Study Desk

But God came to Abimelech in a dream during the night, and said, "Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken [as your wife], for she is another man's wife."

Then God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know you did this in the integrity of your heart, for it was I who kept you back and spared you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not give you an opportunity to touch her.

Abraham said, "Because I thought, 'Surely there is no fear or reverence of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.'

"When God caused me to wander from my father's house, I said to her, 'This kindness and loyalty you can show me: at every place we stop, say of me, "He is my brother."'"

Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen and male and female slaves, and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him [as God commanded].

So Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids, and they again gave birth to children,

So Sarah conceived and gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him.

So Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, just as God had commanded him.

Sarah said, "God has made me laugh; all who hear [about our good news] will laugh with me."

God said to Abraham, "Do not let it distress you because of Ishmael and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her and do what she asks, for your descendants will be named through Isaac.

God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy from where he is [resting].

Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the [empty] skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

God was with Ishmael, and he grew and developed; and he lived in the wilderness and became an [expert] archer.

Now at that time Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, "God is with you in everything you do;

so now, swear to me here by God that you will not deal unfairly with me [by breaking any agreements we have] or with my son or with my descendants, but as I have treated you with kindness, you shall do the same to me and to the land in which you have sojourned (temporarily lived)."

Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the LORD [in prayer], the Eternal God.

Now after these things, God tested [the faith and commitment of] Abraham and said to him, "Abraham!" And he answered, "Here I am."

God said, "Take now your son, your only son [of promise], whom you love, Isaac, and go to the region of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."

So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and then he got up and went to the place of which God had told him.

Abraham said to his servants, "Settle down and stay here with the donkey; the young man and I will go over there and worship [God], and we will come back to you."