NLT One Year Bible - Flipbook - Page 25
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chased them as far as Hobah, north of
Damascus. 16Abram recovered all the
goods that had been taken, and he
brought back his nephew Lot with his
possessions and all the women and other
captives.
17After Abram returned from his victory over Kedorlaomer and all his allies,
the king of Sodom went out to meet him
in the valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s
Valley).
18And Melchizedek, the king of Salem and a priest of God Most High,*
brought Abram some bread and wine.
19Melchizedek blessed Abram with this
blessing:
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Creator of heaven and earth.
20 And blessed be God Most High,
who has defeated your enemies
for you.”
Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth
of all the goods he had recovered.
21The king of Sodom said to Abram,
“Give back my 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, 23 that
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.”
15:1Some 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.”
J A N U A R Y
6
4Then 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!”
6And 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 threeyear-old heifer, a three-year-old female
goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove,
and a young pigeon.” 10So 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.
11Some vultures swooped down to eat
the carcasses, but Abram chased them
away.
12As 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. 14But 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. 18So 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
