Gen 12:1-3, 15:5-21, 17:1-16, 18:10, 21:1-2 | ESV | STEP | Now the Lord said to Abram , Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.

Genesis 12:1-3

The Call of Abram

1 Now ^athe Lord said ^{▼▼Or had said} to Abram, “Go from your country ^{▼▼Or land} and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 ^dAnd 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 ^eI will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and ^fin you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” ^{▼▼Or by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves}

Genesis 15:5-21

5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and ^hnumber the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, ⁱ“So shall your offspring be.” 6 And ^jhe believed the Lord, and ^khe counted it to him as righteousness.

7 And he said to him, “I am the Lord who ^lbrought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans ^mto give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord God, ⁿhow 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, ^ocut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But ^phe 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 ^qdeep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain ^rthat your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and ^sthey will be afflicted for ^tfour hundred years. 14 But ^uI will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward ^vthey shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; ^wyou shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for ^xthe iniquity of the Amorites ^yis 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, ^z“To your offspring I give ^{▼▼Or have given} this land, from ^abthe 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, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

Genesis 17:1-16

Abraham and the Covenant of Circumcision

1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; ^{▼▼Hebrew El Shaddai} walk before me, and be ^adblameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and ^aemay multiply you greatly.” 3 Then Abram ^affell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be ^agthe father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, ^{▼▼ Abram means exalted father} but ^aiyour name shall be Abraham, ^{▼▼ Abraham means father of a multitude} ^akfor I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make ^alyou into nations, and ^amkings shall come from you. 7 And I will ^anestablish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, ^aoto be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And ^apI 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 ^aqI 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 ^arsign of the covenant between me and you. 12 He who is ^aseight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or ^atbought 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 ^{▼▼ Sarai and Sarah mean princess} shall be her name. 16 I will bless her, and moreover, I will ^avgive ^{▼▼Hebrew have given} you a son by her. I will bless her, and ^axshe shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”

Genesis 18:10

10 The Lord said, “I will surely return to you ^ayabout this time next year, and ^azSarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him.

Genesis 21:1-2

The Birth of Isaac

1 The Lord ^bavisited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah ^bbas he had promised. 2 And Sarah ^bcconceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age ^bdat the time of which God had spoken to him.