Study Desk

And behold one, that had escaped, told Abram the Hebrew, who dwelt in the vale of Mambre the Amorrhite, the brother of Escol, and the brother of Aner: for these had made a league with Abram.

But Melchisedech, the king of Salem, bringing forth bread and wine, for he was the priest of the most high God,

And immediately the word of the Lord came to him, saying:He shall not be thy heir: but he that shall come out of thy bowels, him shalt thou have for thy heir.

But in the fourth generation they shall return hither: for as yet the iniquities of the Amorrhites are not at the full until this present time.

And again he said: I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, and it shall not be numbered for multitude.

And she called the name of the Lord that spoke unto her: Thou the God who hast seen me. For she said: Verily, here have I seen the hinder parts of him that seeth me.

And I will give to thee, and to thy seed, the land of thy sojournment, all the land of Chanaan, for a perpetual possession, and I will be their God.

And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, that it may be for a sign of the covenant between me and you.

And my covenant shall be in your flesh for a perpetual covenant.

And God said to Abraham: Sara thy wife shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him for a perpetual covenant, and with his seed after him.

And as for Ismael I have also heard thee. Behold, I will bless him, and increase, and multiply him exceedingly: he shall beget twelve chiefs, and I will make him a great nation.

And I will set a morsel of bread, and strengthen ye your heart, afterwards you shall pass on: for therefore are you come aside to your servant. And they said: Do as thou hast spoken.

Sara denied, saying: I did not laugh: for she was afraid. But the Lord said: Nay; but thou didst laugh.

For I know that he will command his children, and his household after him, to keep the way of the Lord, and do judgment and justice: that for Abraham’s sake, the Lord may bring to effect all the things he hath spoken unto him.

If there be fifty just men in the city, shall they perish withal? and wilt thou not spare that place for the sake of the fifty just, if they be therein?

Far be it from thee to do this thing, and to slay the just with the wicked, and for the just to be in like case as the wicked; this is not beseeming thee: thou who judgest all the earth, wilt not make this judgment.

And the Lord said to him: If I find in Sodom fifty just within the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.

What if there be five less than fifty just persons? wilt thou for five and forty destroy the whole city: And he said: I will not destroy it, if I find five and forty.

And again he said to him: But if forty be found there, what wilt thou do? He said: I will not destroy it for the sake of forty.

Seeing, saith he, I have once begun, I will speak to my Lord: What if twenty be found there? He said: I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty.