God’s Covenant with Abram – Bible Story

Genesis 12：14-18

And the LORD said to Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now your eyes, and look from the place where you are northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which you see, to you will I give it, and to your seed for ever. And I will make your seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall your seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it to you. Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelled in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar to the LORD.

Genesis 15：1-21

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am your shield, and your exceeding great reward. And Abram said, LORD God, what will you give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me you have given no seed: and, see, one born in my house is my heir. And, behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, This shall not be your heir; but he that shall come forth out of your own bowels shall be your heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if you be able to number them: and he said to him, So shall your seed be. And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness. And he said to him, I am the LORD that brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it.

And he said, LORD God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? And he said to him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. And he took to him all these, and divided them in the middle, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not. And when the fowls came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram; and, see, an horror of great darkness fell on him. And he said to Abram, Know of a surety that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not their’s, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come here again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates: The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

Hagar and Ishmael
(Genesis 16：1-16)

Now Sarai Abram’s wife bore him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, Behold now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing: I pray you, go in to my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelled ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. And Sarai said to Abram, My wrong be on you: I have given my maid into your bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD judge between me and you. But Abram said to Sarai, Behold, your maid is in your hand; do to her as it pleases you. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face.

And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. And he said, Hagar, Sarai’s maid, from where came you? and where will you go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. And the angel of the LORD said to her, Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hands. And the angel of the LORD said to her, I will multiply your seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude. And the angel of the LORD said to her, Behold, you are with child and shall bear a son, and shall call his name Ishmael; because the LORD has heard your affliction. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brothers. And she called the name of the LORD that spoke to her, You God see me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that sees me? Why the well was called Beerlahairoi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered. And Hagar bore Abram a son: and Abram called his son’s name, which Hagar bore, Ishmael. And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.