1 Now Sarai, the wife of Abram, had not conceived children. But, having an Egyptian handmaid named Hagar,
2 she said to her husband: “Behold, the Lord has closed me, lest I give birth. Enter to my handmaid, so that perhaps I may receive sons of her at least.” And when he agreed to her supplication,
3 she took Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid, ten years after they began to live in the land of Canaan, and she gave her to her husband as a wife.
4 And he entered to her. But when she saw that she had conceived, she despised her mistress.
5 And Sarai said to Abram: “You have acted unfairly against me. I gave my handmaid into your bosom, who, when she saw that she had conceived, held me in contempt. May the Lord judge between me and you.”
6 Abram responded to her by saying, “Behold, your handmaid is in your hand to treat as it pleases you.” And so, when Sarai afflicted her, she took flight.
7 And when the Angel of the Lord had found her, near the fountain of water in the wilderness, which is on the way to Shur in the desert,
8 he said to her: “Hagar, handmaid of Sarai, where have you come from? And where will you go?” And she answered, “I flee from the face of Sarai, my mistress.”
9 And the Angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and humble yourself under her hand.”
10 And again he said, “I will multiply your offspring continuously, and they will not be numbered because of their multitude.”
11 But thereafter he said: “Behold, you have conceived, and you will give birth to a son. And you shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction.
12 He will be a wild man. His hand will be against all, and all hands will be against him. And he will pitch his tents away from the region of all his brothers.”
13 Then she called upon the name of the Lord who had spoken to her: “You are the God who has seen me.” For she said, “Certainly, here I have seen the back of the one who sees me.”
14 Because of this, she called that well: ‘The well of the one who lives and who sees me.’ The same is between Kadesh and Bered.
15 And Hagar gave birth to a son for Abram, who called his name Ishmael.
16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael for him.
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.
2 And I will set my covenant between me and you. And I will multiply you very exceedingly.”
3 Abram fell prone on his face.
4 And God said to him: “I AM, and my covenant is with you, and you will be the father of many nations.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
9 Again God said to Abraham: “And you therefore shall keep my covenant, and your offspring after you in their generations.
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.
11 And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, so that it may be a sign of the covenant between me and you.
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.
13 And my covenant shall be with your flesh as an eternal covenant.
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.”
15 God said also to Abraham: “Your wife Sarai, you shall not call Sarai, but Sarah.
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.”
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?”
18 And he said to God, “If only Ishmael would live in your sight.”
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.
20 Likewise, concerning Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I will bless and enlarge him, and I will multiply him greatly. He will produce twelve leaders, and I will make him into a great nation.
21 Yet in truth, I will establish my covenant with Isaac, to whom Sarah will give birth for you at this time next year.”
22 And when he had finished speaking with him, God ascended from Abraham.
23 Then Abraham took his son Ishmael, and all who were born in his house, and all whom he had bought, every male among the men of his house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskin promptly, the very same day, just as God had instructed him.
24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin.
25 And his son Ishmael had completed thirteen years at the time of his circumcision.
26 On the very same day, Abraham was circumcised with his son Ishmael.
27 And all the men of his house, those born in his house, as well as those who were bought, even the foreigners, were circumcised with him.
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1 And the Lord said to me: “Take up for yourself a large book, and with a man’s pen write in it: ‘Take away the spoils quickly; plunder swiftly.’ “
2 And I summoned to myself faithful witnesses: Uriah, the priest, and Zechariah, the son of Berechiah.
3 And I joined with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said to me: “Call his name: ‘Rush to take away the spoils; Hurry to be plundered.’
4 For before the boy knows how to call to his father and his mother, the strength of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria will be taken away, in the sight of the king of the Assyrians.”
5 And the Lord spoke to me further, saying:
6 Because this people has cast aside the waters of Shiloah, which go forth silently, and has instead chosen Rezin and the son of Remaliah,
7 for this reason, behold, the Lord will lead over them the waters of a river, strong and plentiful: the king of the Assyrians with all his glory. And he will rise up throughout all his streams, and he will overflow all his banks.
8 And he will pass through Judah, inundating it, and he will cross over and arrive, even at its neck. And he will extend his wings, filling the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.”
9 O people, gather together, and be conquered! All distant lands, listen! Be strengthened, and be conquered! Gird yourselves, and be conquered!
10 Undertake a plan, and it will be dissipated! Speak a word, and it will not be done! For God is with us.
11 For the Lord said this to me, and he has instructed this to me with a strong hand, lest I go forth in the way of this people, saying:
12 You should not say ‘It is conspiracy!’ For all that this people speaks is a conspiracy. And you should be frightened or alarmed with their fear.
13 Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself. Let him be your dread, and let him be your fear.
14 And so shall he be a sanctification to you. But he will be a stone of offense and a rock of scandal to the two houses of Israel, and a snare and a ruin to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15 And very many of them will stumble and fall, and they will be broken and entangled and seized.
16 Bind the testimony, seal the law, among my disciples.”
17 And I will wait for the Lord, who has concealed his face from the house of Jacob, and I will stand before him.
18 Behold: I and my children, whom the Lord has given to me as a sign and a portent, in Israel, from the Lord of hosts, who lives on Mount Zion.
19 And though they say to you, “Seek from seers and diviners,” they who hiss in their incantations, should not the people seek from their God, for the sake of the living, and not from the dead?
20 And this is, moreover, for the sake of the law and the testimony. But if they do not speak according to this Word, then he will not have the morning light.
21 And he will pass by it; he will fall and become hungry. And when he is hungry, he will become angry, and he will speak evil against his king and his God, and he will lift himself upward.
22 And he will gaze downward to the earth, and behold: tribulation and darkness, dissolution and distress, and a pursuing gloom. For he will not be able to fly away from its distress.
7 I have labored in my groaning. Every night, with my tears, I will wash my bed and drench my blanket.
8 My eye has been troubled by rage. I have grown old among all my enemies.
9 Scatter before me, all you who work iniquity, for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping.
10 The Lord has heard my supplication. The Lord has accepted my prayer.
11 Let all my enemies be ashamed and together be greatly troubled. May they be converted and become ashamed very quickly.
1 A Psalm of David, which he sang to the Lord because of the words of Cush, the son of Jemini.
2 O Lord, my God, in you I have hoped. Save me from all those who persecute me, and free me:
3 lest at any time, like a lion, he might seize my soul, while there is no one to redeem me, nor any who can save.
1 Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.
2 For with whatever judgment you judge, so shall you be judged; and with whatever measure you measure out, so shall it be measured back to you.
3 And how can you see the splinter in your brother’s eye, and not see the board in your own eye?
4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter from your eye,’ while, behold, a board is in your own eye?
5 Hypocrite, first remove the board from your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to remove the board from your brother’s eye.
6 Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not cast your pearls before swine, lest perhaps they may trample them under their feet, and then, turning, they may tear you apart.
7 Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you.
8 For everyone who asks, receives; and whoever seeks, finds; and to anyone who knocks, it will be opened.
9 Or what man is there among you, who, if his son were to ask him for bread, would offer him a stone;
10 or if he were to ask him for a fish, would offer him a snake?
11 Therefore, if you, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your sons, how much more will your Father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him?
12 Therefore, all things whatsoever that you wish that men would do to you, do so also to them. For this is the law and the prophets.
13 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate, and broad is the way, which leads to perdition, and many there are who enter through it.
14 How narrow is the gate, and how straight is the way, which leads to life, and few there are who find it!
15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
16 You shall know them by their fruits. Can grapes be gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles?
17 So then, every good tree produces good fruit, and the evil tree produces evil fruit.
18 A good tree is not able to produce evil fruit, and an evil tree is not able to produce good fruit.
19 Every tree which does not produce good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire.
20 Therefore, by their fruits you will know them.
21 Not all who say to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does the will of my Father, who is in heaven, the same shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and perform many powerful deeds in your name?’
23 And then will I disclose to them: ‘I have never known you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity.’
24 Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and does them shall be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock.
25 And the rains descended, and the floods rose up, and the winds blew, and rushed upon that house, but it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them shall be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand.
27 And the rains descended, and the floods rose up, and the winds blew, and rushed upon that house, and it did fall, and great was its ruin.”
28 And it happened, when Jesus had completed these words, that the crowds were astonished at his doctrine.
29 For he was teaching them as one who has authority, and not like their scribes and Pharisees.
