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The Lord's Promise to Abram

15 Later the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision, “Abram, don't be afraid! I will protect you and reward you greatly.”

But Abram answered, “Lord All-Powerful, you have given me everything I could ask for, except children. And when I die, Eliezer of Damascus will get all I own.[a] You have not given me any children, and this servant of mine will inherit everything.”

The Lord replied, “No, he won't! You will have a son of your own, and everything you have will be his.” (A) Then the Lord took Abram outside and said, “Look at the sky and see if you can count the stars. That's how many descendants you will have.” (B) Abram believed the Lord, so the Lord was pleased with him and accepted him.

The Lord Makes Another Promise to Abram

The Lord said to Abram, “I brought you here from Ur in Chaldea, and I gave you this land.”

Abram asked, “Lord God, how can I know the land will be mine?”

Then the Lord told him, “Bring me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a dove, and a young pigeon.”

10 Abram obeyed the Lord. Then he cut[b] the animals in half and laid the two halves of each animal opposite each other on the ground. But he did not cut the doves and pigeons in half. 11 And when birds came down to eat the animals, Abram chased them away.

12 (C) As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and everything became dark and frightening. 13-15 (D) Then the Lord said:

Abram, you will live to an old age and die in peace.

But I solemnly promise that your descendants will live as foreigners in a land that doesn't belong to them. They will be forced into slavery and abused for 400 years. But I will terribly punish the nation that enslaves them, and they will leave with many possessions.

16 Four generations later,[c] your descendants will return here and take this land, because only then will the people who live here[d] be so sinful that they deserve to be punished.

17 Sometime after sunset, when it was very dark, a smoking cooking pot[e] and a flaming fire passed between the two halves of each animal. 18 (E) At that time the Lord made an agreement with Abram and told him:

I will give your descendants the land east of the Shihor River[f] on the border of Egypt as far as the Euphrates River. 19 They will possess the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaites, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

Hagar and Ishmael

16 Abram's wife Sarai had not been able to have any children. But she owned a young Egyptian slave woman named Hagar, and Sarai said to Abram, “The Lord has not given me any children. Sleep with my slave, and if she has a child, it will be mine.”[g] Abram agreed, and Sarai gave him Hagar to be his wife. This happened after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan for ten years. Later, when Hagar knew she was going to have a baby, she became proud and treated Sarai hatefully.

Then Sarai said to Abram, “It's all your fault![h] I gave you my slave woman, but she has been hateful to me ever since she found out she was pregnant. You have done me wrong, and you will have to answer to the Lord for this.”

Abram said, “All right! She's your slave—do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai began treating Hagar so harshly that she finally ran away.

Hagar stopped to rest at a spring in the desert on the road to Shur. While she was there, the angel of the Lord came to her and asked, “Hagar, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

She answered, “I'm running away from Sarai, my owner.”

The angel said, “Go back to Sarai and be her slave. 10-11 I will give you a son, who will be called Ishmael,[i] because I have heard your cry for help. And someday I will give you so many descendants that no one will be able to count them all. 12 But your son will live far from his relatives; he will be like a wild donkey, fighting everyone, and everyone fighting him.”

13 Hagar thought, “Have I really seen God and lived to tell about it?”[j] So from then on she called him, “The God Who Sees Me.”[k] 14 That's why people call the well between Kadesh and Bered, “The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.”[l]

15-16 (F) Abram was 86 years old when Hagar gave birth to their son, and he named him Ishmael.

Footnotes

  1. 15.2 And … own: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
  2. 15.10 cut: In Hebrew “cut” sounds something like “agreement.” What follows shows that the Lord is making an agreement with Abram.
  3. 15.16 Four generations later: This may refer to the “400 years” of verses 13-15.
  4. 15.16 people who live here: The Hebrew text has “Amorites,” a name sometimes used of the people who lived in Palestine before the Israelites.
  5. 15.17 smoking cooking pot: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text. The smoke and fire represent the presence of the Lord.
  6. 15.18 Shihor River: See Joshua 13.2-7.
  7. 16.2 Sleep … mine: It was the custom for a wife who could not have children to let her husband sleep with one of her slave women. The children of the slave would belong to the wife.
  8. 16.5 It's … fault: Or “I hope you'll be punished for what you did to me!”
  9. 16.10,11 Ishmael: In Hebrew “Ishmael” sounds like “God hears.”
  10. 16.13 Have … it: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
  11. 16.13 The God Who Sees Me: Or “The God I Have Seen.”
  12. 16.14 The Well … Me: Or “Beer-Lahai-Roi” (see 25.11).

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