Daily Bible Reading, Day 6 (Genesis 20-23)

Abraham’s Deception in Gerar and God’s Protection of Sarah

Genesis, chapter 20. And Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the Negev, and settled between Kadesh and Shur. Then he sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister.

So Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, Behold, you are a dead man, because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is married.

Now Abimelech had not come near her. Then he said, Lord, will you kill a nation, even though righteous? Did he not himself say to me, She is my sister? And she herself also said, He is my brother. In the integrity of my heart, and the innocence of my hands, I have done this.

Then God said to him in the dream, Indeed, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this. And I also held you back from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. So now return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you.

Will live.

But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours. So Abimelech arose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their hearing, and the men were greatly afraid.

Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great.

Sin?

You have done to me things that ought not to be done. And Abimelech said to Abraham, What have you seen, that you have done this thing? And Abraham said, Because I said, Surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.

Besides, she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. And it happened when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said to her, This is the lovingkindness which you will show to me.

Everywhere we go, say of me, He is my brother. Abimelech then took sheep and oxen, and male and female slaves, and gave them to Abraham, and returned his wife Sarah to him. And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before you, settle wherever it is good in your sight.

To Sarah he said, Behold, I have given your brother one thousand pieces of silver. Behold, it is your vindication before all who are with you, and before all you are cleared. And Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maidservants, so that they bore children.

The Birth of Isaac and the Casting Out of Hagar and Ishmael

For Yahweh had utterly shut all the wombs of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. Genesis chapter 21. Now Yahweh visited Sarah as he had said, and Yahweh did for Sarah as he had promised.

So Sarah conceived, and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac.

Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, God has made laughter for me, everyone who hears will laugh with me.

And she said, Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age. And the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing in jest. Therefore she said to Abraham, Drive out this maidservant and her son. The son of this maidservant shall not be an heir with my son, with Isaac.

And the matter distressed Abraham greatly because of his son. So God said to Abraham, Do not be distressed because of the boy and your maidservant. Whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her voice, for through Isaac your seed shall be named.

And of the son of the maidservant I will make a nation also, because he is your seed. So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the child, and sent her away.

So she went and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba. When the water in the skin was finished, she put the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him, about a bow shot away, for she said, Do not let me see when the child dies.

And she sat opposite him and lifted up her voice and wept. Then God heard the voice of the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, What is the matter with you, Hagar?

Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Arise, lift up the boy, and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him. Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water, and she went and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.

And God was with the boy, and he grew, and he lived in the wilderness and was an archer, and he lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. Now it happened at that time that Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, God is with you in all that you do, so now swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my posterity, but according to the lovingkindness that I have shown you, you shall show me and the land in which you have sojourned.

And Abraham said, I swear it. But Abraham reproved Abimelech about the well of water which the servants of Abimelech had seized. And Abimelech said, I do not know who has done this thing. You did not tell me, nor did I hear of it until today.

So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them cut a covenant. Then Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. And Abimelech said to Abraham, What do these seven ewe lambs mean, which you have set by themselves?

He said, You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, so that it may be a witness to me that I dug this well. Therefore he called that place Beersheba, because there the two of them swore an oath.

So they cut a covenant at Beersheba, and Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, arose and returned to the land of the Philistines. And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there he called upon the name of Yahweh, the everlasting God.

The Offering of Isaac on Mount Moriah

And Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines for many days. Genesis chapter 22. Now it happened after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, Abraham. And he said, Here I am. Then he said, Take now your son, your only one, whom you love, Isaac, and go forth to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering, on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.

So Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. And he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place from a distance. And Abraham said to his young men, Stay here with the donkey, while I and the boy go over there, and we will worship, and we will return to you.

Then Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and put it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Then Isaac spoke to Abraham his father, and said, My father?

And he said, Here I am, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.

So the two of them walked on together. Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built the altar there, and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac, and put him on the altar, on top of the wood.

And Abraham stretched out his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of Yahweh called to him from heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Here I am. And he said, Do not stretch out your hand against the boy, and do nothing to him.

For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son,.

From me.

Then Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw. And behold, there was a ram after it had been caught in the thicket by its horns. And Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.

And Abraham called the name of that place, Yahweh will provide, as it is said this day, in the mount of Yahweh it will be provided. Then the angel of Yahweh called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, By myself I have sworn, declares Yahweh, because you have done this thing, and have not spared your son, your only one.

Indeed, I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is on the seashore, and your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have listened to my voice.

So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and walked together to Beersheba, and Abraham lived at Beersheba. Now it happened after these things, that it was told to Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah has also born children to your brother Nahor, Uz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram, and Kesed and Hazo and Pildash, and Jidlath and Bethuel.

Sarah’s Death and Abraham’s Purchase of Machpelah

And Bethuel was the father of Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham's brother. And his concubine, whose name was Rehuma, also bore Teba and Gaham, and Tehash and Maokah. And Sarah lived one hundred and twenty-seven years.

These were the years of the life of Sarah. Sarah died in Keriath Arba, that is, Hebron, in the land of Canaan, and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. Then Abraham rose from before his dead, and spoke to the sons of Heth, saying, I am a sojourner and a foreign resident among you.

Give me a possession for a burial site among you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. And the sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, Hear us, my lord, you are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our burial sites.

None of us will refuse you his burial sites for burying your dead. So Abraham rose and bowed to the people of the land, the sons of Heth, and he spoke with them, saying, If it is your desire for me to bury my dead out of my sight, hear me and meet with Ephron the son of Zohar for me, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which belongs to him, which is at the end of his field.

For the full price, let him give it to me in your presence as a possession for a burial site. Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth, and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the sons of Heth, even of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying, No, my lord, hear me.

I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the sight of the sons of my people, I give it to you. Bury your dead. And Abraham bowed before the people of the land, and he spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, If you will only please hear me, I will give the silver for the field.

Accept it from me that I may bury my dead there. Then Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, My lord, hear me. A piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between me and you? So bury your dead.

So Abraham heard Ephron, and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver which he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, commercial standard. So Ephron's field, which was in Machpelah, which faced Mamre, the field and the cave which was in it, and all the trees which were in the field that were within the confines of its border, were deeded over to Abraham, as purchased in the sight of the sons of Heth before all who came in at the gate of his city.

After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field at Machpelah, facing Mamre, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan. So the field and the cave that is in it were deeded over to Abraham for a possession, for a burial site by the sons of Heth.