The Message Prayerful Reading Bible Sampler - Flipbook - Page 37
1 9 G enesis 14
4-6 So Abram left just as God said, and Lot
left with him. Abram was s eventy-five years
old when he left H
aran. Abram took his wife
Sarai and his nephew Lot with him, along
with all the possessions and people they had
gotten in Haran, and set out for the land of
Canaan and arrived safe and sound.
Abram passed through the country as far
as S
hechem and the Oak of Moreh. At that
time the Canaanites occupied the land.
7 God appeared to Abram and said, “I will
give this land to your children.” Abram built
an altar at the place God had appeared to
him.
8 He moved on from there to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent between Bethel to the west and Ai to the east.
He built an altar there and prayed to God.
9 Abram kept moving, steadily making his
way south, to the Negev.
10-13 Then a famine came to the land.
Abram went down to Egypt to live; it was a
hard famine. As he drew near to Egypt, he
said to his wife, Sarai, “Look. We both know
that you’re a beautiful woman. When the
Egyptians see you t hey’re going to say, ‘Aha!
That’s his wife!’ and kill me. But they’ll let
you live. Do me a favor: tell them you’re my
sister. Because of you, they’ll welcome me
and let me live.”
14-15 When Abram arrived in Egypt, the
Egyptians took one look and saw that his
wife was stunningly beautiful. Pharaoh’s
princes raved over her to Pharaoh. She was
taken to live with Pharaoh.
16-17 Because of her, Abram got along very
well: he accumulated sheep and cattle, male
and female donkeys, men and women servants, and camels. But God hit Pharaoh hard
because of Abram’s wife Sarai; everybody in
the palace got seriously sick.
18-19
Pharaoh called for Abram, “What’s
this that you’ve done to me? Why didn’t you
tell me that she’s your wife? Why did you
say, ‘She’s my sister’ so that I’d take her as
my wife? H
ere’s your wife b
ack—take her and
get out!”
20Pharaoh ordered his men to get Abram
out of the country. They sent him and his wife
and everything he owned on their way.
13
1-2 So Abram left Egypt and went
back to the Negev, he and his wife
and everything he owned, and Lot still with
him. By now Abram was very rich, loaded
with cattle and silver and gold.
3-4 He moved on from the N
egev, camping
along the way, to B
ethel, the place he had
first set up his tent between Bethel and Ai
and built his first altar. Abram prayed there
to God.
5-7 Lot, who was traveling with Abram, was
also rich in sheep and cattle and tents. But
the land couldn’t support both of them; they
had too many possessions. They couldn’t
both live there—quarrels broke out between
Abram’s shepherds and L
ot’s shepherds. The
Canaanites and Perizzites were also living on
the land at the time.
8-9 Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have fighting between us, between your shepherds and
my shepherds. After all, w
e’re family. Look
around. Isn’t there plenty of land out there?
Let’s separate. If you go left, I ’ll go right; if
you go right, I’ll go left.”
10-11 Lot looked. He saw the whole plain of
the J ordan spread out, well watered (this was
before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah),
like God’s garden, like Egypt, and stretching
all the way to Zoar. Lot took the whole plain
of the J ordan. Lot set out to the east.
11-12 That’s how they came to part company, uncle and nephew. Abram settled
in Canaan; Lot settled in the cities of the
plain and pitched his tent near Sodom.
13 The people of Sodom were evil—f lagrant
sinners against God.
14-17 After Lot separated from him, God
said to Abram, “Open your eyes, look around.
Look north, south, east, and west. Everything you see, the whole land spread out
before you, I will give to you and your children forever. I’ll make your descendants like
dust—counting your descendants will be as
impossible as counting the dust of the Earth.
So—on your feet, get moving! Walk through
the country, its length and breadth; I’m giving it all to you.”
18 Abram moved his tent. He went and
settled by the Oaks of Mamre in Hebron.
There he built an altar to God.
14
d d d
1-2 Then this: A
m
r a
phel king of
Shin ar, A rioch king of E ll as ar,
Kedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king
of Goiim went off to war to fight B
era king
of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab
king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim,
and the king of Bela, that is, Zoar.
3-4 This second group of kings, the attacked, came together at the Valley of
Siddim, that is, the Salt Sea. They had been