424 passages · Salvation
The pattern breaks with Enoch, who walks with God for 300 years and does not die like the others, because God takes him.
Noah is described as righteous and blameless, walking with God, with three sons. The earth is corrupt and violent, and God tells Noah he will destroy it.
The Lord tells Abram to leave his country and family for a land he will show him. He promises to make Abram a great nation, bless him, and bless all families of the earth through him.
The king of Sodom offers Abram the goods in exchange for the people. Abram, swearing by God Most High, refuses to take anything so no one can say he made Abram rich.
The Lord tells Abram not to fear and that he is his shield. Abram, still childless, questions this, and God promises a son and offspring as many as the stars. Abram believes, and it is counted as righteousness.
Childless Sarai gives her Egyptian servant Hagar to Abram. When Hagar conceives and looks down on Sarai, Sarai blames Abram, and then treats Hagar so harshly she flees.
God renames Sarai as Sarah and promises she will bear a son, Isaac. Abraham laughs and pleads for Ishmael, and God agrees to bless Ishmael but says the covenant will be with Isaac.
The visitors ask for Sarah and promise a son by next year. Listening behind the tent, Sarah laughs, and the Lord asks whether anything is too hard for him. She denies laughing.
God tells Abraham to offer Isaac as a burnt offering on Moriah. Abraham sets out early. Isaac asks where the lamb is, and Abraham answers that God will provide.
Abraham binds Isaac and raises the knife, but the angel of the Lord stops him. Abraham sees a ram caught in a thicket, offers it instead, and names the place 'The Lord Will Provide'.
Abraham, calling himself a foreigner, asks for burial land. The Hittites respond respectfully, and he asks them to approach Ephron for the cave of Machpelah at full price.
Jacob wakes in awe, sets up the stone as a pillar, and names the place Bethel. He vows that if God stays with him and brings him home safely, the Lord will be his God and he will give a tenth.
Left alone at night, Jacob wrestles with a man until daybreak. He refuses to let go until blessed, is given the name Israel, is left limping, and names the place Peniel, saying he saw God face to face.
Israel's family prospers in Goshen. Nearing death at 147, Jacob makes Joseph swear to bury him with his fathers in Canaan, not Egypt.
Joseph objects that Manasseh is the firstborn, but Jacob insists Ephraim will be greater. He assures Joseph that God will bring the family back to Canaan and gives him a portion of land.
The narrator notes the twelve tribes and Jacob's blessings. Jacob then instructs his sons to bury him in the cave of Machpelah with Abraham and Isaac, and he dies.
Joseph lives to 110, sees great-grandchildren, and tells his brothers God will bring them to the promised land. He has them swear to carry his bones there, and dies.
Moses worries the people will not believe him. God turns his staff into a snake and back, makes his hand leprous and then healthy, and promises a third sign of Nile water turning to blood.
Aaron meets Moses at the mountain, and Moses tells him everything. They gather Israel's elders, perform the signs, and the people believe and bow in worship.
Moses tells the elders to kill the lamb and brush its blood on the doorframes with hyssop. He says the ritual must be kept in the promised land and explained to children, and the people bow and obey.
Terrified, the people cry to the LORD and accuse Moses of bringing them out to die. Moses tells them not to be afraid, to stand firm, and see the LORD fight for them.
At daybreak Moses stretches out his hand again and the waters cover the whole Egyptian army. Israel sees the Egyptians dead on the shore, and the people fear the LORD and believe in him and Moses.
After three days without water, Israel finds bitter water at Marah and grumbles. Moses cries out and the LORD shows him a log that sweetens it, and he says he is the healer of those who obey; they then camp at Elim.
Israel arrives in the Desert of Sin and grumbles against Moses and Aaron, wishing they had died in Egypt where they ate their fill.
Quail cover the camp in the evening and in the morning flakes lie on the ground. The people call it what is it, gather what they need, and those who keep it overnight find it spoiled.
With no water at Rephidim, the people quarrel with Moses. At the LORD's direction, Moses strikes a rock before the elders and water flows, and he names the place Massah and Meribah.
Once in the land, Israel is to farm for six years and let the land rest completely in the seventh. What grows on its own may be eaten by everyone, including servants and animals.
Land sales must be priced by the number of harvests remaining until Jubilee, and no one may cheat a neighbor. God promises a triple harvest in the sixth year for those who obey.
Moses tells them what to look for, and they travel through the land to Hebron and the Valley of Eshcol, where they cut a huge cluster of grapes.
After forty days the spies return to Kadesh. They show the fruit and say the land is rich, but its people are strong and its cities are large.