Genesis - Chapter 16 { LISTEN ONLY THIS CHAPTER - PLAY HERE }
1 Abram's wife Sarai had borne him no child, but she had an Egyptian slave-girl called Hagar.
2 So Sarai said to Abram, 'Listen, now! Since Yahweh has kept me from having children, go to my slave-girl. Perhaps I shall get children through her.' And Abram took Sarai's advice.
3 Thus, after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan for ten years, Sarai took Hagar her Egyptian slave-girl and gave her to Abram as his wife.
4 He went to Hagar and she conceived. And once she knew she had conceived, her mistress counted for nothing in her eyes.
5 Then Sarai said to Abram, 'This outrage done to me is your fault! It was I who put my slave-girl into your arms but, now she knows that she has conceived, I count for nothing in her eyes. Yahweh judge between me and you!'
6 'Very well,' Abram said to Sarai, 'your slave-girl is at your disposal. Treat her as you think fit.' Sarai accordingly treated her so badly that she ran away from her.
7 The angel of Yahweh found her by a spring in the desert, the spring on the road to Shur.
8 He said, 'Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?' 'I am running away from my mistress Sarai,' she replied.
9 The angel of Yahweh said to her, 'Go back to your mistress and submit to her.'
10 The angel of Yahweh further said to her, 'I shall make your descendants too numerous to be counted.'
11 Then the angel of Yahweh said to her: Now, you have conceived and will bear a son, and you shall name him Ishmael, for Yahweh has heard your cries of distress.
12 A wild donkey of a man he will be, his hand against every man, and every man's hand against him, living his life in defiance of all his kinsmen.
13 Hagar gave a name to Yahweh who had spoken to her, 'You are El Roi,' by which she meant, 'Did I not go on seeing here, after him who sees me?'
14 This is why the well is called the well of Lahai Roi; it is between Kadesh and Bered.
15 Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave his son borne by Hagar the name Ishmael.
16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.
Genesis - Chapter 17 { LISTEN ONLY THIS CHAPTER - PLAY HERE }
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old Yahweh appeared to him and said, 'I am El Shaddai. Live in my presence, be perfect,
2 and I shall grant a covenant between myself and you, and make you very numerous.'
3 And Abram bowed to the ground. God spoke to him as follows,
4 'For my part, this is my covenant with you: you will become the father of many nations.
5 And you are no longer to be called Abram; your name is to be Abraham, for I am making you father of many nations.
6 I shall make you exceedingly fertile. I shall make you into nations, and your issue will be kings.
7 And I shall maintain my covenant between myself and you, and your descendants after you, generation after generation, as a covenant in perpetuity, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
8 And to you and to your descendants after you, I shall give the country where you are now immigrants, the entire land of Canaan, to own in perpetuity. And I shall be their God.'
9 God further said to Abraham, 'You for your part must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you, generation after generation.
10 This is my covenant which you must keep between myself and you, and your descendants after you: every one of your males must be circumcised.
11 You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and that will be the sign of the covenant between myself and you.
12 As soon as he is eight days old, every one of your males, generation after generation, must be circumcised, including slaves born within the household or bought from a foreigner not of your descent.
13 Whether born within the household or bought, they must be circumcised. My covenant must be marked in your flesh as a covenant in perpetuity.
14 The uncircumcised male, whose foreskin has not been circumcised -- that person must be cut off from his people: he has broken my covenant.'
15 Furthermore God said to Abraham, 'As regards your wife Sarai, you must not call her Sarai, but Sarah.
16 I shall bless her and moreover give you a son by her. I shall bless her and she will become nations: kings of peoples will issue from her.'
17 Abraham bowed to the ground, and he laughed, thinking to himself, 'Is a child to be born to a man one hundred years old, and will Sarah have a child at the age of ninety?'
18 Abraham said to God, 'May Ishmael live in your presence! That will be enough!'
19 But God replied, 'Yes, your wife Sarah will bear you a son whom you must name Isaac. And I shall maintain my covenant with him, a covenant in perpetuity, to be his God and the God of his descendants after him.
20 For Ishmael too I grant you your request. I hereby bless him and will make him fruitful and exceedingly numerous. He will be the father of twelve princes, and I shall make him into a great nation.
21 But my covenant I shall maintain with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear you at this time next year.'
22 When he had finished speaking to Abraham, God went up from him.
23 Then Abraham took his son Ishmael, all the slaves born in his household or whom he had bought, in short all the males among the people of Abraham's household, and circumcised their foreskins that same day, as God had said to him.
24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when his foreskin was circumcised.
25 Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when his foreskin was circumcised.
26 Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised on the very same day,
27 and all the men of his household, those born in the household and those bought from foreigners, were circumcised with him.
Genesis - Chapter 18 { LISTEN ONLY THIS CHAPTER - PLAY HERE }
1 Yahweh appeared to him at the Oak of Mamre while he was sitting by the entrance of the tent during the hottest part of the day.
2 He looked up, and there he saw three men standing near him. As soon as he saw them he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them, and bowed to the ground.
3 'My lord,' he said, 'if I find favour with you, please do not pass your servant by.
4 Let me have a little water brought, and you can wash your feet and have a rest under the tree.
5 Let me fetch a little bread and you can refresh yourselves before going further, now that you have come in your servant's direction.' They replied, 'Do as you say.'
6 Abraham hurried to the tent and said to Sarah, 'Quick, knead three measures of best flour and make loaves.'
7 Then, running to the herd, Abraham took a fine and tender calf and gave it to the servant, who hurried to prepare it.
8 Then taking curds, milk and the calf which had been prepared, he laid all before them, and they ate while he remained standing near them under the tree.
9 'Where is your wife Sarah?' they asked him. 'She is in the tent,' he replied.
10 Then his guest said, 'I shall come back to you next year, and then your wife Sarah will have a son.' Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him.
11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well on in years, and Sarah had ceased to have her monthly periods.
12 So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, 'Now that I am past the age of childbearing, and my husband is an old man, is pleasure to come my way again?'
13 But Yahweh asked Abraham, 'Why did Sarah laugh and say, "Am I really going to have a child now that I am old?"
14 Nothing is impossible for Yahweh. I shall come back to you at the same time next year and Sarah will have a son.'
15 Sarah said, 'I did not laugh,' lying because she was afraid. But he replied, 'Oh yes, you did laugh.'
16 From there the men set out and arrived within sight of Sodom, with Abraham accompanying them to speed them on their way.
17 Now Yahweh had wondered, 'Shall I conceal from Abraham what I am going to do,
18 as Abraham will become a great and powerful nation and all nations on earth will bless themselves by him?
19 For I have singled him out to command his sons and his family after him to keep the way of Yahweh by doing what is upright and just, so that Yahweh can carry out for Abraham what he has promised him.'
20 Then Yahweh said, 'The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin is so grave,
21 that I shall go down and see whether or not their actions are at all as the outcry reaching me would suggest. Then I shall know.'
22 While the men left there and went to Sodom, Yahweh remained in Abraham's presence.
23 Abraham stepped forward and said, 'Will you really destroy the upright with the guilty?
24 Suppose there are fifty upright people in the city. Will you really destroy it? Will you not spare the place for the sake of the fifty upright in it?
25 Do not think of doing such a thing: to put the upright to death with the guilty, so that upright and guilty fare alike! Is the judge of the whole world not to act justly?'
26 Yahweh replied, 'If I find fifty upright people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place because of them.'
27 Abraham spoke up and said, 'It is presumptuous of me to speak to the Lord, I who am dust and ashes:
28 Suppose the fifty upright were five short? Would you destroy the whole city because of five?' 'No,' he replied, 'I shall not destroy it if I find forty-five there.'
29 Abraham persisted and said, 'Suppose there are forty to be found there?' 'I shall not do it,' he replied, 'for the sake of the forty.'
30 Abraham said, 'I hope the Lord will not be angry if I go on: Suppose there are only thirty to be found there?' 'I shall not do it,' he replied, 'if I find thirty there.'
31 He said, 'It is presumptuous of me to speak to the Lord: Suppose there are only twenty there?' 'I shall not destroy it,' he replied, 'for the sake of the twenty.'
32 He said, 'I trust my Lord will not be angry if I speak once more: perhaps there will only be ten.' 'I shall not destroy it,' he replied, 'for the sake of the ten.'
33 When he had finished talking to Abraham Yahweh went away, and Abraham returned home.
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