1 Abraham advanced from there into the southern land, and he lived between Kadesh and Shur. And he sojourned in Gerar.
2 And he said about his wife Sarah: “She is my sister.” Therefore, Abimelech, the king of Gerar, sent for her and took her.
3 Then God came to Abimelech through a dream in the night, and he said to him: “Lo, you shall die because of the woman that you have taken. For she has a husband.”
4 In truth, Abimelech had not touched her, and so he said: “Lord, would you put to death a people, ignorant and just?
5 Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister,’ and did she not say, ‘He is my brother?’ In the sincerity of my heart and the purity of my hands, I have done this.”
6 And God said to him: “And I know that you have acted with a sincere heart. And therefore I kept you from sinning against me, and I did not release you to touch her.
7 Now therefore, return his wife to the man, for he is a prophet. And he will pray for you, and you will live. But if you are not willing to return her, know this: you shall die a death, you and all that is yours.”
8 And immediately Abimelech, rising up in the night, called all his servants. And he spoke all these words in their hearing, and all the men were very afraid.
9 Then Abimelech called also for Abraham, and he said to him: “What have you done to us? How have we sinned against you, so that you would bring so great a sin upon me and upon my kingdom? You have done to us what you ought not to have done.”
10 And remonstrating him again, he said, “What did you see, so that you would do this?”
11 Abraham responded: “I thought to myself, saying: Perhaps there is no fear of God in this place. And they will put me to death because of my wife.
12 Yet, in another way, she is also truly my sister, the daughter of my father, and not the daughter of my mother, and I took her as a wife.
13 Then, after God led me out of my father’s house, I said to her: ‘You will show this mercy to me. In every place, to which we will travel, you will say that I am your brother.’ “
14 Therefore, Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and men servants and women servants, and he gave them to Abraham. And he returned his wife Sarah to him.
15 And he said, “The land is in your sight. Dwell wherever it will please you.”
16 Then to Sarah he said: “Behold, I have given your brother one thousand silver coins. This will be for you as a veil for your eyes, to all who are with you and wherever you will travel. And so, remember that you were taken.”
17 Then when Abraham prayed, God healed Abimelech and his wife, and his handmaids, and they gave birth.
18 For the Lord had closed every womb of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah, the wife of Abraham.
1 Then the Lord visited Sarah, just as he had promised; and he fulfilled what he had spoken.
2 And she conceived and gave birth to a son in her old age, at the time that God had foretold to her.
3 And Abraham called the name of his son, whom Sarah bore for him, Isaac.
4 And he circumcised him on the eighth day, just as God had instructed him,
5 when he was one hundred years old. Indeed, at this stage of his father’s life, Isaac was born.
6 And Sarah said: “God has brought laughter to me. Whoever will hear of it will laugh with me.”
7 And again, she said: “Hearing this, who would believe Abraham, that Sarah breast-fed a son, to whom she gave birth, despite being elderly?”
8 And the boy grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day of his weaning.
9 And when Sarah had seen the son of Hagar the Egyptian playing with her son Isaac, she said to Abraham:
10 Cast out this woman servant and her son. For the son of a woman servant will not be heir with my son Isaac.
11 Abraham took this grievously, for the sake of his son.
12 And God said to him: “Let it not seem harsh to you concerning the boy and your woman servant. In all that Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice. For your offspring will be invoked in Isaac.
13 Yet I will also make the son of the woman servant into a great nation, for he is your offspring.”
14 And so Abraham arose in the morning, and taking bread and a skin of water, he placed it upon her shoulder, and he handed over the boy, and he released her. And when she had departed, she wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.
15 And when the water in the skin had been consumed, she set aside the boy, under one of the trees that were there.
16 And she moved away and sat in a distant area, as far as a bow can reach. For she said, “I shall not see the boy die.” And so, sitting opposite her, he lifted up his voice and wept.
17 But God heard the voice of the boy. And an Angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, saying: “What are you doing, Hagar? Do not be afraid. For God has heeded the voice of the boy, from the place where he is.
18 Rise up. Take the boy and hold him by the hand. For I will make of him a great nation.”
19 And God opened her eyes. And seeing a well of water, she went and filled the skin, and she gave the boy to drink.
20 And God was with him. And he grew, and he stayed in the wilderness, and he became a young man, an archer.
21 And he lived in the desert of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
22 At the same time, Abimelech and Phicol, the leader of his army, said to Abraham: “God is with you in everything that you do.
23 Therefore, swear by God that you will do no harm to me, and to my posterity, and to my stock. But according to the mercy that I have done to you, you will do to me and to the land, to which you have turned as a newcomer.”
24 And Abraham said, “I will swear.”
25 And he reproved Abimelech because of a well of water, which his servants had taken away by force.
26 And Abimelech responded, “I do not know who did this thing, but you also did not reveal it to me, nor have I heard of it, before today.”
27 And so Abraham took sheep and oxen, and he gave them to Abimelech. And both of them struck a pact.
28 And Abraham set aside seven female lambs from the flock.
29 Abimelech said to him, “What purpose have these seven female lambs, which you have caused to stand separately?”
30 But he said, “You will receive seven female lambs from my hand, so that they may be a testimony for me, that I dug this well.”
31 For this reason, that place was called Beersheba, because there both of them did swear.
32 And they initiated a pact on behalf of the well of oath.
33 Then Abimelech and Phicol, the leader of his army, rose up, and they returned to the land of the Palestinians. In truth, Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and there he called upon the name of the Lord God Eternal.
34 And he was a settler in the land of the Palestinians for many days.
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1 Woe to those who make unfair laws, and who, when writing, write injustice:
2 in order to oppress the poor in judgment, and to do violence to the case of the humble of my people, in order that widows may be their prey, and that they might plunder the orphan.
3 What will you do on the day of visitation and calamity which is approaching from afar? To whom will you flee for assistance? And where will you leave behind your own glory,
4 so that you may not be bowed down under the chains, and fall with the slain? Concerning all this, his fury was not turned away; instead, his hand was still extended.
5 Woe to Assur! He is the rod and the staff of my fury, and my indignation is in their hands.
6 I will send him to a deceitful nation, and I will order him against the people of my fury, so that he may take away the plunder, and tear apart the prey, and place it to be trampled like the mud of the streets.
7 But he will not consider it to be so, and his heart will not suppose it to be this way. Instead, his heart will be set to crush and to exterminate more than a few nations.
8 For he will say:
9 Are not my princes like many kings? Is not Calno like Carchemish, and Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?
10 In the same manner as my hand reached the kingdoms of the idol, so also will it reach their false images, those of Jerusalem and of Samaria.
11 Should I not do to Jerusalem and her false images, just as I have done to Samaria and her idols?”
12 And this shall be: when the Lord will have completed each of his works on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I will act against the fruit of the exalted heart of king Assur, and against the glory of the haughtiness of his eyes.
13 For he has said: “I have acted with the strength of my own hand, and I have understood with my own wisdom, and I have removed the limits of the people, and I have plundered their leaders, and, like one with power, I have pulled down those residing on high.
14 And my hand has reached to the strength of the people, as to a nest. And, just as the eggs which have been left behind are gathered, so have I gathered the entire earth. And there was no one who moved a wing, or opened a mouth, or uttered a snarl.”
15 Should the axe glorify itself over him who wields it? Or can the saw exalt itself over him who pulls it? How can a rod lift itself up against him who wields it, or a staff exalt itself, though it is only wood?
16 Because of this, the sovereign Lord, the Lord of hosts, will send leanness among his fat ones. And under the influence of his glory, a burning ardor will rage, like a consuming fire.
17 And the light of Israel will be like a fire, and the Holy One of Israel will be like a flame. And his thorns and briers will be set ablaze and devoured, in one day.
18 And the glory of his forest and of his beautiful hill will be consumed, from the soul even to the flesh. And he will flee away in terror.
19 And what remain of the trees of his forest will be so few, and so easily numbered, that even a child could write them down.
20 And this shall be in that day: those not added to the remnant of Israel, and those who escape of the house of Jacob, will not lean upon him who strikes them. Instead, they will lean upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21 The remnant of Jacob, again I say the remnant, will be converted to the mighty God.
22 For though your people, O Israel, will be like the sand of the sea, yet only a remnant of them will be converted. The consummation, having been shortened, will be inundated with justice.
23 For the Lord, the God of hosts, will accomplish an abbreviation and a consummation, in the midst of all the earth.
24 For this reason, the Lord, the God of hosts, says this: “My people, who inhabit Zion: do not be afraid of Assur. He will strike you with his rod, and he will lift up his staff over you, on the way of Egypt.
25 But after a little while and a brief time, my indignation will be consumed, and my fury will turn to their wickedness.”
26 And the Lord of hosts will raise up a scourge over him, like the scourge of Midian at the rock of Oreb, and he will raise up his rod over the sea, and he will lift it up against the way of Egypt.
27 And this shall be in that day: his burden will be taken away from your shoulder, and his yoke will be taken away from your neck, and the yoke will decay at the appearance of the oil.
28 He will approach Aiath; he will cross into Migron; he will entrust his vessels to Michmash.
29 They have passed through in haste; Geba is our seat; Ramah was stupefied; Gibeah of Saul fled.
30 Neigh with your voice, daughter of Gallim; pay attention, Laishah, impoverished woman of Anathoth.
31 Madmenah has moved away; be strengthened, you inhabitants of Gebim.
32 It is still daylight, so stand at Nob. He will shake his hand against the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33 Behold, the sovereign Lord of hosts will crush the little bottle of wine with terror, and the exalted in stature will be cut down, and the lofty will be brought low.
34 And the dense forest will be overturned with iron. And Lebanon, with its exalted ones, will fall.
11 Just is my help from the Lord, who saves the upright of heart.
12 God is a just judge, strong and patient. How could he be angry throughout every day?
13 Unless you will be converted, he will brandish his sword. He has extended his bow and made it ready.
14 And with it, he has prepared instruments of death. He has produced his arrows for those on fire.
15 Behold him who has given birth to injustice: he has conceived sorrow and has begotten iniquity.
16 He has opened a pit and enlarged it. And he has fallen into the hole that he made.
17 His sorrow will be turned upon his own head, and his iniquity will descend upon his highest point.
18 I will confess to the Lord according to his justice, and I will sing a psalm to the name of the Lord Most High.
18 Then Jesus, seeing the great crowds encircling him, gave orders to go across the sea.
19 And one scribe, approaching, said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you will go.”
20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have dens, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to rest his head.”
21 Then another of his disciples said to him, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”
22 But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and allow the dead to bury their dead.”
23 And climbing into a boat, his disciples followed him.
24 And behold, a great tempest occurred in the sea, so much so that the boat was covered with waves; yet truly, he was sleeping.
25 And his disciples drew near to him, and they awakened him, saying: “Lord, save us, we are perishing.”
26 And Jesus said to them, “Why are you afraid, O little in faith?” Then rising up, he commanded the winds, and the sea. And a great tranquility occurred.
27 Moreover, the men wondered, saying: “What kind of man is this? For even the winds and the sea obey him.”
28 And when he had arrived across the sea, into the region of the Gerasenes, he was met by two who had demons, who were so exceedingly savage, as they went out from among the tombs, that no one was able to cross by that way.
29 And behold, they cried out, saying: “What are we to you, O Jesus, the Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?”
30 Now there was, not far from them, a herd of many swine feeding.
31 Then the demons petitioned him, saying: “If you cast us from here, send us into the herd of swine.”
32 And he said to them, “Go.” And they, going out, went into the swine. And behold, the entire herd suddenly rushed along a steep place into the sea. And they died in the waters.
33 Then the shepherds fled, and arriving in the city, they reported on all this, and on those who had had the demons.
34 And behold, the entire city went out to meet Jesus. And having seen him, they petitioned him, so that he would cross from their borders.
