarah: »Do not forget that I have given your brother twenty-five pounds of silver. This is to silence any criticism against you from everyone with you. You are completely cleared.«
nsb@Genesis:20:17 @ Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female slaves so that they could have children.
nsb@Genesis:20:18 @ Jehovah had made it impossible for any woman in Abimelechs household to have children because of Abrahams wife Sarah.
nsb@Genesis:21:1 @ Jehovah was gracious to Sarah, as he had said. Jehovah did for Sarah what he had promised.
nsb@Genesis:21:2 @ Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age. It was at the very time God had promised him.
nsb@Genesis:21:3 @ Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him.
nsb@Genesis:21:4 @ When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him as God had commanded him.
nsb@Genesis:21:5 @ Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
nsb@Genesis:21:6 @ Sarah said: »God brought me laughter. Everyone who hears about this will laugh on account of me.«
nsb@Genesis:21:7 @ She added: »Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.«
nsb@Genesis:21:8 @ The child grew and was weaned. Abraham held a big feast on the day Isaac was weaned.
nsb@Genesis:21:9 @ Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was laughing in mockery.
nsb@Genesis:21:10 @ She said to Abraham: »Get rid of that slave woman and her son.«
nsb@Genesis:21:11 @ This upset Abraham because of his son Ishmael.
nsb@Genesis:21:12 @ God said to Abraham: »Do not be upset about the boy and your slave. Listen to what Sarah says, because through Isaac your descendants will carry on your name.
nsb@Genesis:21:13 @ »I will make the slaves son into a nation also, because he is your child.«
nsb@Genesis:21:14 @ Early the next morning Abraham took bread and a container of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder. He also gave her the boy and sent her on her way. So she left and wandered around in the desert near Beer-sheba.
nsb@Genesis:21:15 @ When the water in the skin was used up, she left the boy under one of the bushes.
nsb@Genesis:21:16 @ She sat across from him at a distance. She thought: »I cannot watch the boy die." She sat opposite him, and lifted up her voice and wept.
nsb@Genesis:21:17 @ God heard the lad crying. The angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her: »What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear! God has heard the voice of the lad where he is.
nsb@Genesis:21:18 @ »Arise, lift up the lad. Hold him by the hand. I will make him a great nation.«
nsb@Genesis:21:19 @ Then God opened her eyes. She saw a well of water. She filled the skin with water and gave the lad a drink.
nsb@Genesis:21:20 @ God was with the lad, and he grew. He lived in the wilderness and became an archer.
nsb@Genesis:21:21 @ He lived in the wilderness of Paran. His mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
nsb@Genesis:21:22 @ Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham. They said: »God is with you in all that you do.
nsb@Genesis:21:23 @ »Swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my posterity. Consider the kindness that I have shown to you. Please show it to me and to the land in which you have sojourned.«
nsb@Genesis:21:24 @ Abraham said: »I swear it.«
nsb@Genesis:21:25 @ Abraham complained to Abimelech because of the well of water that the servants of Abimelech had seized.
nsb@Genesis:21:26 @ Abimelech said: »I do not know who has done this thing. You did not tell me, nor did I hear of it until today.«
nsb@Genesis:21:27 @ Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech. The two of them made a covenant.
nsb@Genesis:21:28 @ Then Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.
nsb@Genesis:21:29 @ Abimelech asked Abraham: »What do these seven ewe lambs mean, which you have set by themselves?«
nsb@Genesis:21:30 @ He said: »You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand so that it may be a witness to me, that I dug this well.«
nsb@Genesis:21:31 @ Therefore he called that place Beer-sheba, because there the two of them took an oath.
nsb@Genesis:21:32 @ They made a covenant at Beer-sheba. Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, arose and returned to the land of the Philistines.
nsb@Genesis:21:33 @ Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beer-sheba. There he called on the name of Jehovah, the Everlasting God.
nsb@Genesis:21:34 @ Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for many days.
nsb@Genesis:22:1 @ God tested Abraham. He said to him: »Abraham!« Abraham replied: »Here I am.«
nsb@Genesis:22:2 @ »Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah. Offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.«
nsb@Genesis:22:3 @ Early the next morning Abraham saddled his donkey. He took two of his servants and his son Isaac with him. He had cut the wood for the burnt offering. Then he set out for the place that God had told him about.
nsb@Genesis:22:4 @ Two days later Abraham saw the place in the distance.
nsb@Genesis:22:5 @ He said to the servants: »Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there and worship. Then we will come back to you.«
nsb@Genesis:22:6 @ Abraham made Isaac carry the wood for the sacrifice. Abraham carried a knife and live coals for starting the fire. As they walked along together,
nsb@Genesis:22:7 @ Isaac spoke up: »Father!« He answered: »Yes, my son?« Isaac asked: »I see that you have the coals and the wood, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?«
nsb@Genesis:22:8 @ Abraham answered: »God will provide one.« And the two of them walked on together.
nsb@Genesis:22:9 @ They came to the place God had told him about. Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. He tied up his son and placed him on the altar, on top of the wood.
nsb@Genesis:22:10 @ Then he picked up the knife to kill him.
nsb@Genesis:22:11 @ Jehovahs angel shouted from heaven: »Abraham! Abraham!« »Here I am!« he answered.
nsb@Genesis:22:12 @ »Do not hurt the boy or harm him in any way!« The angel said. »Now I know that you truly obey God, because you were willing to offer him your only son.«
nsb@Genesis:22:13 @ Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in the bushes. So he took the ram and sacrificed it in place of his son.
nsb@Genesis:22:14 @ Abraham named that place »Jehovah Will Provide.« It is still said today: »It will be provided on the mountain of Jehovah.«
nsb@Genesis:22:15 @ The angel of Jehovah called to Abraham from heaven a second time.
nsb@Genesis:22:16 @ He said: »I am taking an oath on my own name, declares Jehovah, that because you have done this and have not refused to give me your son, your only son,
nsb@Genesis:22:17 @ »I will certainly bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of their enemies cities.
nsb@Genesis:22:18 @ »All the nations will ask me to bless them as I have blessed your descendants. This is because you obeyed my command.«
nsb@Genesis:22:19 @ Abraham and Isaac went back to the servants who had come with him. They returned to Abrahams home in Beer-sheba.
nsb@Genesis:22:20 @ Abrahams brother Nahor had married Milcah, and Abraham was later told that they had eight sons.
nsb@Genesis:22:21 @ Uz was their firstborn. Buz was next. Then there was Kemuel who became the father of Aram. Their other five sons were
nsb@Genesis:22:22 @ Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.
nsb@Genesis:22:23 @ Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. These are the eight children Milcah bore to Nahor, Abrahams brother.
nsb@Genesis:22:24 @ His concubine, Reumah, also bore Tebah and Gaham and Tahash and Maacah.
nsb@Genesis:23:1 @ Sarah lived one hundred and twenty-seven years. These were the years of the life of Sarah.
nsb@Genesis:23:2 @ Sarah died in Kiriath-arba in the land of Canaan. Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to cry because of her death.
nsb@Genesis:23:3 @ Abraham left the side of his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites.
nsb@Genesis:23:4 @ He said: »I am a stranger with no permanent home. Let me have some of your property for a tomb that I can bury my dead wife.«
nsb@Genesis:23:5 @ The Hittites answered Abraham:
nsb@Genesis:23:6 @ »Listen to us, my lord. You are a mighty leader among us. Bury your dead in one of our best tombs. Not one of us will withhold from you his tomb for burying your dead.«
nsb@Genesis:23:7 @ Abraham got up and bowed to the people of that region, the Hittites.
nsb@Genesis:23:8 @ He said: »If you are willing to let me bury my wife here, please ask Ephron son of Zohar
nsb@Genesis:23:9 @ to sell me Machpelah Cave. It is near the edge of his field. Ask him to sell it to me for its full price here in your presence. Then I can own it as a burial ground.«
nsb@Genesis:23:10 @ Ephron was sitting with the other Hittites at the meeting place at the city gate. He answered in the hearing of everyone there:
nsb@Genesis:23:11 @ »Hear me my lord, I give you the field, including the cave. It is yours. With my own people as witnesses, I freely give it to you as a burial place for your dead.«
nsb@Genesis:23:12 @ Once again, Abraham bowed down.
nsb@Genesis:23:13 @ He spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land. He said: »If you will only please listen to me. I will give the price of the field. Accept it from me that I may bury my dead there.«
nsb@Genesis:23:14 @ Ephron answered Abraham:
nsb@Genesis:23:15 @ »My lord, listen to me. It is a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver. What is that between you and me? So bury your dead.«
nsb@Genesis:23:16 @ Abraham listened to Ephron. Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver that he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, commercial standard.
nsb@Genesis:23:17 @ Ephrons field at Machpelah, east of Mamre, was sold to Abraham.
nsb@Genesis:23:18 @ His property included the field with the cave in it as well as all the trees inside the boundaries of the field. The Hittites together with all who had entered the city gate were the official witnesses for the agreement.
nsb@Genesis:23:19 @ Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah, east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan.
nsb@Genesis:23:20 @ The Hittites sold the field and its cave to Abraham as his property to be used as a tomb.
nsb@Genesis:24:1 @ By now Abraham was old, and Jehovah had blessed him in every way.
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