God’s Covenant with Abraham

God’s Covenant with Abraham. 

Genesis 15:1-18, 17:1-19

Bible Stories

 

Genesis 15:1 And so, these things having been transacted, the word of the Lord came to Abram by a vision, saying: “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your protector, and your reward is exceedingly great.”

Genesis 15:2 And Abram said: “Lord God, what will you give to me? I may go without children. And the son of the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus.”

Genesis 15:3 And Abram added: “Yet to me you have not given offspring. And behold, my servant born in my house will be my heir.”

Genesis 15:4 And immediately the word of the Lord came to him, saying: “This one will not be your heir. But he who will come from your loins, the same will you have for your heir.”

Genesis 15:5 And he brought him outside, and he said to him, “Take in the heavens, and number the stars, if you can.” And he said to him, “So also will your offspring be.”

Genesis 15:6 Abram believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice.

Genesis 15:7 And he said to him, “I am the Lord who led you away from Ur of the Chaldeans, so as to give you this land, and so that you would possess it.”

Genesis 15:8 But he said, “Lord God, in what way may I be able to know that I will possess it?”

Genesis 15:9 And the Lord responded by saying: “Take for me a cow of three years, and a she-goat of three years, and a ram of three years, also a turtle-dove and a pigeon.”

Genesis 15:10 Taking all these, he divided them through the middle, and placed both parts opposite one another. But the birds he did not divide.

Genesis 15:11 And birds descended upon the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.

Genesis 15:12 And when the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a dread, great and dark, invaded him. Genesis 15:13 And it was said to him: “Know beforehand that your future offspring will be sojourners in a land not their own, and they will subjugate them in servitude and afflict them for four hundred years.

Genesis 15:14 Yet truly, I will judge the nation that they will serve, and after this they will depart with great substance.

Genesis 15:15 But you will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age.

Genesis 15:16 But in the fourth generation, they will return here. For the iniquities of the Amorites are not yet completed, even to this present time.”

Genesis 15:17 Then, when the sun had set, there came a dark mist, and there appeared a smoking furnace and a lamp of fire passing between those divisions.

Genesis 15:18 On that day, God formed a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your offspring I will give this land, from the river of Egypt, even to the great river Euphrates:

Genesis 17:1 In truth, after he began to be ninety-nine years of age, the Lord appeared to him. And he said to him: “I am the Almighty God. Walk in my sight and become complete.

Genesis 17:2 And I will set my covenant between me and you. And I will multiply you very exceedingly.”

Genesis 17:3 Abram fell prone on his face.

Genesis 17:4 And God said to him: “I AM, and my covenant is with you, and you will be the father of many nations.

Genesis 17:5 No longer will your name be called Abram. But you will be called Abraham, for I have established you as the father of many nations.

Genesis 17:6 And I will cause you to increase very greatly, and I will set you among the nations, and kings will come forth from you.

Genesis 17:7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you, and with your offspring after you in their generations, by a perpetual covenant: to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

Genesis 17:8 And I will give to you and to your offspring, the land of your sojourn, all the land of Canaan, as an eternal possession, and I will be their God.”

Genesis 17:9 Again God said to Abraham: “And you therefore shall keep my covenant, and your offspring after you in their generations.

Genesis 17:10 This is my covenant, which you shall observe, between me and you, and your offspring after you: All the males among you shall be circumcised.

Genesis 17:11 And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, so that it may be a sign of the covenant between me and you.

Genesis 17:12 An infant of eight days will be circumcised among you, every male in your generations. So also servants born to you, as well as those bought, shall be circumcised, even those who are not of your stock.

Genesis 17:13 And my covenant shall be with your flesh as an eternal covenant.

Genesis 17:14 The male, the flesh of whose foreskin will not be circumcised, that soul shall be eliminated from his people. For he has made my covenant void.”

Genesis 17:15 God said also to Abraham: “Your wife Sarai, you shall not call Sarai, but Sarah.

Genesis 17:16 And I will bless her, and from her I will give you a son, whom I will bless, and he will be among the nations, and the kings of the peoples will rise from him.”

Genesis 17:17 Abraham fell on his face, and he laughed, saying in his heart: “Do you think a son can be born to a one hundred year old man? And will Sarah give birth at the age of ninety?”

Genesis 17:18 And he said to God, “If only Ishmael would live in your sight.”

Genesis 17:19 And God said to Abraham: “Your wife Sarah shall give birth to a son, and you shall call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him as a perpetual covenant, and with his offspring after him.