Daily Text and Bible Reading: Saturday, January 4 [Press play below]

12.1 And Jehovah said to Abram: “Go out from your land and away from your relatives and from the house of your father to the land that I will show you.
12.2 I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and you will become a blessing.
12.3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who calls down evil on you, and all the families of the ground will certainly be blessed by means of you.”
12.4 So Abram went just as Jehovah had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran.
12.5 Abram took his wife Sarai and Lot the son of his brother and all the goods that they had accumulated and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they reached the land of Canaan,
12.6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of Shechem, near the big trees of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
12.7 Jehovah then appeared to Abram and said: “To your offspring I am going to give this land.” So he built an altar there to Jehovah, who had appeared to him.
12.8 Later he moved from there to the mountainous region east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to Jehovah and began to call on the name of Jehovah.
12.9 Afterward, Abram broke camp and journeyed toward the Negeb, moving his camp from one place to another.
12.10 Now a famine arose in the land, and Abram went down toward Egypt to reside there for a while, because the famine in the land was severe.
12.11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai: “Please listen! I know what a beautiful woman you are.
12.12 So when the Egyptians see you, they will surely say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but keep you alive.
12.13 Please say you are my sister, so that it may go well with me because of you, and my life will be spared.”
12.14 As soon as Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians noticed that the woman was very beautiful.
12.15 And the princes of Pharaoh also saw her, and they began praising her to Pharaoh, so that the woman was taken to the house of Pharaoh.
12.16 He treated Abram well because of her, and he acquired sheep, cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.
12.17 Then Jehovah struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.
12.18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said: “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?
12.19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I was about to take her as my wife? Here is your wife. Take her and go!”
12.20 So Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had."
13.1 Abram then went up out of Egypt to the Negeb, he and his wife and all that he had, together with Lot.
13.2 Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold.
13.3 He camped in one place after another as he traveled from the Negeb to Bethel, until he arrived at the place where his tent had been between Bethel and Ai,
13.4 to the place where he had previously built an altar. There Abram called on the name of Jehovah.
13.5 Now Lot, who was traveling with Abram, also owned sheep, cattle, and tents.
13.6 So the land did not allow for all of them to stay in the same place; their goods had become so many that they could no longer dwell together.
13.7 As a result, a quarrel arose between the herders of Abram’s livestock and the herders of Lot’s livestock. (At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.)
13.8 So Abram said to Lot: “Please, there should be no quarreling between me and you and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers.
13.9 Is not the whole land available to you? Please, separate from me. If you go to the left, then I will go to the right; but if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.”
13.10 So Lot raised his eyes and saw that the whole district of the Jordan was a well-watered region (before Jehovah destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah), like the garden of Jehovah, like the land of Egypt, as far as Zoar.
13.11 Then Lot chose for himself the whole district of the Jordan, and Lot moved his camp to the east. So they separated from each other.
13.12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan, but Lot lived among the cities of the district. Finally he set up his tent near Sodom.
13.13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked, gross sinners against Jehovah.
13.14 Jehovah said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Raise your eyes, please, and look from the place where you are, to the north and south, east and west,
13.15 because all the land that you see, I will give to you and your offspring as a lasting possession.
13.16 And I will make your offspring like the dust particles of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust particles of the earth, then your offspring could be counted.
13.17 Get up, travel through the length and breadth of the land, for to you I am going to give it.”
13.18 So Abram continued to live in tents. Later he came and dwelled among the big trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to Jehovah."
14.1 Now in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim,
14.2 these made war with Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, that is, Zoar.
14.3 All of these joined forces at the Valley of Siddim, that is, the Salt Sea.
14.4 They had served Chedorlaomer for 12 years, but they rebelled in the 13th year.
14.5 So in the 14th year, Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and defeated the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim,
14.6 and the Horites in their mountain of Seir down to El-paran, which is at the wilderness.
14.7 Then they turned back and came to En-mishpat, that is, Kadesh, and conquered the whole territory of the Amalekites and also the Amorites who were dwelling in Hazazon-tamar.
14.8 At this point, the king of Sodom went on the march, and also the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, that is, Zoar, and they drew up in battle formation against them in the Valley of Siddim,
14.9 against Chedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar—four kings against the five.
14.10 Now the Valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pits, and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah tried to escape and fell into them, and those who remained fled to the mountainous region.
14.11 Then the victors took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food and went on their way.
14.12 They also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother who was dwelling in Sodom, as well as his goods, and they continued on their way.
14.13 After that a man who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew. He was then dwelling among the big trees of Mamre the Amorite, the brother of Eshcol and Aner. These men were allies of Abram.
14.14 Thus Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive. With that he mobilized his trained men, 318 servants born in his household, and went in pursuit up to Dan.
14.15 During the night, he divided his forces, and he and his servants attacked and defeated them. And he pursued them up to Hobah, which is north of Damascus.
14.16 He recovered all the goods, and he also recovered Lot his relative, his goods, the women, and the other people.
14.17 After Abram returned from defeating Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet Abram at the Valley of Shaveh, that is, the Valley of the King.
14.18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of the Most High God.
14.19 Then he blessed him and said: “Blessed be Abram by the Most High God, Maker of heaven and earth;
14.20 And praised be the Most High God, Who has handed your oppressors over to you!” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
14.21 After that the king of Sodom said to Abram: “Give me the people, but take the goods for yourself.”
14.22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom: “I raise my hand in an oath to Jehovah the Most High God, Maker of heaven and earth,
14.23 that I will not take anything that is yours, from a thread to a sandal lace, so that you may not say, ‘I made Abram rich.’
14.24 I will take nothing except what the young men have already eaten. As for the share of the men who went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre—let them take their share.”"
15.1 After this the word of Jehovah came to Abram in a vision, saying: “Do not fear, Abram. I am a shield for you. Your reward will be very great.”
15.2 Abram replied: “Sovereign Lord Jehovah, what will you give me, seeing that I continue childless and the one who will inherit my house is a man of Damascus, Eliezer?”
15.3 Abram added: “You have given me no offspring, and a member of my household is succeeding me as heir.”
15.4 But look! Jehovah’s word in reply to him was, “This man will not succeed you as heir, but your own son will succeed you as heir.”
15.5 He now brought him outside and said: “Look up, please, to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to do so.” Then he said to him: “So your offspring will become.”
15.6 And he put faith in Jehovah, and He counted it to him as righteousness.
15.7 Then he added: “I am Jehovah, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession.”
15.8 To this he said: “Sovereign Lord Jehovah, how will I know that I will take possession of it?”
15.9 He replied to him: “Take for me a three year old heifer, a three year old female goat, a three year old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
15.10 So he took all of these and cut them in two and put each part opposite the other, but he did not cut up the birds.
15.11 Then the birds of prey began to descend on the carcasses, but Abram kept driving them away.
15.12 When the sun was about to set, a deep sleep fell upon Abram and a great and frightening darkness descended on him.
15.13 Then He said to Abram: “Know for certain that your offspring will be foreigners in a land not theirs and that the people there will enslave them and afflict them for 400 years.
15.14 But I will judge the nation they will serve, and after that they will go out with many goods.
15.15 As for you, you will go to your forefathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age.
15.16 But they will return here in the fourth generation, because the error of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
15.17 When the sun had set and it had become very dark, a smoking furnace appeared, and a fiery torch passed between the pieces.
15.18 On that day Jehovah made with Abram a covenant, saying: “To your offspring I will give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:
15.19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,
15.20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
15.21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”