Study Desk

There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to stay for a while because the famine was severe.

So tell them you are my sister so that it may go well for me because of you and my life will be spared on account of you."

Abram said to Lot, "Let there be no quarreling between me and you, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are close relatives.

Lot chose for himself the whole region of the Jordan and traveled toward the east. So the relatives separated from each other.

Get up and walk throughout the land, for I will give it to you."

For twelve years they had served Kedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled.

Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) went out and prepared for battle. In the Valley of Siddim they met

They also took Abram's nephew Lot and his possessions when they left, for Lot was living in Sodom.

Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, "Give me the people and take the possessions for yourself."

I will take nothing except compensation for what the young men have eaten. As for the share of the men who went with me—Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre—let them take their share."

The Lord said to him, "Take for me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon."

So Abram took all these for him and then cut them in two and placed each half opposite the other, but he did not cut the birds in half.

Then the Lord said to Abram, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign country. They will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years.

But as for you, you will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age.

In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit."

So after Abram had lived in Canaan for ten years, Sarai, Abram's wife, gave Hagar, her Egyptian servant, to her husband to be his wife.

Then the Lord 's angel said to her, "You are now pregnant and are about to give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard your painful groans.

So Hagar named the Lord who spoke to her, "You are the God who sees me," for she said, "Here I have seen one who sees me!"

"As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of a multitude of nations.

Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep the covenantal requirement I am imposing on you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.