Day 5 In Our Reading Plan

Genesis 15
Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

The Abrahamic Covenant

1 After these events, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:  Do not be afraid, Abram.  I am your shield;  your reward will be very great.

² But Abram said, “Lord God, what can You give me, since I am childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”^[a] 3 Abram continued, “Look, You have given me no offspring, so a slave born in^[b] my house will be my heir.”

⁴ Now the word of the Lord came to him: “This one will not be your heir; instead, one who comes from your own body^[c] will be your heir.” ⁵ He took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then He said to him, “Your offspring will be that numerous.”

⁶ Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.

⁷ He also said to him, “I am Yahweh who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”

⁸ But he said, “Lord God, how can I know that I will possess it?”

⁹ He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”

¹⁰ So he brought all these to Him, split them down the middle, and laid the pieces opposite each other, but he did not cut up the birds. ¹¹ Birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. ¹² As the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell on Abram, and suddenly great terror and darkness descended on him.

¹³ Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be foreigners in a land that does not belong to them; they will be enslaved and oppressed^[d] 400 years. ¹⁴ However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions. ¹⁵ But you will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age. ¹⁶ In the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”

¹⁷ When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the divided animals. ¹⁸ On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I give this land to your offspring, from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River:^[f] 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, ²⁰ Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, ²¹ Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”

Day 4 In Our Reading Plan

Genesis 12

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

12 The Lord said to Abram:

Go out from your land,
your relatives,
and your father’s house
to the land that I will show you.
² I will make you into a great nation,
I will bless you,
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.^[a]
3 I will bless those who bless you,
I will curse those who treat you with contempt,
and all the peoples^[b] on earth
will be blessed^[c] through you.^[d]

⁴ So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran. ⁵ He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people he had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, ⁶ Abram passed through the land to the site of Shechem, at the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷ Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. ⁸ From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. He built an altar to Yahweh there, and he called on the name of Yahweh. ⁹ Then Abram journeyed by stages to the Negev.

¹⁰ There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine in the land was severe. ¹¹ When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know what a beautiful woman you are. ¹² When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ They will kill me but let you live. ¹³ Please say you’re my sister so it will go well for me because of you, and my life will be spared on your account.” ¹⁴ When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. ¹⁵ Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, so the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s household. ¹⁶ He treated Abram well because of her, and Abram acquired flocks and herds, male and female donkeys, male and female slaves, and camels.

¹⁷ But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram’s wife Sarai.¹⁸ So Pharaoh sent for Abram and said, “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? ¹⁹ Why did you say, ‘She’s my sister,’ so that I took her as my wife? Now, here is your wife. Take her and go!” ²⁰ Then Pharaoh gave his men orders about him, and they sent him away with his wife and all he had.

Artwork: Artist unknown