Genesis 21

⁶The words of the Lord are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace, like gold purified sevenfold.

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.

¹⁴Is anything too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you—in about a year—and Sarah will have a son.”

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.

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

²¹So the Lord attended to Hannah, and she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord.

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

¹¹By faith Sarah, even though she was barren and beyond the proper age, was enabled to conceive a child, because she considered Him faithful who had promised.

²⁴After these days, his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. She declared,

²⁵“The Lord has done this for me. In these days He has shown me favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”

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.

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

¹⁴Is anything too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you—in about a year—and Sarah will have a son.”

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.

⁷Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants are they all his children. On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”

⁶Then Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears of this will laugh with me.”

²Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.

³But I took your father Abraham from beyond the Euphrates and led him through all the land of Canaan, and I multiplied his descendants. I gave him Isaac,

¹⁸even though God had said to him, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”

⁸Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, and Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

¹⁰This is My covenant with you and your descendants after you, which you are to keep: Every male among you must be circumcised.

¹¹You are to circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and this will be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.

³And on the eighth day the flesh of the boy’s foreskin is to be circumcised.

²²But because Moses gave you circumcision, you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath (not that it is from Moses, but from the patriarchs.)

²³If a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses will not be broken, why are you angry with Me for making the whole man well on the Sabbath?

⁴⁸If a foreigner resides with you and wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover, all the males in the household must be circumcised; then he may come near to celebrate it, and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised man may eat of it.

⁶Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and decrees of the Lord.

¹⁷Abraham fell facedown. Then he laughed and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at the age of ninety?”

¹⁹Without weakening in his faith, he acknowledged the decrepitness of his body (since he was about a hundred years old) and the lifelessness of Sarah’s womb.

¹When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be blameless.

²Then our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with shouts of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”

¹“Shout for joy, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth in song and cry aloud, you who have never travailed; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,” says the Lord.

¹⁷Abraham fell facedown. Then he laughed and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at the age of ninety?”

⁵⁸Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they rejoiced with her.

²⁷For it is written: “Rejoice, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have never travailed; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”

²⁸Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.

⁴⁶Then Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord,

⁴⁷and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!

¹¹And Abraham and Sarah were already old and well along in years; Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.

¹²So she laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

⁸Who has heard of such as this? Who has seen such things? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be delivered in an instant? Yet as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children.

¹⁰on the day He comes to be glorified in His saints and regarded with wonder by all who have believed, including you who have believed our testimony.

³²Indeed, ask now from one end of the heavens to the other about the days that long preceded you, from the day that God created man on earth: Has anything as great as this ever happened or been reported?

³³Has a people ever heard the voice of God speaking out of the fire, as you have, and lived?

²³For there is no spell against Jacob and no divination against Israel. It will now be said of Jacob and Israel, ‘What great things God has done!’

¹⁰His purpose was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms,

²²but Hannah did not go. “After the boy is weaned,” she said to her husband, “I will take him to appear before the Lord and to stay there permanently.”

⁸After she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, Gomer conceived and gave birth to a son.

²⁰On the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, he held a feast for all his officials, and in their presence he lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker.

²²So Laban invited all the men of that place and prepared a feast.

²Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.

¹⁵Then Solomon awoke, and indeed it had been a dream. So he returned to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then he held a feast for all his servants.

²⁹At that time, however, the son born by the flesh persecuted the son born by the Spirit. It is the same now.

¹⁵And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.

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

¹Now Abram’s wife Sarai had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar.

¹³You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and derision to those around us.

¹⁴You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples.

¹¹Even a young man is known by his actions—whether his conduct is pure and upright.

³⁵A slave does not remain in the house forever, but a son remains forever.

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.

¹⁹They went out from us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their departure made it clear that none of them belonged to us.

⁴and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, reserved in heaven for you,

⁶Later, Esau took his wives and sons and daughters and all the people of his household, along with his livestock, all his other animals, and all the property he had acquired in Canaan, and he moved to a land far away from his brother Jacob.

⁷For their possessions were too great for them to dwell together; the land where they stayed could not support them because of their livestock.

¹³Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

¹¹No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it.

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

³⁷Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me;

¹Some time later God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he answered.

²“Take your son,” God said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”

³³The king was shaken and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And as he walked, he cried out, “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”

¹⁸even though God had said to him, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”

⁷Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants are they all his children. On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”

⁸So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring.

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.

⁹Now listen to their voice; but you must solemnly warn them and show them the manner of the king who will reign over them.”

⁷And the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you. For it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their king.

²¹But I will establish My covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this time next year.”

¹⁰Then the angel added, “I will greatly multiply your offspring so that they will be too numerous to count.”

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.

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

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,

⁶⁰I hurried without hesitating to keep Your commandments.

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

¹⁴If one blesses his neighbor with a loud voice early in the morning, it will be counted to him as a curse.

³And Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there,

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.

³¹And they got up early the next morning and swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they left him in peace.

³The nobles send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns, but find no water; their jars return empty. They are ashamed and humiliated; they cover their heads.

⁹So the king of Israel, the king of Judah, and the king of Edom set out, and after they had traveled a roundabout route for seven days, they had no water for their army or for their animals.

¹A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah. O God, You are my God. Earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You. My body yearns for You in a dry and weary land without water.

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.

²³And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the water there because it was bitter. (That is why it was named Marah.)

¹Then the whole congregation of Israel left the Desert of Sin, moving from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.

²So the people contended with Moses, “Give us water to drink.” “Why do you contend with me?” Moses replied. “Why do you test the Lord?”

¹²The blacksmith takes a tool and labors over the coals; he fashions an idol with hammers and forges it with his strong arms. Yet he grows hungry and loses his strength; he fails to drink water and grows faint.

¹⁵“Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb? Even if she could forget, I will not forget you!

⁹May the Lord enable each of you to find rest in the home of your new husband.” And she kissed them as they wept aloud

²⁶Then the woman whose son was alive spoke to the king because she yearned with compassion for her son. “Please, my lord,” she said, “give her the living baby. Do not kill him!” But the other woman said, “He will be neither mine nor yours. Cut him in two!”

⁴When the angel of the Lord had spoken these words to all the Israelites, the people lifted up their voices and wept.

⁴So David and the troops with him lifted up their voices and wept until they had no strength left to weep.

¹⁶When David had finished saying these things, Saul called back, “Is that your voice, David my son?” Then Saul wept aloud

¹¹The angel of the Lord proceeded: “Behold, you have conceived and will bear a son. And you shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard your cry of affliction.

¹⁵Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”

¹⁵When he calls out to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him.

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.

⁹So the angel of the Lord told her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority.”

²³When they called out after them, the Danites turned to face them and said to Micah, “What is the matter with you that you have called out such a company?”

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

¹⁰Then the angel added, “I will greatly multiply your offspring so that they will be too numerous to count.”

²⁹These are their genealogies: Nebaioth the firstborn of Ishmael, then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,

³⁰Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema,

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.

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,

³¹Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand. And Balaam bowed low and fell facedown.

¹⁷Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw that the hills were full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

¹⁸As the Arameans came down against him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Please strike these people with blindness.” So He struck them with blindness, according to the word of Elisha.

⁵Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

⁶Then the lame will leap like a deer and the mute tongue will shout for joy. For waters will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.

¹⁶But their eyes were kept from recognizing Him.

¹⁷He asked them, “What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?” They stood still, with sadness on their faces.

¹⁵Look, I am with you, and I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

²¹the Lord was with him and extended kindness to him, granting him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.

¹²He will be a wild donkey of a man, and his hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him; he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”

²And the Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master.

³When his master saw that the Lord was with him and made him prosper in all he did,

⁸⁰And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until the time of his public appearance to Israel.

²⁴So the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The boy grew, and the Lord blessed him.

²⁵And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him at Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

³and I will have you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am dwelling,

⁴but will go to my country and my kindred to take a wife for my son Isaac.”

³⁴When Esau was forty years old, he took as his wives Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite.

³⁵And they brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

⁴⁶Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a Hittite wife from among them, what good is my life?”

¹⁶After that, the people set out from Hazeroth and camped in the Wilderness of Paran.

¹When Samuel died, all Israel gathered to mourn for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David set out and went down to the Wilderness of Paran.

³⁸So then, he who marries the virgin does well, but he who does not marry her does even better.

⁷Now the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you just as I was with Moses.

²⁸“We can plainly see that the Lord has been with you,” they replied. “We recommend that there should now be an oath between us and you. Let us make a covenant with you

²⁶Later, Abimelech came to Isaac from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army.

²Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech king of Gerar had Sarah brought to him.

³¹What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

²⁵and the secrets of his heart will be made known. So he will fall facedown and worship God, proclaiming, “God is truly among you!”

¹²Now therefore, please swear to me by the Lord that you will indeed show kindness to my family, because I showed kindness to you. Give me a sure sign

¹⁴So Abimelech brought sheep and cattle, menservants and maidservants, and he gave them to Abraham and restored his wife Sarah to him.

²²But Abram replied to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the Lord God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth,

²³that I will not accept even a thread, or a strap of a sandal, or anything that belongs to you, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’

²⁸“We can plainly see that the Lord has been with you,” they replied. “We recommend that there should now be an oath between us and you. Let us make a covenant with you

⁴⁴Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it serve as a witness between you and me.”

²³I call God as my witness that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth.

¹⁶Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and their oath serves as a confirmation to end all argument.

¹⁸If it is possible on your part, live at peace with everyone.

¹³Then an escapee came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew. Now Abram was living near the Oaks of Mamre the Amorite, a brother of Eshcol and Aner, all of whom were bound by treaty to Abram.

¹⁵So the Philistines took dirt and stopped up all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham.

¹⁶Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Depart from us, for you are much too powerful for us.”

⁵Better an open rebuke than love that is concealed.

¹⁵If your brother sins against you, go and confront him privately. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.

¹⁵“Give me a blessing,” she answered. “Since you have given me land in the Negev, give me springs of water as well.” So Caleb gave her both the upper and lower springs.

⁸But they replied, “We cannot, until all the flocks have been gathered and the stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the well. Then we will water the sheep.”

⁹Argue your case with your neighbor without betraying another’s confidence,

²⁰Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, “Look, my master has spared this Aramean, Naaman, by not accepting what he brought. As surely as the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something from him.”

²¹So Gehazi pursued Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running toward him, he got down from the chariot to meet him and asked, “Is everything all right?”

⁷And there was discord between the herdsmen of Abram and the herdsmen of Lot. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were also living in the land.

²⁸“We can plainly see that the Lord has been with you,” they replied. “We recommend that there should now be an oath between us and you. Let us make a covenant with you

²⁹that you will not harm us, just as we have not harmed you but have done only good to you, sending you on your way in peace. And now you are blessed by the Lord.”

⁸But a noble man makes honorable plans; he stands up for worthy causes.

¹⁶A man’s gift opens doors for him, and brings him before great men.

²⁴A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who stays closer than a brother.

¹³He took a member of the royal family and made a covenant with him, putting him under oath. Then he carried away the leading men of the land,

⁸A bribe is a charm to its giver; wherever he turns, he succeeds.

⁸“What do you mean by sending this whole company to meet me?” asked Esau. “To find favor in your sight, my lord,” Jacob answered.

²⁶When your children ask you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’

¹⁴But Samuel replied, “Then what is this bleating of sheep and lowing of cattle that I hear?”

⁵²This mound is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not go past this mound to harm you, and you will not go past this mound and pillar to harm me.

²⁷And Joshua said to all the people, “You see this stone. It will be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words the Lord has spoken to us, and it will be a witness against you if you ever deny your God.”

²⁷Rather, let it be a witness between us and you and the generations to come, that we will worship the Lord in His presence with our burnt offerings, sacrifices, and peace offerings.’ Then in the future, your descendants cannot say to ours, ‘You have no share in the Lord!’

²⁸Therefore we said, ‘If they ever say this to us or to our descendants, we will answer: Look at the replica of the altar of the Lord that our fathers made, not for burnt offerings or sacrifices, but as a witness between us and you.’

⁴⁴Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it serve as a witness between you and me.”

⁴⁵So Jacob picked out a stone and set it up as a pillar,

³³So he called it Shibah, and to this day the name of the city is Beersheba.

¹⁴Early in the morning, Abraham got up, took bread and a skin of water, put them on Hagar’s shoulders, and sent her away with the boy. She left and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba.

²⁵Throughout the days of Solomon, Judah and Israel dwelt securely from Dan to Beersheba, each man under his own vine and his own fig tree.

²³From there Isaac went up to Beersheba,

¹¹Instead, I advise that all Israel from Dan to Beersheba—a multitude like the sand on the seashore—be gathered to you, and that you yourself lead them into battle.

¹Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out, and the congregation assembled as one man before the Lord at Mizpah.

²⁷So Abraham brought sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant.

³Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself.

¹⁴the Pathrusites, the Casluhites (from whom the Philistines came), and the Caphtorites.

⁸When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down from the window and was surprised to see Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.

¹⁷When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them along the road through the land of the Philistines, though it was shorter. For God said, “If the people face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”

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.

¹⁷Now to the King eternal, immortal, and invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

²⁸Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary; His understanding is beyond searching out.

²Before the mountains were born or You brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God.

²⁶but now revealed and made known through the writings of the prophets by the command of the eternal God, in order to lead all nations to the obedience that comes from faith—

¹⁰But the Lord is the true God; He is the living God and eternal King. The earth quakes at His wrath, and the nations cannot endure His indignation.

⁸From there Abram moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to the Lord, and he called on the name of the Lord.

¹²Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping. For I am a foreigner dwelling with You, a stranger like all my fathers.

¹³All these people died in faith, without having received the things they were promised. However, they saw them and welcomed them from afar. And they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

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

¹¹Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul.

⁹By faith he dwelt in the promised land as a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.

¹⁵For we are foreigners and strangers in Your presence, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.