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Genesis 12:1-4
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Genesis 12:1-4
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 12
Abram’s Call and Migration. 1 The Lord said to Abram: Go forth[a] from your land, your relatives, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.(A) 2 [b]I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.(B) 3 (C)I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will find blessing in you.[c]
4 (D)Abram went as the Lord directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.
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- 12:1–3 Go forth…find blessing in you: the syntax of the Hebrew suggests that the blessings promised to Abraham are contingent on his going to Canaan.
- 12:2 The call of Abraham begins a new history of blessing (18:18; 22:15–18), which is passed on in each instance to the chosen successor (26:2–4; 28:14). This call evokes the last story in the primeval history (11:1–9) by reversing its themes: Abraham goes forth rather than settle down; it is God rather than Abraham who will make a name for him; the families of the earth will find blessing in him.
- 12:3 Will find blessing in you: the Hebrew conjugation of the verb here and in 18:18 and 28:14 can be either reflexive (“shall bless themselves by you” = people will invoke Abraham as an example of someone blessed by God) or passive (“by you all the families of earth will be blessed” = the religious privileges of Abraham and his descendants ultimately will be extended to the nations). In 22:18 and 26:4, another conjugation of the same verb is used in a similar context that is undoubtedly reflexive (“bless themselves”). Many scholars suggest that the two passages in which the sense is clear should determine the interpretation of the three ambiguous passages: the privileged blessing enjoyed by Abraham and his descendants will awaken in all peoples the desire to enjoy those same blessings. Since the term is understood in a passive sense in the New Testament (Acts 3:25; Gal 3:8), it is rendered here by a neutral expression that admits of both meanings.
Genesis 12:1-4
New International Version
Genesis 12:1-4
New International Version
The Call of Abram
12 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household(A) to the land(B) I will show you.(C)
2 “I will make you into a great nation,(D)
and I will bless you;(E)
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.[a](F)
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;(G)
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.(H)”[b]
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot(I) went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old(J) when he set out from Harran.(K)
Footnotes
- Genesis 12:2 Or be seen as blessed
- Genesis 12:3 Or earth / will use your name in blessings (see 48:20)
Genesis 15:7-21
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Genesis 15:7-21
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
7 He then said to him: I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as a possession.(A) 8 “Lord God,” he asked, “how will I know that I will possess it?” 9 [a]He answered him: Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.(B) 10 He brought him all these, split them in two, and placed each half opposite the other; but the birds he did not cut up. 11 Birds of prey swooped down on the carcasses, but Abram scared them away. 12 As the sun was about to set, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a great, dark dread descended upon him.
13 [b]Then the Lord said to Abram: Know for certain that your descendants will reside as aliens in a land not their own, where they shall be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years.(C) 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation they must serve, and after this they will go out with great wealth.(D) 15 You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace; you will be buried at a ripe old age. 16 In the fourth generation[c] your descendants will return here, for the wickedness of the Amorites is not yet complete.(E)
17 When the sun had set and it was dark, there appeared a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch, which passed between those pieces. 18 [d]On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River, the Euphrates,(F) 19 (G)the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
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- 15:9–17 Cutting up animals was a well-attested way of making a treaty in antiquity. Jer 34:17–20 shows the rite is a form of self-imprecation in which violators invoke the fate of the animals upon themselves. The eighth-century B.C. Sefire treaty from Syria reads, “As this calf is cut up, thus Matti’el shall be cut up.” The smoking fire pot and the flaming torch (v. 17), which represent God, pass between the pieces, making God a signatory to the covenant.
- 15:13–16 The verses clarify the promise of the land by providing a timetable of its possession: after four hundred years of servitude, your descendants will actually possess the land in the fourth generation (a patriarchal generation seems to be one hundred years). The iniquity of the current inhabitants (called here the Amorites) has not yet reached the point where God must intervene in punishment. Another table is given in Ex 12:40, which is not compatible with this one.
- 15:16 Generation: the Hebrew term dor is commonly rendered as “generation,” but it may signify a period of varying length. A “generation” is the period between the birth of children and the birth of their parents, normally about twenty to twenty-five years. The actual length of a generation can vary, however; in Jb 42:16 it is thirty-five and in Nm 32:13 it is forty. The meaning may be life spans, which in Gn 6:3 is one hundred twenty years and in Is 65:20 is one hundred years.
- 15:18–21 The Wadi, i.e., a gully or ravine, of Egypt is the Wadi-el-‘Arish, which is the boundary between the settled land and the Sinai desert. Some scholars suggest that the boundaries are those of a Davidic empire at its greatest extent; others that they are idealized boundaries. Most lists of the ancient inhabitants of the promised land give three, six, or seven peoples, but vv. 19–21 give a grand total of ten.
Genesis 15:7-21
New International Version
Genesis 15:7-21
New International Version
7 He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out(A) of Ur of the Chaldeans(B) to give you this land to take possession of it.”(C)
8 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord,(D) how can I know(E) that I will gain possession of it?”(F)
9 So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer,(G) a goat and a ram, each three years old,(H) along with a dove and a young pigeon.(I)”
10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other;(J) the birds, however, he did not cut in half.(K) 11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses,(L) but Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep,(M) and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years(N) your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved(O) and mistreated there. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out(P) with great possessions.(Q) 15 You, however, will go to your ancestors(R) in peace and be buried at a good old age.(S) 16 In the fourth generation(T) your descendants will come back here,(U) for the sin of the Amorites(V) has not yet reached its full measure.”
17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch(W) appeared and passed between the pieces.(X) 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram(Y) and said, “To your descendants I give this land,(Z) from the Wadi[a] of Egypt(AA) to the great river, the Euphrates(AB)— 19 the land of the Kenites,(AC) Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites,(AD) Perizzites,(AE) Rephaites,(AF) 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”(AG)
Footnotes
- Genesis 15:18 Or river
Ben Sira 44:19-22
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Ben Sira 44:19-22
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
19 Abraham, father of many peoples,
kept his glory without stain:(A)
20 He observed the Most High’s command,
and entered into a covenant with him;
In his own flesh he incised the ordinance,[a]
and when tested was found loyal.(B)
21 For this reason, God promised him with an oath
to bless the nations through his descendants,
To make him numerous as grains of dust,
and to exalt his posterity like the stars,
Giving them an inheritance from sea to sea,
and from the River[b] to the ends of the earth.
22 For Isaac, too, he renewed the same promise
because of Abraham, his father.
The covenant with all his forebears was confirmed,
Footnotes
- 44:20 In his own flesh…ordinance: the covenant of circumcision; cf. Gn 17:10–14. And when tested…loyal: Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac at the Lord’s command; cf. Gn 22:1–12.
- 44:21 The River: the Euphrates; cf. Gn 2:14.
Acts 7:2-8
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Acts 7:2-8
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
2 (A)And he replied,[a] “My brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia,[b] before he had settled in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Go forth from your land and [from] your kinsfolk to the land that I will show you.’(B) 4 So he went forth from the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, he made him migrate to this land where you now dwell.(C) 5 Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length, but he did promise to give it to him and his descendants as a possession, even though he was childless.(D) 6 And God spoke thus,(E) ‘His descendants shall be aliens in a land not their own, where they shall be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years; 7 but I will bring judgment on the nation they serve,’ God said, ‘and after that they will come out and worship me in this place.’(F) 8 Then he gave him the covenant of circumcision, and so he became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, as Isaac did Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs.(G)
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- 7:2–53 Stephen’s speech represents Luke’s description of Christianity’s break from its Jewish matrix. Two motifs become prominent in the speech: (1) Israel’s reaction to God’s chosen leaders in the past reveals that the people have consistently rejected them; and (2) Israel has misunderstood God’s choice of the Jerusalem temple as the place where he is to be worshiped.
- 7:2 God…appeared to our father Abraham…in Mesopotamia: the first of a number of minor discrepancies between the data of the Old Testament and the data of Stephen’s discourse. According to Gn 12:1, God first spoke to Abraham in Haran. The main discrepancies are these: in Acts 7:16 it is said that Jacob was buried in Shechem, whereas Gn 50:13 says he was buried at Hebron; in the same verse it is said that the tomb was purchased by Abraham, but in Gn 33:19 and Jos 24:32 the purchase is attributed to Jacob himself.
Acts 7:2-8
New International Version
Acts 7:2-8
New International Version
2 To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers,(A) listen to me! The God of glory(B) appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran.(C) 3 ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’[a](D)
4 “So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Harran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living.(E) 5 He gave him no inheritance here,(F) not even enough ground to set his foot on. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land,(G) even though at that time Abraham had no child. 6 God spoke to him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated.(H) 7 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’[b](I) 8 Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision.(J) And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth.(K) Later Isaac became the father of Jacob,(L) and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.(M)
Romans 4:16-22
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Romans 4:16-22
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
16 For this reason, it depends on faith, so that it may be a gift, and the promise may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not to those who only adhere to the law but to those who follow the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us,(A) 17 as it is written, “I have made you father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not exist.(B) 18 He believed, hoping against hope,(C) that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “Thus shall your descendants be.” 19 (D)He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body as [already] dead (for he was almost a hundred years old) and the dead womb of Sarah. 20 He did not doubt God’s promise in unbelief;[a] rather, he was empowered by faith and gave glory to God 21 and was fully convinced that what he had promised he was also able to do.(E) 22 That is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”(F)
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- 4:20 He did not doubt God’s promise in unbelief: any doubts Abraham might have had were resolved in commitment to God’s promise. Hb 11:8–12 emphasizes the faith of Abraham and Sarah.
Romans 4:16-22
New International Version
Romans 4:16-22
New International Version
16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace(A) and may be guaranteed(B) to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.(C) 17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.”[a](D) He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life(E) to the dead and calls(F) into being things that were not.(G)
18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations,(H) just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”[b](I) 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead(J)—since he was about a hundred years old(K)—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.(L) 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened(M) in his faith and gave glory to God,(N) 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.(O) 22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”(P)
Footnotes
- Romans 4:17 Gen. 17:5
- Romans 4:18 Gen. 15:5
New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)
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