Hagar and Ishmael

¹Abram's wife Sarai had not borne him any children. But she had an Egyptian slave woman named Hagar,

²and so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Why don't you sleep with my slave? Perhaps she can have a child for me.” Abram agreed with what Sarai said.

³So she gave Hagar to him to be his concubine. (This happened after Abram had lived in Canaan for ten years.)

⁴Abram had intercourse with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When she found out that she was pregnant, she became proud and despised Sarai.

⁵Then Sarai said to Abram, “It's your fault that Hagar despises me. I myself gave her to you, and ever since she found out that she was pregnant, she has despised me. May the Lord judge which of us is right, you or me!”

⁶Abram answered, “Very well, she is your slave and under your control; do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so cruelly that she ran away.

⁷The angel of the Lord met Hagar at a spring in the desert on the road to Shur

⁸and said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She answered, “I am running away from my mistress.”

⁹He said, “Go back to her and be her slave.”

¹⁰Then he said, “I will give you so many descendants that no one will be able to count them.

¹¹You are going to have a son, and you will name him Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your cry of distress.

¹²But your son will live like a wild donkey; he will be against everyone, and everyone will be against him. He will live apart from all his relatives.”

¹³Hagar asked herself, “Have I really seen God and lived to tell about it?” So she called the Lord, who had spoken to her, “A God Who Sees.”

¹⁴That is why people call the well between Kadesh and Bered “The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.”

¹⁵Hagar bore Abram a son, and he named him Ishmael.

¹⁶Abram was eighty-six years old at the time.

Circumcision, the Sign of the Covenant

¹When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am the Almighty God. Obey me and always do what is right.

²I will make my covenant with you and give you many descendants.”

³Abram bowed down with his face touching the ground, and God said,

⁴“I make this covenant with you: I promise that you will be the ancestor of many nations.

⁵Your name will no longer be Abram, but Abraham, because I am making you the ancestor of many nations.

⁶I will give you many descendants, and some of them will be kings. You will have so many descendants that they will become nations.

⁷“I will keep my promise to you and to your descendants in future generations as an everlasting covenant. I will be your God and the God of your descendants.

⁸I will give to you and to your descendants this land in which you are now a foreigner. The whole land of Canaan will belong to your descendants forever, and I will be their God.”

⁹God said to Abraham, “You also must agree to keep the covenant with me, both you and your descendants in future generations.

¹⁰You and your descendants must all agree to circumcise every male among you.

^11-12From now on you must circumcise every baby boy when he is eight days old, including slaves born in your homes and slaves bought from foreigners. This will show that there is a covenant between you and me.

¹³Each one must be circumcised, and this will be a physical sign to show that my covenant with you is everlasting.

¹⁴Any male who has not been circumcised will no longer be considered one of my people, because he has not kept the covenant with me.”

¹⁵God said to Abraham, “You must no longer call your wife Sarai; from now on her name is Sarah.

¹⁶I will bless her, and I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she will become the mother of nations, and there will be kings among her descendants.”

¹⁷Abraham bowed down with his face touching the ground, but he began to laugh when he thought, “Can a man have a child when he is a hundred years old? Can Sarah have a child at ninety?”

¹⁸He asked God, “Why not let Ishmael be my heir?”

¹⁹But God said, “No. Your wife Sarah will bear you a son and you will name him Isaac. I will keep my covenant with him and with his descendants forever. It is an everlasting covenant.

²⁰I have heard your request about Ishmael, so I will bless him and give him many children and many descendants. He will be the father of twelve princes, and I will make a great nation of his descendants.

²¹But I will keep my covenant with your son Isaac, who will be born to Sarah about this time next year.”

²²When God finished speaking to Abraham, he left him.

²³On that same day Abraham obeyed God and circumcised his son Ishmael and all the other males in his household, including the slaves born in his home and those he had bought.

²⁴Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised,

²⁵and his son Ishmael was thirteen.

²⁶They were both circumcised on the same day,

²⁷together with all of Abraham's slaves.

¹Call out, Job. See if anyone answers. Is there any angel to whom you can turn?

²To worry yourself to death with resentment would be a foolish, senseless thing to do.

³I have seen fools who looked secure, but I called down a sudden curse on their homes.

⁴Their children can never find safety; no one stands up to defend them in court.

⁵Hungry people will eat the fool's crops— even the grain growing among thorns— and thirsty people will envy his wealth.

⁶Evil does not grow in the soil, nor does trouble grow out of the ground.

⁷No indeed! We bring trouble on ourselves, as surely as sparks fly up from a fire.

⁸If I were you, I would turn to God and present my case to him.

⁹We cannot understand the great things he does, and to his miracles there is no end.

¹⁰He sends rain on the land and he waters the fields.

¹¹Yes, it is God who raises the humble and gives joy to all who mourn.

^12-13He upsets the plans of cunning people, and traps the wise in their own schemes, so that nothing they do succeeds;

¹⁴even at noon they grope in darkness.

¹⁵But God saves the poor from death; he saves the needy from oppression.

¹⁶He gives hope to the poor and silences the wicked.

¹⁷Happy is the person whom God corrects! Do not resent it when he rebukes you.

¹⁸God bandages the wounds he makes; his hand hurts you, and his hand heals.

¹⁹Time after time he will save you from harm;

²⁰when famine comes, he will keep you alive, and in war protect you from death.

²¹God will rescue you from slander; he will save you when destruction comes.

²²You will laugh at violence and hunger and not be afraid of wild animals.

²³The fields you plow will be free of rocks; wild animals will never attack you.

²⁴Then you will live at peace in your tent; when you look at your sheep, you will find them safe.

²⁵You will have as many children as there are blades of grass in a pasture.

²⁶Like wheat that ripens till harvest time, you will live to a ripe old age.

²⁷Job, we have learned this by long study. It is true, so now accept it.

^1-2If my troubles and griefs were weighed on scales,

³they would weigh more than the sands of the sea, so my wild words should not surprise you.

⁴Almighty God has shot me with arrows, and their poison spreads through my body. God has lined up his terrors against me.

⁵A donkey is content when eating grass, and a cow is quiet when eating hay.

⁶But who can eat flat, unsalted food? What taste is there in the white of an egg?

⁷I have no appetite for food like that, and everything I eat makes me sick.

⁸Why won't God give me what I ask? Why won't he answer my prayer?

⁹If only he would go ahead and kill me!

¹⁰If I knew he would, I would leap for joy, no matter how great my pain. I know that God is holy; I have never opposed what he commands.

¹¹What strength do I have to keep on living? Why go on living when I have no hope?

¹²Am I made of stone? Is my body bronze?

¹³I have no strength left to save myself; there is nowhere I can turn for help.

¹⁴In trouble like this I need loyal friends— whether I've forsaken God or not.

¹⁵But you, my friends, you deceive me like streams that go dry when no rain comes.

¹⁶The streams are choked with snow and ice,

¹⁷but in the heat they disappear, and the stream beds lie bare and dry.

¹⁸Caravans get lost looking for water; they wander and die in the desert.

¹⁹Caravans from Sheba and Tema search,

²⁰but their hope dies beside dry streams.

²¹You are like those streams to me, you see my fate and draw back in fear.

²²Have I asked you to give me a gift or to bribe someone on my behalf

²³or to save me from some enemy or tyrant?

²⁴All right, teach me; tell me my faults. I will be quiet and listen to you.

²⁵Honest words are convincing, but you are talking nonsense.

²⁶You think I am talking nothing but wind; then why do you answer my words of despair?

²⁷You would even roll dice for orphan slaves and make yourselves rich off your closest friends!

²⁸Look me in the face. I won't lie.

²⁹You have gone far enough. Stop being unjust. Don't condemn me. I'm in the right.

³⁰But you think I am lying— you think I can't tell right from wrong.

Wisdom Calls

²⁰Listen! Wisdom is calling out in the streets and marketplaces,

²¹calling loudly at the city gates and wherever people come together:

²²“Foolish people! How long do you want to be foolish? How long will you enjoy making fun of knowledge? Will you never learn?

²³Listen when I reprimand you; I will give you good advice and share my knowledge with you.

²⁴I have been calling you, inviting you to come, but you would not listen. You paid no attention to me.

²⁵You have ignored all my advice and have not been willing to let me correct you.

²⁶So when you get into trouble, I will laugh at you. I will make fun of you when terror strikes—

²⁷when it comes on you like a storm, bringing fierce winds of trouble, and you are in pain and misery.

²⁸Then you will call for wisdom, but I will not answer. You may look for me everywhere, but you will not find me.

²⁹You have never had any use for knowledge and have always refused to obey the Lord.

³⁰You have never wanted my advice or paid any attention when I corrected you.

³¹So then, you will get what you deserve, and your own actions will make you sick.

³²Inexperienced people die because they reject wisdom. Stupid people are destroyed by their own lack of concern.

³³But whoever listens to me will have security. He will be safe, with no reason to be afraid.”