Study Desk

So Abram said to Lot, "Let's not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers.

So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company:

Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you."

For twelve years they had been subject to Kedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled.

The king of Sodom said to Abram, "Give me the people and keep the goods for yourself."

Then the LORD said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.

In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."

Then Sarai said to Abram, "You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me."

The angel of the LORD also said to her: "You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of your misery.

She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: "You are the God who sees me," for she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me."

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

No longer will you be called Abram ; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.

I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come.

For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner-those who are not your offspring.

God also said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah.

Then God said, "Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.

And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.

Is anything too hard for the LORD ? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son."

For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him."