Salem, a priest of the most high God, and offered him first-fruits, even bread and wine, and blessed him, saying, "Blessed be Abram of the most high God, whose are heaven and earth; and blessed be the most high God, who hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand." Then Abram gave him a tenth part of all the spoil that he had taken. And after these things he returned and dwelt at Mamre.

Then God appeared to him in a vision and said, "Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward."

Abram answered, "Lord God, what wilt Thou give me, seeing that I am childless, and that one born in my house, even Eliezer of Damascus, is my heir?"

Then said the Lord, "He shall not be thine heir; thine own son shall be thine heir." And He bade him go forth from his tent and look up into the heavens, and said, "Tell the stars, if thou be able to number them. So shall be thy posterity."

And Abram believed in the Lord, and it was counted to him for righteousness.

Then the Lord said, "I have brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees that thou mayest inherit this land." Abram said, "How shall I know that I shall inherit it?"

The Lord said, "Take a heifer, and a she-goat, and a ram, and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon."

So Abram took them and divided the beasts into two portions, and laid the two portions over against each

that he had no title in right of birth to the priestly office, and in this respect differed from the Aaronic priests, though it must be confessed that the following phrases, "Without beginning of days nor end of life," are obscure. We may suppose him to have been a Canaanitish chief, who had preserved in a remarkable way the tradition of a pure faith and a pure life, elsewhere so obscured. While there were such as Melchizedek in the land the “iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full.”

other.; but the birds he divided not.

And when the

sun went down he fell into a deep sleep, and heard a voice that said, "Thy posterity shall dwell in a land that is not theirs, and shall be afflicted four hundred years; but the nation that shall afflict them I will judge. After that they shall go out from among their

AS THE STARS OF HEAVEN FOR MULTITUDE."

oppressors with great riches, and shall come again to this land; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full."

And when the sun went down and it was dark, Abram saw a smoking furnace and a burning lamp pass between the portions of the sacrifice, being the tokens of the presence of the Lord. Then, as Abram had passed between the portions, so the Lord passed between them, and a covenant was made between the Lord and Abram; for the custom was that when

two thus passed between the portions of a sacrifice a covenant was made between them. And the Lord said, "Unto thy race have I given all this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates."

After these things Abram took to wife Sarai's maid Hagar, the Egyptian, for Sarai would have it so, because she had no children. When Hagar knew that she should bear a child she despised her mistress, and Sarai was wroth with Abram, and said, "See now, I have given my maid to be thy wife, and she despiseth me." But Abram answered, "She is thine; do as thou wilt." And Sarai dealt so hardly with her that she fled from the tent. But as she lay by a well in the wilderness the angel of God spake to her, saying, "Hagar, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go?" She answered, "I flee from the face of Sarai

my mistress."

The angel said, "Go back, and submit thyself to thy mistress. Thou shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael1; because the Lord hath heard thy affliction. He shall be a wild man ; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him."

Then Hagar said, "Surely, O God, Thou seest all things; and I too have seen Thee, and yet live." And thereafter the well by which Hagar sat when the angel spake to her was called the well of "Seeing and Living." So Hagar returned to her mistress; and she bare a son to Abram, who called his name Ishmael. Abram was fourscore and six years old when Hagar bare Ishmael to him.

2

II.—Abraham

When Abram was now ninety and nine years old, and Ishmael his son thirteen, the Lord appeared again unto him, and said, "I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect."

Then Abram fell on his face before God; and the Lord spake to him again, saying, "My covenant is with thee, and I will make thee the father of many nations. Hereafter thy name shall not be any more Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; because I have made thee a father of many nations.2 And I will give thee, and thy children after thee, this land of Canaan to be a perpetual possession." At this time God gave to Abraham the law of circumcision, to be the token of the covenant that He had made with him.

Also He said to him, "As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah.3 I will bless her, and give her a son of thee. She shall be a mother of nations, and kings shall come from her."

Then Abraham fell on his face, and laughed, saying to himself, "Shall I, who am a hundred years old, have a son? and Sarah, that is ninety years old, be a mother?" Nevertheless he believed in his heart that this thing should be, "giving glory to God; and being fully assured that what He had promised He was able also to perform.” 4

1 El Shaddai.

2 "Abram," or Abu-ram, means "exalted father," which may be taken as equivalent to "father of a clan or tribe." "Abraham," on the other hand, has the meaning of "father of a multitude.” The change is effected by the significant addition of the letter h, a letter which appears in the name commonly given as Jehovah, but more correctly represented by Yahveh.

3 Sarai="contention "; Sarah = "princess." The change of meaning is effected again by the introduction of the letter h.

4 Rom. iv. 21.

Neither did he forget his son Ishmael, but said, “O that Ishmael might live before Thee!"

God said to Abraham, "Sarah thy wife shall indeed bear a son, and thou shalt call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him, and with his children after him for ever. And as for Ishmael, I have blessed him, and will multiply him exceedingly, and will make of him a great nation."

Not many days after, as Abraham sat in his tentdoor, where he dwelt under the oak of Mamre, he espied three travellers. And when he saw them he ran from the tent-door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground before them, and said to him that seemed chief among them, "My lord, if I have found favour in thy sight, pass not on at once, but turn aside to visit me. Let a little water be fetched that ye may wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, and I will fetch a morsel of bread that ye may refresh yourselves. After that ye shall pass on."

And the man said, "So do as thou hast said."

Then Abraham hastened unto Sarah where she sat in the tent, and said, "Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, and knead it, and bake cakes upon the hearth." This done, he ran to the stalls of the cattle and took thence a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man, who hasted to cook it. And he took butter and milk and the calf that had been cooked, and set them before the travellers, and stood by them under the tree as they ate.

And they said to him, "Where is Sarah thy wife?"
He answered, "She is in the tent."

Then he that was chief among them said, " Sarah thy wife shall bear a son when this season of the year shall come again."

Sarah heard these words where she sat in the tent,