185 passages · Salvation
Noah builds an altar and offers burnt offerings. The Lord is pleased and resolves never again to curse the ground or destroy all life, as long as the seasons of the earth continue.
God makes a covenant never again to destroy all life by flood and sets the rainbow in the clouds as a sign of it.
Haran dies in Ur, and Abram marries Sarai, who is barren. Terah takes Abram, Lot, and Sarai toward Canaan but settles in Haran, where he dies.
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.
Abram, seventy-five, leaves with Sarai and Lot. At Shechem the Lord promises the land to his offspring, and Abram builds altars there and near Bethel.
After Lot leaves, God tells Abram to look in every direction, promising all the land to him and his offspring forever, as numerous as the dust. Abram moves to Hebron and builds an altar.
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.
In a deep sleep, Abram is told his descendants will be enslaved four hundred years, then leave with possessions. A flaming torch passes between the animal halves, and God promises the land from Egypt's river to the Euphrates.
Hagar bears Abram a son, whom Abram names Ishmael.
God appears, calls himself God Almighty, and tells Abram to walk blamelessly. He renames him Abraham, promises many nations and kings, an everlasting covenant, and the land of Canaan.
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 Lord appears to Abraham as three men approach his tent. Abraham runs to welcome them and has Sarah and his servant prepare a generous meal.
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.
The Lord does for Sarah what he promised, and she bears Isaac. Abraham circumcises him at eight days, and Sarah says God has made her laugh.
At a feast for Isaac, Sarah sees Ishmael mocking and demands that Hagar and her son be expelled. Distressed, Abraham is told by God to listen to Sarah, promising to make Ishmael a nation too.
The angel calls again, saying God swears by himself to bless Abraham and multiply his descendants like the stars because he obeyed. All nations will be blessed through his offspring.
The field and cave are formally transferred to Abraham before the Hittites, and he buries Sarah there. It becomes his first owned piece of the promised land.
Abraham has more sons through Keturah and other concubines, gives them gifts and sends them east, and leaves everything to Isaac. He dies at 175 and Isaac and Ishmael bury him beside Sarah.
Isaac prays because Rebekah is barren, and she conceives twins who struggle in her womb. God tells her two nations are within her and the older will serve the younger; Esau and Jacob are born.
During a famine Isaac goes to Gerar. God tells him not to go to Egypt but to stay in the land, and repeats to him the promises made to Abraham of land, many descendants, and blessing for all nations.
Jacob claims to be Esau. Isaac is suspicious but touches him, smells his clothes, and gives the blessing promising rich land, rule over his brothers, and blessing for those who bless him.
Isaac blesses Jacob and tells him to take a wife from Laban's family, not from Canaanite women, and prays that Abraham's blessing will pass to him. Esau, seeing this, marries a daughter of Ishmael.
On the road to Haran, Jacob sleeps with a stone for a pillow and dreams of a ladder reaching to heaven with angels on it. God stands above and promises him the land, many descendants, blessing to all families, and His presence.
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.
Jacob prays, reminding God of His promises. He admits he is unworthy of God's kindness and asks to be delivered from Esau.
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.
God appears again to Jacob at Bethel, confirming his new name, Israel, and telling him that a nation and kings will come from him and that the land promised to Abraham and Isaac will be his descendants'.
On the way to Egypt, Jacob offers sacrifices, and God reassures him in a vision: do not fear, God will make him a great nation there and bring his descendants back.
Jacob and all his family, livestock and possessions leave Canaan in the wagons Pharaoh sent.
Joseph presents five brothers and then Jacob to Pharaoh. They state they are shepherds, and Pharaoh grants them Goshen; Jacob blesses Pharaoh, and Joseph settles the family.