Didn’t he tell me, ‘She is my sister?’ She, even she herself, said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands have I done this.”
God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also withheld you from sinning against me. Therefore I didn’t allow you to touch her.
Now therefore, restore the man’s wife. For he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. If you don’t restore her, know for sure that you will die, you, and all who are yours.”
Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ear. The men were very scared.
Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said to him, “What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done deeds to me that ought not to be done!”
Abraham said, “Because I thought, ‘Surely the fear of God is not in this place. They will kill me for my wife’s sake.’
Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.
It happened, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, ‘This is your kindness which you shall show to me. Everywhere that we go, say of me, “He is my brother.”‘”
Abimelech took sheep and cattle, male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and restored Sarah, his wife, to him.
To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. Behold, it is for you a covering of the eyes to all that are with you. In front of all you are vindicated.”
Abraham prayed to God. God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his female servants, and they bore children.
For Yahweh had closed up tight all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.
Abraham circumcised his son, Isaac, when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.
She said, “Who would have said to Abraham, that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.”
The child grew, and was weaned. Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.
Therefore she said to Abraham, “Cast out this handmaid and her son! For the son of this handmaid will not be heir with my son, Isaac.”
God said to Abraham, “Don’t let it be grievous in your sight because of the boy, and because of your handmaid. In all that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice. For from Isaac will your seed be called.
Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread and a bottle of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder; and gave her the child, and sent her away. She departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.
She went and sat down opposite him, a good way off, about a bow shot away. For she said, “Don’t let me see the death of the child.” She sat over against him, and lifted up her voice, and wept.
God heard the voice of the boy. The angel of God called to Hagar out of the sky, and said to her, “What ails you, Hagar? Don’t be afraid. For God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.
Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him in your hand. For I will make him a great nation.”
God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, filled the bottle with water, and gave the boy drink.
God was with the boy, and he grew. He lived in the wilderness, and became, as he grew up, an archer.
He lived in the wilderness of Paran. His mother took a wife for him out of the land of Egypt.
It happened at that time, that Abimelech and Phicol the captain of his army spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do.
Now, therefore, swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son’s son. But according to the kindness that I have done to you, you shall do to me, and to the land in which you have lived as a foreigner.”
Abraham complained to Abimelech because of a water well, which Abimelech’s servants had violently taken away.
Abimelech said, “I don’t know who has done this thing. Neither did you tell me, neither did I hear of it, until today.”
Abimelech said to Abraham, “What do these seven ewe lambs which you have set by themselves mean?”
He said, “You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, that it may be a witness to me, that I have dug this well.”
So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Abimelech rose up with Phicol, the captain of his army, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.
Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and called there on the name of Yahweh, the Everlasting God.
It happened after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” He said, “Here I am.”
He said, “Now take your son, your only son, whom you love, even Isaac, and go into the land of Moriah. Offer him there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of.”
Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. He split the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went to the place of which God had told him.
Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go yonder. We will worship, and come back to you.”
Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. He took in his hand the fire and the knife. They both went together.
Isaac spoke to Abraham his father, and said, “My father?” He said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”
Abraham said, “God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they both went together.
They came to the place which God had told him of. Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, on the wood.
The angel of Yahweh called to him out of the sky, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” He said, “Here I am.”
He said, “Don’t lay your hand on the boy, neither do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and saw that behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son.
Abraham called the name of that place Yahweh Will Provide. As it is said to this day, “On Yahweh’s mountain, it will be provided.”
and said, “I have sworn by myself, says Yahweh, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son,
that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your seed greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your seed will possess the gate of his enemies.
In your seed will all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba. Abraham lived at Beersheba.
It happened after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, “Behold, Milcah, she also has borne children to your brother Nahor:
Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother.
Sarah died in Kiriath Arba (the same is Hebron), in the land of Canaan. Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.
“I am a stranger and a foreigner living with you. Give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”
“Hear us, my lord. You are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in the best of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his tomb. Bury your dead.”
Abraham rose up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth.
He talked with them, saying, “If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and entreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar,
that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he has, which is in the end of his field. For the full price let him give it to me among you for a possession of a burying-place.”
Now Ephron was sitting in the middle of the children of Heth. Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the children 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 presence of the children of my people I give it to you. Bury your dead.”
He spoke to Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, “But if you will, please hear me. I will give the price of the field. Take it from me, and I will bury my dead there.”
“My lord, listen to me. What is a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver between me and you? Therefore bury your dead.”
Abraham listened to Ephron. Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named in the audience of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, according to the current merchants’ standard.
So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, the cave which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all of its borders, were deeded
to Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city.
After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre (that is, Hebron), in the land of Canaan.
The field, and the cave that is in it, were deeded to Abraham for a possession of a burying place by the children of Heth.
Abraham said to his servant, the elder of his house, who ruled over all that he had, “Please put your hand under my thigh.
I will make you swear by Yahweh, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live.
But you shall go to my country, and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac.”
The servant said to him, “What if the woman isn’t willing to follow me to this land? Must I bring your son again to the land you came from?”
Yahweh, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house, and from the land of my birth, who spoke to me, and who swore to me, saying, ‘I will give this land to your seed.’ He will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there.
If the woman isn’t willing to follow you, then you shall be clear from this my oath. Only you shall not bring my son there again.”
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