17. So Abraham prayed to God, and he healed Abimelech, and his wife, and all the females of his house, and they became prolific; 18. For the Eternal had rendered them barren because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

CHAP. XXI.

THE BIRTH OF ISAAC.

THE Eternal remembered Sarah, and performed to her his promise; 2. For at the time appointed she had a son to Abraham, in his hundredth year. 3, 4. Whom he called Isaac, (laughter-giver); and circumcised him the eighth day, according to the command. 5, 6. Then Sarah said, God hath made me a subject of laughter, so that all who hear it will laugh at me; 7. For, said she, who would have persuaded Abraham that Sarah would have born or suckled a child when so old. 8. He grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast the day that was done. 9. Then Sarah saw Ishmael, the son of the Egyptian, deriding her son. 10. There

fore she said, Turn out that handmaid with her son, for he shall not be joint-heir with my son, nor kill him, (as Cain did Abel), excited to it by his mother; 11. Which thing was very grievous to Abraham, because of his son. 12. But God said to him, Let it not be grievous to thee because of the boy, and thy hand-maid; hearken to Sarah in all that she has said to thee; for by Isaac shall thy seed be denominated: 13. But of the hand-maid's son I will also make a great nation, because he is thy seed.

14. Abraham then rose early, and putting bread and a leathern bottle full of water on Hagar's shoulder, he sent her away with her son: and being departed, she wandering in the wilderness of Beersheba, 15. Till the water was exhausted in the bottle; when she left the lad under the shrub, 16. And, sat down opposite to him, at the distance of a bow shot,

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saying, Let me not see him die: then he wept aloud. 17. And God heard him. Then his angel called out of heaven to Hagar, saying, What aileth thee? Fear not, for God hath heard the lad's voice. 18. Arise, and take him up, for I will make of him a great nation. 19. Then the angel of God discovered to her a well; so she went and filled the bottle, and gave the boy drink. 20. And God favoured him, and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness of Paran, and became an archer. 21. And his mother chose a wife for him out of Egypt.

22. Now Abimelech, and Phicol the chief capсарtain of his host, said to Abraham, God is with thee, and maketh thee prosper in all thou doest: 23. Now, therefore, swear to me, by him, that thou wilt not injure me, nor my son, nor any of my posterity, but according to the kindness I have done thee, thou will do to me, and to the land wherein thou sojournest. 24, 25. Then Abraham said, I will solemnly vow: but he reproved Abimelech for a well, which his servants had violently taken from Abraham's. 26. Then Abimelech said, I neither knew or heard it till now. 27. Then Abraham gave sheep and oxen to Abimelech, and they made a covenant with one another. 28. But Abraham having set seven ewelambs by themselves, 29. Abimelech said to him, What is meant by these? 30. He replied, These shalt thou take from me, (to be slain for sacrifices) as a testimony for me, that I digged this well, (indicating the same fate to me, if I have not done it). 31. Therefore he called it Beersheba, i. e. the well of the oath, or of seven; because they made a covenant by an oath there. $2. Then Abimelech, and Phicol the captain of his host, returned to the land of the Philistines.

33. And Abraham planted a bower at Beersheba, and there worshipped the Eternal, the Everlasting God of the Universe. 34. And he sojourned long in Palestine.

CHAP. XXII.

THE TRIAL OF ABRAHAM'S FAITH:

AFTER these things God made a full trial of A braham's faith and obedience. 2. He said, Take now thy singularly beloved darling son, Isaac, to the land of Moriah, and offer him for an holocaust on a mountain which I will shew thee. 3. Abraham rose early and saddled his ass, and took Isaac bis son, and two of his young men, and splitted the wood for a holocaust, and went for the place which God hath mentioned to him. 4. And the third day he beheld the place at a distance. 5. Then said he to his young men, Stay here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again unto you. 6. Then he laid the wood for the burnt-offering on Isaac his son, and took fire and a knife in his own hand.

7. And as they went together, Isaac said, My father, here are the fire and the wood, but where is the victim for a holocaust? 8. Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a victim for a holocaust; so they went on together, 9. Till they came to the place which God had mentioned; then Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order on it, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the wood, 10. And took the knife, and stretched out his hand to slay his son. 11. Then the Eternal's angel called from heaven, Abraham, Abraham, 12. And said, Lay not thine hand on the lad, for now thou hast manifested that thou fearest God, since thou hast not with-held thy son, thy darling son, from me. 13. Then Abraham looked behind him, and saw a ram entangled in a thicket by his horns, and he took and offered him for a holocaust instead of his son. 14. And Abraham called the name of that place, The Eternal will Provide; and hence the saying in the mount, the Eternal will pro

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vide. 15. The angel of the Eternal called from heaven a second time to Abraham, 16. Saying, by myself I have sworn, saith the Eternal, because thou hast done this, and not with-held thy singu larly beloved son, 17. I will greatly bless thee, and exceedingly multiply thy seed, even as the stars of heaven, and the sand on the sea shore, and they shall possess their enemies' territories, 18. And in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice.

19. Then Abraham returned to his young men, and they went to Beersheba, and dwelt there.

20. After these things it was told Abraham that Nahor his brother had children by Milcah, 21. Huz, Buz, and Kemuel, Aram's father; 22. And Chesed, Haso, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel, 23. Rebecca's father. 24. And Nahor's concubinewife, Reumah, had Tebah, Gaham, Thahash, and Maachah.

CHAP. XXIII.

SARAH'S AGE, DEATH, AND BURIAL.

SARAH was now an hundred and twenty-seven years old, 2. When she died in Kirjatharba (which is Hebron in Canaan); and Abraham mourned and wept for her. 3. When he rose from weeping before his dead spouse, he spake to Heth's posterity, saying, 4. I am a stranger and a sojourner among you, give me the possession of a burial-place among you for money, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. 5. They replied, 6. Hear us, my lord, thou "art a prince of God (very great) among us, in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead, none of us will with-hold from thee his sepulchre. 7. Abraham bowed to the people of the land, Heth's posterity, 8. And said to them, if it be agreeable to you that I bury my dead among you, intreat Ephron, Zohar's son, 9. To give me the cave of Machpe

lach, in the end of his field, to possess for a burying place, and I will give him its value in money. 10. Then Ephron the Hethite, sitting among Heth's posterity, answered Abraham, in the hearing of all that frequented the gates of the city, saying, 11.. My lord, before my people I give thee the field and the cave to bury thy dead. 12. Abraham again bowed to the people of the land, 13. And spake to Ephron in their hearing, I will give thee money for the field, if thou wilt give it to me to, bury my dead therein. 14, 15. Ephron answered, My lord, the land is worth two hundred shekels of silver; what is that between me and thee, therein bury thy dead. 16. Then Abraham weighed to Ephron that money, (being about 57 pounds of market currency). 17. So Ephron's field in Machpelach, opposite Mamre, with the cave in it, for burial, and all the trees in its borders around, 18. Were secured to Abraham for his possession, by the sons of Heth, before all that frequented the gate of the city. 19. Then Abraham buried Sarah his wife in that place, afterwards called Hebron, in Canaan, 20. It being secured to him.

CHAP. XXIV.

ABRAHAM SENDS HIS SERVANT TO MESOPOTAMIA, TO SEEK A WIFE FOR HIS SON.

Now Abraham was old, and the Eternal had blessed him in all things. 2. And he said to Eliezer, his oldest domestic, who superintended all his af fairs, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under tny thigh; 3. And I will adjure thee by the Eternal, the God of heaven and earth, not to take a wife for my son Isaac, of the Canaanite women, among whom I dwell; 4. But thou shalt go to my country and my kindred to take a wife for him. 5. But the servant said, Perhaps the woman will not come to this land; must I take back thy son to the land