Study Desk

and he said, "Now then, these are all one people and they speak one language; this is just the beginning of what they are going to do. Soon they will be able to do anything they want!

Let us go down and mix up their language so that they will not understand each other."

So the Lord scattered them all over the earth, and they stopped building the city.

Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, who was the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, Abram's wife, and with them he left the city of Ur in Babylonia to go to the land of Canaan. They went as far as Haran and settled there.

I will give you many descendants, and they will become a great nation. I will bless you and make your name famous, so that you will be a blessing.

Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the wealth and all the slaves they had acquired in Haran, and they started out for the land of Canaan. When they arrived in Canaan,

When the Egyptians see you, they will assume that you are my wife, and so they will kill me and let you live.

Tell them that you are my sister; then because of you they will let me live and treat me well."

The king gave orders to his men, so they took Abram and put him out of the country, together with his wife and everything he owned.

And so there was not enough pasture land for the two of them to stay together, because they had too many animals.

Then they turned around and came back to Kadesh (then known as Enmishpat). They conquered all the land of the Amalekites and defeated the Amorites who lived in Hazazon Tamar.

The valley was full of tar pits, and when the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah tried to run away from the battle, they fell into the pits; but the other three kings escaped to the mountains.

Lot, Abram's nephew, was living in Sodom, so they took him and all his possessions.

The Lord said to him, "Your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land; they will be slaves there and will be treated cruelly for four hundred years.

But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and when they leave that foreign land, they will take great wealth with them.

I will give you many descendants, and some of them will be kings. You will have so many descendants that they will become nations.

He took some cream, some milk, and the meat, and set the food before the men. There under the tree he served them himself, and they ate.

Then the men left and went to a place where they could look down at Sodom, and Abraham went with them to send them on their way.

I have chosen him in order that he may command his sons and his descendants to obey me and to do what is right and just. If they do, I will do everything for him that I have promised."

and said, "Sirs, I am here to serve you. Please come to my house. You can wash your feet and spend the night. In the morning you can get up early and go on your way." But they answered, "No, we will spend the night here in the city square."