Every Woman's Bible Genesis sampler - Flipbook - Page 34
GENESIS 15
people who were captured. But you may keep for
yourself all the goods you have recovered.”
22Abram replied to the king of Sodom, “I solemnly
swear to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven
and earth, 23that I will not take so much as a single
thread or sandal thong from what belongs to you.
Otherwise you might say, ‘I am the one who made
Abram rich.’ 24I will accept only what my young warriors have already eaten, and I request that you give
a fair share of the goods to my allies—Aner, Eshcol,
and Mamre.”
The Lord’s Covenant Promise to Abram
15
Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in
a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid,
Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will
be great.”
2 But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good
are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son?
Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my
wealth. 3 You have given me no descendants of my
own, so one of my servants will be my heir.”
4 Then the Lord said to him, “No, your servant will
not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own
who will be your heir.” 5 Then the Lord took Abram
outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and
count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”
6 And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord
counted him as righteous because of his faith.
7 Then the Lord told him, “I am the Lord who
brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you
this land as your possession.”
8 But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, how can I
be sure that I will actually possess it?”
9 The Lord told him, “Bring me a three-year-old
heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old
ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 So Abram
presented all these to him and killed them. Then he
cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves
side by side; he did not, however, cut the birds in half.
11 Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses,
but Abram chased them away.
24
12 As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a
deep sleep, and a terrifying darkness came down
over him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “You can
be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a
foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves
for 400 years. 14 But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with
great wealth. 15 (As for you, you will die in peace and
be buried at a ripe old age.) 16After four generations
your descendants will return here to this land, for
the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their
destruction.”
17After the sun went down and darkness fell,
Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch
pass between the halves of the carcasses. 18 So the
Lord made a covenant with Abram that day and
said, “I have given this land to your descendants,
all the way from the border of Egypt* to the great
Euphrates River—19 the land now occupied by the
Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites,
Rephaites, 21Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and
Jebusites.”
The Birth of Ishmael
16
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able
to bear children for him. But she had an
Egyptian servant named Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to
Abram, “The Lord has prevented me from having
children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I
can have children through her.” And Abram agreed
with Sarai’s proposal. 3 So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took
Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram
as a wife. (This happened ten years after Abram had
settled in the land of Canaan.)
4 So Abram had sexual relations with Hagar, and
she became pregnant. But when Hagar knew she
was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress, Sarai,
with contempt. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “This is all
your fault! I put my servant into your arms, but now
that she’s pregnant she treats me with contempt. The
Lord will show who’s wrong—you or me!”
6Abram replied, “Look, she is your servant, so deal
with her as you see fit.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so
harshly that she finally ran away.
15:18 Hebrew the river of Egypt, referring either to an eastern branch of the Nile River or to the Brook of Egypt in the Sinai
(see Num 34:5).
15:1-6 Abram and Sarai’s infertility was a source of consternation because it cast doubt on God’s promise of many descendants. Abram freely expressed his doubts to God, and God
reaffirmed the promise.
15:7-21 With a solemn ceremony, God made a binding
covenant with Abram that guaranteed the fulfillment of his
promises. Normally, in such a ceremony both parties would
walk between the cut animals to symbolize the severity of the
oath, staking their lives on their mutual commitment. However, Abram merely observed as a torch and firepot passed
through the pieces, indicating God’s unilateral commitment.
The flame and smoke may have anticipated the pillars of
fire and cloud that would lead Israel out of Egypt (Exodus
13:21-22).
16:1-3 Infertility is always painful, but in the case of Abram
and Sarai, the lack of a child presented a theological crisis as
God had promised Abram a son (15:1-6). Sarai resorted to the
customary Mesopotamian strategy for dealing with childlessness by offering her servant to her husband as a surrogate. The
child would be Abram’s official heir.
16:4-6 After Hagar conceived, tension arose with Sarai. Hagar’s
air of superiority provoked mistreatment from Sarai. Ironically,
Sarai’s mistreatment of her Egyptian servant anticipated the
Egyptians’ mistreatment of Sarai’s descendants (Exodus 1:11-12).
