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Today's Bible Reading :: Genesis 19 - 21 (ESV)

Genesis 19Listen to the passage

Genesis 20Listen to the passage

Genesis 21Listen to the passage

Genesis 19

God Rescues Lot

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:1

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:1 - The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:2

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:2 - and said, “My lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way.” They said, “No; we will spend the night in the town square.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:3

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:3 - But he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:4

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:4 - But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:5

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:5 - And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:6

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:6 - Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him,

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:7

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:7 - and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:8

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:8 - Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:9

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:9 - But they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door down.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:10

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:10 - But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:11

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:11 - And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping for the door.
(Mat 11:23, 24; Luk 17:28–32 )

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:12

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:12 - Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:13

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:13 - For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:14

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:14 - So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up! Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:15

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:15 - As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:16

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:16 - But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:17

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:17 - And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:18

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:18 - And Lot said to them, “Oh, no, my lords.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:19

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:19 - Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:20

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:20 - Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there—is it not a little one?—and my life will be saved!”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:21

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:21 - He said to him, “Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:22

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:22 - Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.[fn]

God Destroys Sodom

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:23

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:23 - The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:24

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:24 - Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:25

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:25 - And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:26

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:26 - But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:27

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:27 - And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:28

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:28 - And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:29

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:29 - So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.

Lot and His Daughters

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:30

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:30 - Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:31

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:31 - And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:32

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:32 - Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:33

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:33 - So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:34

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:34 - The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:35

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:35 - So they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:36

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:36 - Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:37

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:37 - The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab.[fn] He is the father of the Moabites to this day.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 19:38

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 19:38 - The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi.[fn] He is the father of the Ammonites to this day.
ESV Footnotes
Zoar means little
Moab sounds like the Hebrew for from father
Ben-ammi means son of my people

Genesis 20

Abraham and Abimelech

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 20:1

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 20:1 - From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 20:2

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 20:2 - And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 20:3

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 20:3 - But God came to Abimelech in a dream by 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.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 20:4

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 20:4 - Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people?

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 20:5

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 20:5 - Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 20:6

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 20:6 - Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 20:7

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 20:7 - Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 20:8

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 20:8 - So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 20:9

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 20:9 - Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 20:10

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 20:10 - And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 20:11

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 20:11 - Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 20:12

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 20:12 - Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 20:13

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 20:13 - And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 20:14

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 20:14 - Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 20:15

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 20:15 - And Abimelech said, “Behold, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 20:16

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 20:16 - To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all[fn] who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 20:17

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 20:17 - Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 20:18

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 20:18 - For the LORD had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
ESV Footnotes
Hebrew It is a covering of eyes for all

Genesis 21

The Birth of Isaac

(Heb 11:11 )

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:1

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:1 - The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had promised.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:2

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:2 - And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:3

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:3 - Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac.[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:4

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:4 - And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:5

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:5 - Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:6

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:6 - And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:7

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:7 - And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

God Protects Hagar and Ishmael

(Gal 4:21–30 )

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:8

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:8 - And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:9

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:9 - But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing.[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:10

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:10 - So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:11

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:11 - And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:12

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:12 - But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:13

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:13 - And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:14

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:14 - So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:15

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:15 - When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:16

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:16 - Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Let me not look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:17

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:17 - And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:18

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:18 - Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:19

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:19 - Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:20

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:20 - And God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:21

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:21 - He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

A Treaty with Abimelech

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:22

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:22 - At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:23

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:23 - Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity, but as I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:24

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:24 - And Abraham said, “I will swear.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:25

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:25 - When Abraham reproved Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech’s servants had seized,

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:26

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:26 - Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:27

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:27 - So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:28

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:28 - Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:29

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:29 - And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:30

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:30 - He said, “These seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that this[fn] may be a witness for me that I dug this well.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:31

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:31 - Therefore that place was called Beersheba,[fn] because there both of them swore an oath.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:32

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:32 - So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:33

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:33 - Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 21:34

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 21:34 - And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines.
See the ESV Preface
ESV Footnotes
Isaac means he laughs
Possibly laughing in mockery
Or you
Beersheba means well of seven or well of the oath
ESV

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016, 2025 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

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