Genesis 16

²⁴These things serve as illustrations, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children into slavery: This is Hagar.

¹⁶He treated Abram well on her account, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels.

²But Abram replied, “O Lord God, what can You give me, since I remain childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”

³Abram continued, “Behold, You have given me no offspring, so a servant in my household will be my heir.”

⁹But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking her son,

¹⁰and she said to Abraham, “Expel the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac!”

¹²But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to everything that Sarah tells you, for through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.

³⁶Look, even Elizabeth your relative has conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called barren is in her sixth month.

¹⁰Then the Lord said, “I will surely return to you at this time next year, and your wife Sarah will have a son!” Now Sarah was behind him, listening at the entrance to the tent.

¹⁷And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

⁴If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.

²¹Later, Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord heard his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived.

¹⁸for on account of Abraham’s wife Sarah, the Lord had completely closed all the wombs in Abimelech’s household.

¹Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field that the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’”

²The woman answered the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden,

⁵Then Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be upon you! I delivered my servant into your arms, and ever since she saw that she was pregnant, she has treated me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me.”

⁴So Abram departed, as the Lord had directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.

⁵And Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the possessions and people they had acquired in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,

¹³After he had arrived from Hebron, David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, and more sons and daughters were born to him.

⁶But while he was still alive, Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east.

⁹When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she gave her servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife.

⁹Esau went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael, in addition to the wives he already had.

¹⁶As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked down from a window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart.

²³an unloved woman who marries, and a maidservant who supplants her mistress.

⁶Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival would provoke her viciously to taunt her.

⁷And this went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival taunted her until she wept and would not eat.

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.

²⁰This is the way of an adulteress: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, ‘I have done nothing wrong.’

²¹Under three things the earth trembles, under four it cannot bear up:

⁶Brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us not to go beyond what is written. Then you will not take pride in one man over another.

⁵³May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac.

²¹“May the Lord look upon you and judge you,” the foremen said, “for you have made us a stench before Pharaoh and his officials; you have placed in their hand a sword to kill us!”

⁴⁰But Martha was distracted by all the preparations to be made. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me!”

⁴¹“Martha, Martha,” the Lord replied, “you are worried and upset about many things.

⁸The Lord judges the peoples; vindicate me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and integrity.

¹²May the Lord judge between you and me, and may the Lord take vengeance on you, but my hand will never be against you.

¹³As the old proverb says, ‘Wickedness proceeds from the wicked.’ But my hand will never be against you.

²²Thus King Joash failed to remember the kindness that Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had extended to him. Instead, Joash killed Jehoiada’s son. As he lay dying, Zechariah said, “May the Lord see this and call you to account.”

⁵“Here he is,” replied King Zedekiah. “He is in your hands, since the king can do nothing to stop you.”

⁶“Very well,” said the Lord to Satan. “He is in your hands, but you must spare his life.”

²⁹A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man promotes folly.

⁴¹He delivered them into the hand of the nations, and those who hated them ruled over them.

⁴²Their enemies oppressed them and subdued them under their hand.

⁷Husbands, in the same way, treat your wives with consideration as a delicate vessel, and with honor as fellow heirs of the gracious gift of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.

¹A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

²²Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the Desert of Shur. For three days they walked in the desert without finding water.

¹⁸Ishmael’s descendants settled from Havilah to Shur, which is near the border of Egypt as you go toward Asshur. And they lived in hostility toward all their brothers.

¹⁷Then God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, “What is wrong, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he lies.

³The eyes of the Lord are in every place, observing the evil and the good.

¹¹In that dream the angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ And I replied, ‘Here I am.’

¹Now Abraham journeyed from there to the region of the Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he was staying in Gerar,

⁹But the Lord God called out to the man, “Where are you?”

¹⁰“What have you done?” replied the Lord. “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.

⁴If the ruler’s temper flares against you, do not abandon your post, for calmness lays great offenses to rest.

¹⁷Have you not brought this on yourself by forsaking the Lord your God when He led you in the way?

¹⁸Now what will you gain on your way to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? What will you gain on your way to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates?

⁵Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.

⁶And do this not only to please them while they are watching, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.

¹⁹Now please, may my lord the king hear the words of his servant: If the Lord has stirred you up against me, then may He accept an offering. But if men have done it, may they be cursed in the presence of the Lord! For today they have driven me away from sharing in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’

⁵Young men, in the same way, submit yourselves to your elders. And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

⁶Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, so that in due time He may exalt you.

⁴If the ruler’s temper flares against you, do not abandon your post, for calmness lays great offenses to rest.

²¹Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

¹⁸Servants, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but even to those who are unreasonable.

¹⁹For if anyone endures the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God, this is to be commended.

⁵Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.

⁶And do this not only to please them while they are watching, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.

⁹Slaves are to submit to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative,

²⁰As for Ishmael, I have heard you, and I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He will become the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.

⁶the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagrites,

⁷of Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek, of Philistia with the people of Tyre.

¹⁸Get up, lift up the boy, and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”

¹³But I will also make a nation of the slave woman’s son, because he is your offspring.”

¹²This is the account of Abraham’s son Ishmael, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maidservant, bore to Abraham.

¹³These are the names of the sons of Ishmael in the order of their birth: Nebaioth the firstborn of Ishmael, then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,

¹⁵And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time,

¹⁶saying, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your only son,

²³After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned and cried out under their burden of slavery, and their cry for deliverance from bondage ascended to God.

²⁴So God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

⁷The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the affliction of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I am aware of their sufferings.

¹⁴Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will be with child and give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel.

¹⁹But God replied, “Your wife Sarah will indeed bear you a son, and you are to name him Isaac. I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.

⁵¹Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, saying, “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father’s household.”

⁵²And the second son he named Ephraim, saying, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”

²⁰So in the course of time, Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, “Because I have asked for him from the Lord.”

¹⁸Ishmael’s descendants settled from Havilah to Shur, which is near the border of Egypt as you go toward Asshur. And they lived in hostility toward all their brothers.

²⁰And God was with the boy, and he grew up and settled in the wilderness and became a great archer.

⁵Who set the wild donkey free? Who released the swift donkey from the harness?

⁶I made the wilderness his home and the salt flats his dwelling.

⁴⁰You shall live by the sword and serve your brother. But when you rebel, you will tear his yoke from your neck.”

¹²But a witless man can no more become wise than the colt of a wild donkey can be born a man!

¹For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O Lord, You have searched me and known me.

²You know when I sit and when I rise; You understand my thoughts from afar.

³⁰So Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, “Indeed, I have seen God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

³The eyes of the Lord are in every place, observing the evil and the good.

²¹For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and the Lord examines all his paths.

⁷Now the angel of the Lord found Hagar by a spring of water in the desert—the spring along the road to Shur.

⁴²If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely by now you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, and last night He rendered judgment.”

¹¹After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac, who lived near Beer-lahai-roi.

⁶²Now Isaac had just returned from Beer-lahai-roi, for he was living in the Negev.

²⁶and they went back to Moses, Aaron, and the whole congregation of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They brought back a report for the whole congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.

³¹So that place was called Beersheba, because it was there that the two of them swore an oath.

⁷Then they turned back to invade En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh), and they conquered the whole territory of the Amalekites, as well as the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-tamar.

¹²This is the account of Abraham’s son Ishmael, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maidservant, bore to Abraham.

⁹Esau went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael, in addition to the wives he already had.

¹⁸And Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live under Your blessing!”

²⁸The sons of Abraham were Isaac and Ishmael.

²⁵and his son Ishmael was thirteen;

²⁶Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised on the same day.

²²For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.

²³His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born through the promise.