DaySpring Hope & Encouragement Bible - Flipbook - Page 47
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G enesis 23
to kill his son as a sacrifice. 11 At that moment the angel of the Lord called to
him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Yes,” Abraham replied. “Here I am!”
12 “Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any
way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from
me even your son, your only son.”
13 Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket.
So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son.
14 Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain
of the Lord it will be provided.”
15 Then the angel of the Lord called again to Abra
ham from heaven.
16 “This is what the Lord says: Because you have obeyed me and have not
withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by my own name that 17 I
will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants* beyond number,
like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will
conquer the cities of their enemies. 18 And through your descendants all the
nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.”
19 Then they returned to the servants and traveled back to Be
ersheba,
where Abraham continued to live.
20 Soon after this, Abraham heard that Milcah, his brother Nahor’s wife,
had borne Nahor eight sons. 21 The oldest was named Uz, the next oldest
was Buz, followed by Kemuel (the ancestor of the Arameans), 22 Kesed, Hazo,
Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel. 23 (Bethuel became the father of Rebekah.) In
addition to these eight sons from Milcah, 24 Nahor had four other children
from his concubine Reumah. Their names were Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and
Maacah.
The Burial of Sarah
When Sarah was 127 years old, 2 she died at Kiriath-arba (now called
Hebron) in the land of Canaan. There Abraham mourned and wept
for her.
3 Then, leaving her body, he said to the Hit
tite elders, 4 “Here I am, a
stranger and a foreigner among you. Please sell me a piece of land so I can
give my wife a proper burial.”
5 The Hittites replied to Abraham, 6 “Listen, my lord, you are an honored
prince among us. Choose the finest of our tombs and bury her there. No one
here will refuse to help you in this way.”
7 Then Abraham bowed low before the Hittites 8 and said, “Since you are
willing to help me in this way, be so kind as to ask Ephron son of Zohar 9 to
let me buy his cave at Machpelah, down at the end of his field. I will pay
the full price in the presence of witnesses, so I will have a permanent burial
place for my family.”
10 Ephron was sitting there among the others, and he answered Abraham
as the others listened, speaking publicly before all the Hittite elders of the
town. 11 “No, my lord,” he said to Abraham, “please listen to me. I will give
you the field and the cave. Here in the presence of my people, I give it to you.
Go and bury your dead.”
12 Abra
ham again bowed low before the citizens of the land, 13 and he
23
22:17 Hebrew seed; also in 22:17b, 18.
