Faith Tested, Covenants Sealed, Gospel Unbound

1. Abraham traveled from there toward the land of the South, and lived between Kadesh and Shur. He lived as a foreigner in Gerar. 2. Abraham said about Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah. 3. But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man, because of the woman whom you have taken. For she is a man’s wife.” 4. Now Abimelech had not come near her. He said, “Lord, will you kill even a righteous nation? 5. 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 I have done this.” 6. 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. 7. 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.” 8. Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ear. The men were very scared. 9. 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!” 10. Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you have done this thing?” 11. Abraham said, “Because I thought, ‘Surely the fear of God is not in this place. They will kill me for my wife’s sake.’ 12. Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. 13. When God caused me to wander from my father’s house, 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.”’” 14. Abimelech took sheep and cattle, male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and restored Sarah, his wife, to him. 15. Abimelech said, “Behold, my land is before you. Dwell where it pleases you.” 16. 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.” 17. Abraham prayed to God. God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his female servants, and they bore children. 18. For Yahweh had closed up tight all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife. 1. Yahweh visited Sarah as he had said, and Yahweh did to Sarah as he had spoken. 2. Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 3. Abraham called his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac. 4. Abraham circumcised his son, Isaac, when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5. Abraham was one hundred years old when his son, Isaac, was born to him. 6. Sarah said, “God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh with me.” 7. She said, “Who would have said to Abraham, that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.” 8. The child grew, and was weaned. Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 9. Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking. 10. Therefore she said to Abraham, “Cast out this servant and her son! For the son of this servant will not be heir with my son, Isaac.” 11. The thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight on account of his son. 12. God said to Abraham, “Don’t let it be grievous in your sight because of the boy, and because of your servant. In all that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice. For your offspring will be named through Isaac. 13. I will also make a nation of the son of the servant, because he is your child.” 14. 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. 15. The water in the bottle was spent, and she put the child under one of the shrubs. 16. 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. 17. 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. 18. Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him in your hand. For I will make him a great nation.” 19. God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, filled the bottle with water, and gave the boy drink. 20. God was with the boy, and he grew. He lived in the wilderness, and became, as he grew up, an archer. 21. He lived in the wilderness of Paran. His mother took a wife for him out of the land of Egypt. 22. At that time, Abimelech and Phicol the captain of his army spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do. 23. 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.” 24. Abraham said, “I will swear.” 25. Abraham complained to Abimelech because of a water well, which Abimelech’s servants had violently taken away. 26. Abimelech said, “I don’t know who has done this thing. You didn’t tell me, and I didn’t hear of it until today.” 27. Abraham took sheep and cattle, and gave them to Abimelech. Those two made a covenant. 28. Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. 29. Abimelech said to Abraham, “What do these seven ewe lambs which you have set by themselves mean?” 30. 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.” 31. Therefore he called that place Beersheba, because they both swore an oath there. 32. 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. 33. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and called there on the name of Yahweh, the Everlasting God. 34. Abraham lived as a foreigner in the land of the Philistines many days. 1. After these things, God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” He said, “Here I am.” 2. He said, “Now take your son, your only son, whom you love, even Isaac, and go into the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of.” 3. 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. 4. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place far off. 5. 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.” 6. 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. 7. 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?” 8. Abraham said, “God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they both went together. 9. 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. 10. Abraham stretched out his hand, and took the knife to kill his son. 11. Yahweh’s angel called to him out of the sky, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” He said, “Here I am.” 12. He said, “Don’t lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13. 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. 14. 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.” 15. Yahweh’s angel called to Abraham a second time out of the sky, 16. and said, “I have sworn by myself, says Yahweh, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17. that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your offspring greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the gate of his enemies. 18. All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring, because you have obeyed my voice.” 19. So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba. Abraham lived at Beersheba. 20. After these things, Abraham was told, “Behold, Milcah, she also has borne children to your brother Nahor: 21. Uz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram, 22. Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” 23. Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. 24. His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah. 1. Sarah lived one hundred twenty-seven years. This was the length of Sarah’s life. 2. Sarah died in Kiriath Arba (also called Hebron), in the land of Canaan. Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. 3. Abraham rose up from before his dead, and spoke to the children of Heth, saying, 4. “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.” 5. The children of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, 6. “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.” 7. Abraham rose up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth. 8. He talked with them, saying, “If you agree that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and entreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, 9. 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 as a possession for a burial place.” 10. 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, 11. “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.” 12. Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land. 13. 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.” 14. Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, 15. “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.” 16. 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. 17. 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 18. to Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city. 19. 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. 20. The field, and the cave that is in it, were deeded to Abraham by the children of Heth as a possession for a burial place.

1. He came to Derbe and Lystra: and behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewess who believed; but his father was a Greek. 2. The brothers who were at Lystra and Iconium gave a good testimony about him. 3. Paul wanted to have him go out with him, and he took and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts; for they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4. As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered the decrees to them to keep which had been ordained by the apostles and elders who were at Jerusalem. 5. So the assemblies were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily. 6. When they had gone through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7. When they had come opposite Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit didn’t allow them. 8. Passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. 9. A vision appeared to Paul in the night. There was a man of Macedonia standing, begging him, and saying, “Come over into Macedonia and help us.” 10. When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go out to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the Good News to them. 11. Setting sail therefore from Troas, we made a straight course to Samothrace, and the day following to Neapolis; 12. and from there to Philippi, which is a city of Macedonia, the foremost of the district, a Roman colony. We were staying some days in this city. 13. On the Sabbath day we went outside of the city by a riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down, and spoke to the women who had come together. 14. A certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, one who worshiped God, heard us; whose heart the Lord opened to listen to the things which were spoken by Paul. 15. When she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and stay.” So she persuaded us. 16. As we were going to prayer, a certain girl having a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much gain by fortune telling. 17. Following Paul and us, she cried out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us a way of salvation!” 18. She was doing this for many days. But Paul, becoming greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” It came out that very hour. 19. But when her masters saw that the hope of their gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas, and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. 20. When they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men, being Jews, are agitating our city, 21. and advocate customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans.” 22. The multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates tore their clothes from them, and commanded them to be beaten with rods. 23. When they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely, 24. who, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison, and secured their feet in the stocks. 25. But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were loosened. 27. The jailer, being roused out of sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, “Don’t harm yourself, for we are all here!” 29. He called for lights, sprang in, fell down trembling before Paul and Silas, 30. brought them out, and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31. They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32. They spoke the word of the Lord to him, and to all who were in his house. 33. He took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was immediately baptized, he and all his household. 34. He brought them up into his house, and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, with all his household, having believed in God. 35. But when it was day, the magistrates sent the sergeants, saying, “Let those men go.” 36. The jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go; now therefore come out, and go in peace.” 37. But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, without a trial, men who are Romans, and have cast us into prison! Do they now release us secretly? No, most certainly, but let them come themselves and bring us out!” 38. The sergeants reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans, 39. and they came and begged them. When they had brought them out, they asked them to depart from the city. 40. They went out of the prison, and entered into Lydia’s house. When they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them, and departed. 1. Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2. Paul, as was his custom, went in to them, and for three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3. explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” 4. Some of them were persuaded, and joined Paul and Silas, of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and not a few of the chief women. 5. But the unpersuaded Jews took along some wicked men from the marketplace, and gathering a crowd, set the city in an uproar. Assaulting the house of Jason, they sought to bring them out to the people. 6. When they didn’t find them, they dragged Jason and certain brothers before the rulers of the city, crying, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7. whom Jason has received. These all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus!” 8. The multitude and the rulers of the city were troubled when they heard these things. 9. When they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. 10. The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Beroea. When they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11. Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. 12. Many of them therefore believed; also of the prominent Greek women, and not a few men. 13. But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Beroea also, they came there likewise, agitating the multitudes. 14. Then the brothers immediately sent out Paul to go as far as to the sea, and Silas and Timothy still stayed there. 15. But those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens. Receiving a commandment to Silas and Timothy that they should come to him very quickly, they departed. 16. Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols. 17. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who met him. 18. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also were conversing with him. Some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be advocating foreign deities,” because he preached Jesus and the resurrection. 19. They took hold of him, and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is, which is spoken by you? 20. For you bring certain strange things to our ears. We want to know therefore what these things mean.” 21. Now all the Athenians and the strangers living there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing. 22. Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus, and said, “You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all things. 23. For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I announce to you. 24. The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands, 25. neither is he served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things. 26. He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27. that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28. ‘For in him we live, and move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’ 29. Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man. 30. The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent, 31. because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.” 32. Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, “We want to hear you again concerning this.” 33. Thus Paul went out from among them. 34. But certain men joined with him, and believed, among whom also was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. 1. After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth. 2. He found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, who had recently come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. He came to them, 3. and because he practiced the same trade, he lived with them and worked, for by trade they were tent makers. 4. He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded Jews and Greeks. 5. But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. 6. When they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook out his clothing and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles!” 7. He departed there, and went into the house of a certain man named Justus, one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue. 8. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his house. Many of the Corinthians, when they heard, believed and were baptized. 9. The Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, “Don’t be afraid, but speak and don’t be silent; 10. for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many people in this city.” 11. He lived there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. 12. But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat, 13. saying, “This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.” 14. But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If indeed it were a matter of wrong or of wicked crime, you Jews, it would be reasonable that I should bear with you; 15. but if they are questions about words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves. For I don’t want to be a judge of these matters.” 16. So he drove them from the judgment seat. 17. Then all the Greeks laid hold on Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. Gallio didn’t care about any of these things. 18. Paul, having stayed after this many more days, took his leave of the brothers, and sailed from there for Syria, together with Priscilla and Aquila. He shaved his head in Cenchreae, for he had a vow. 19. He came to Ephesus, and he left them there; but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews. 20. When they asked him to stay with them a longer time, he declined; 21. but taking his leave of them, he said, “I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem, but I will return again to you if God wills.” Then he set sail from Ephesus. 22. When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the assembly, and went down to Antioch. 23. Having spent some time there, he departed, and went through the region of Galatia, and Phrygia, in order, establishing all the disciples. 24. Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus. He was mighty in the Scriptures. 25. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, although he knew only the baptism of John. 26. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside, and explained to him the way of God more accurately. 27. When he had determined to pass over into Achaia, the brothers encouraged him, and wrote to the disciples to receive him. When he had come, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace; 28. for he powerfully refuted the Jews, publicly showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

1. Be merciful to me, God, for man wants to swallow me up. All day long, he attacks and oppresses me. 2. My enemies want to swallow me up all day long, for they are many who fight proudly against me. 3. When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you. 4. In God, I praise his word. In God, I put my trust. I will not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? 5. All day long they twist my words. All their thoughts are against me for evil. 6. They conspire and lurk, watching my steps, they are eager to take my life. 7. Shall they escape by iniquity? In anger cast down the peoples, God. 8. You count my wanderings. You put my tears into your bottle. Aren’t they in your book? 9. Then my enemies shall turn back in the day that I call. I know this, that God is for me. 10. In God, I will praise his word. In Yahweh, I will praise his word. 11. I have put my trust in God. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? 12. Your vows are on me, God. I will give thank offerings to you. 13. For you have delivered my soul from death, and prevented my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living.