HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 391
G ENESIS 24
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wood. 10 And Abraham picked up the knife 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 YahwehYireh (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
Abraham 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 Beersheba, 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 Hittite
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
23
22:17 Hebrew seed; also in 22:17b, 18. 23:15 Hebrew
400 shekels, about 10 pounds or 4.6 kilograms in weight;
also in 23:16. 24:7 Hebrew seed; also in 24:60.
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 Abraham again bowed low before the citizens of the land, 13 and he replied to Ephron as
everyone listened. “No, listen to me. I will buy it
from you. Let me pay the full price for the field
so I can bury my dead there.”
14 Ephron answered Abraham, 15 “My lord,
please listen to me. The land is worth 400 pieces*
of silver, but what is that between friends? Go
ahead and bury your dead.”
16 So Abraham agreed to Ephron’s price and
paid the amount he had suggested—400 pieces
of silver, weighed according to the market standard. The Hittite elders witnessed the transaction.
17 So Abraham bought the plot of land belonging to Ephron at Machpelah, near Mamre. This
included the field itself, the cave that was in it,
and all the surrounding trees. 18 It was transferred to Abraham as his permanent possession
in the presence of the Hittite elders at the city
gate. 19 Then Abraham buried his wife, Sarah,
there in Canaan, in the cave of Machpelah, near
Mamre (also called Hebron). 20 So the field and
the cave were transferred from the Hittites to
Abraham for use as a permanent burial place.
A Wife for Isaac
Abraham was now a very old man, and
the Lord had blessed him in every way.
2 One day Abraham said to his oldest servant,
the man in charge of his household, “Take an
oath by putting your hand under my thigh.
3 Swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and
earth, that you will not allow my son to marry
one of these local Canaanite women. 4 Go instead to my homeland, to my relatives, and find
a wife there for my son Isaac.”
5 The servant asked, “But what if I can’t find
a young woman who is willing to travel so far
from home? Should I then take Isaac there to
live among your relatives in the land you came
from?”
6 “No!” Abraham responded. “Be careful
never to take my son there. 7 For the Lord, the
God of heaven, who took me from my father’s
house and my native land, solemnly promised
to give this land to my descendants.* He will
send his angel ahead of you, and he will see to
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