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G ENESIS 16
page 15
brought back his nephew Lot with his possessions and all the women and other captives.
Melchizedek Blesses Abram
17 After 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).
18 And Melchizedek, the king of Salem and
a priest of God Most High,* brought Abram
some bread and wine. 19 Melchizedek blessed
Abram with this blessing:
20
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Creator of heaven and earth.
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.
21 The 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.”
22 Abram 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.’ 24 I 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
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?”
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14:18 Hebrew El-Elyon; also in 14:19, 20, 22. 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).
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.” 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.
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.) 16 After four generations
your descendants will return here to this land,
for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant
their destruction.”
17 After 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, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”
The Birth of Ishmael
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
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• Faith
G E N E S I S 15:6
As we read the story of Abram, we see
that he made many mistakes. So how
could God call him “righteous”? Though
human and sinful, Abram believed
and trusted in God. It was faith, not
perfection, that made him right in God’s
eyes. This same principle holds for all
of us. Our first response must be to
believe in God. Rather than measuring
our goodness, God is looking at our faith
and our willingness to follow him.