Study Desk

When the Egyptians see you they will say, ‘This is his wife.' Then they will kill me but will keep you alive.

But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with severe diseases because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

Pharaoh gave his men orders about Abram, and so they expelled him, along with his wife and all his possessions.

So Abram went up from Egypt into the Negev. He took his wife and all his possessions with him, as well as Lot.

And he journeyed from place to place from the Negev as far as Bethel. He returned to the place where he had pitched his tent at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai.

Abram settled in the land of Canaan, but Lot settled among the cities of the Jordan plain and pitched his tents next to Sodom.

So Abram moved his tents and went to live by the oaks of Mamre in Hebron, and he built an altar to the Lord there.

In the fourteenth year, Kedorlaomer and the kings who were his allies came and defeated the Rephaites in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh Kiriathaim,

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

When Abram heard that his nephew had been taken captive, he mobilized his 318 trained men who had been born in his household, and he pursued the invaders as far as Dan.

Then, during the night, Abram divided his forces against them and defeated them. He chased them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus.

He retrieved all the stolen property. He also brought back his nephew Lot and his possessions, as well as the women and the rest of the people.

Abram believed the Lord , and the Lord considered his response of faith as proof of genuine loyalty.

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.

He will be a wild donkey of a man. He will be hostile to everyone, and everyone will be hostile to him. He will live away from his brothers."

Abram bowed down with his face to the ground, and God said to him,

Any uncircumcised male who has not been circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin will be cut off from his people—he has failed to carry out my requirement."

Then Abraham bowed down with his face to the ground and laughed as he said to himself, "Can a son be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?"

God said, "No, Sarah your wife is going to bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac. I will confirm my covenant with him as a perpetual covenant for his descendants after him.

Abraham took his son Ishmael and every male in his household (whether born in his house or bought with money) and circumcised them on that very same day, just as God had told him to do.