The Call of Abram

12 Now ^(A)the Lord said^[a] to Abram, “Go from your country^[b] and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. ^2 (B)And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ^3 (C)I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and ^(D)in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”^[c]

God's Covenant with Abram

15 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ^(A)“Fear not, Abram, I am ^(B)your shield; your reward shall be very great.” ² But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue^[a] childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” ³ And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and ^(C)a member of my household will be my heir.” ⁴ And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; ^(D)your very own son^[b] shall be your heir.” ⁵ And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and ^(E)number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, ^(F)“So shall your offspring be.” ⁶ And ^(G)he believed the Lord, and ^(H)he counted it to him as righteousness.

⁷ And he said to him, “I am the Lord who ^(I)brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans ^(J)to give you this land to possess.” ⁸ But he said, “O Lord God, ^(K)how am I to know that I shall possess it?” ⁹ He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” ¹⁰ And he brought him all these, ^(L)cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But ^(M)he did not cut the birds in half. ¹¹ And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

¹² As the sun was going down, a ^(N)deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. ¹³ Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain ^(O)that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and ^(P)they will be afflicted for ^(Q)four hundred years. ¹⁴ But ^(R)I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward ^(S)they shall come out with great possessions. ¹⁵ As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; ^(T)you shall be buried in a good old age. ¹⁶ And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for ^(U)the iniquity of the Amorites ^(V)is not yet complete.”

¹⁷ When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. ¹⁸ On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ^(W)“To your offspring I give^[c] this land, from ^(X)the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, ¹⁹ the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰ the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,

Abraham and the Covenant of Circumcision

17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty;^[a] walk before me, and be ^(A)blameless, ² that I may make my covenant between me and you, and ^(B)may multiply you greatly.” ³ Then Abram ^(C)fell on his face. And God said to him, ⁴ “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be ^(D)the father of a multitude of nations. ⁵ No longer shall your name be called Abram,^[b] but ^(E)your name shall be Abraham,^{[c] (F)}for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. ⁶ I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make ^(G)you into nations, and ^(H)kings shall come from you. ⁷ And I will ^(I)establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, ^(J)to be God to you and to your offspring after you. ⁸ And ^(K)I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and ^(L)I will be their God.”

⁹ And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. ¹⁰ This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. ¹¹ You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a ^(M)sign of the covenant between me and you. ¹² He who is ^(N)eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or ^(O)bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, ¹³ both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. ¹⁴ Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

Isaac's Birth Promised

¹⁵ And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah^[d] shall be her name. ¹⁶ I will bless her, and moreover, I will ^(P)give^[e] you a son by her. I will bless her, and ^(Q)she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” ¹⁷ Then Abraham ^(R)fell on his face ^(S)and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” ¹⁸ And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” ¹⁹ God said, “No, but ^(T)Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name ^(U)Isaac.^[f] I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. ²⁰ As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and ^(V)multiply him greatly. He ^(W)shall father twelve princes, and ^(X)I will make him into a great nation. ²¹ But ^(Y)I will establish my covenant with Isaac, ^(Z)whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.”

²² When he had finished talking with him, ^(AA)God went up from Abraham. ²³ Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him. ²⁴ Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. ²⁵ And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. ²⁶ That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised. ²⁷ And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

⁶ “For ^(A)you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be ^(B)a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. ⁷ It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, ⁸ but ^(C)it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping ^(D)the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.