Study Desk

God said to Abraham, “As for your wife Sarai, do not call her Sarai, for Sarah will be her name.

So Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael were acceptable to you!”

But God said, “No. Your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac. I will confirm my covenant with him as a permanent covenant for his future offspring.

When he finished talking with him, God withdrew from Abraham.

So Abraham took his son Ishmael and those born in his household or purchased—every male among the members of Abraham’s household—and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskin on that very day, just as God had said to him.

So it was, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham and brought Lot out of the middle of the upheaval when he demolished the cities where Lot had lived.

But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “You are about to die because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman.”

Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience. I have also kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I have not let you touch her.

Abraham replied, “I thought, ‘There is absolutely no fear of God in this place. They will kill me because of my wife.’

So when God had me wander from my father’s house, I said to her: Show your loyalty to me wherever we go and say about me: ‘He’s my brother.’”

Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female slaves so that they could bear children,

Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time God had told him.

When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him.

Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears will laugh with me.”

But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed about the boy and about your slave. Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her, because your offspring will be traced through Isaac,

God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What’s wrong, Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard the boy crying from the place where he is.

Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well. So she went and filled the waterskin and gave the boy a drink.

God was with the boy, and he grew; he settled in the wilderness and became an archer.

At that time Abimelech, accompanied by Phicol the commander of his army, said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do.

Swear to me by God here and now, that you will not break an agreement with me or with my children and descendants. As I have been loyal to you, so you will be loyal to me and to the country where you are a resident alien.”