Eliezer of Damascus would be the heir of his house. Immediately the word of the Lord came to him that his own son should be his heir.

And God brought Abram forth abroad, and said to him: "Look up to heaven and number the stars, if thou canst." And he said to him: "So shall thy seed be." Abram believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice. And He said to him: "I am the Lord who brought thee out of Ur from the Chaldees to give thee this land, and that thou mightest possess it." But he said: "Lord God, whereby may I know that I shall possess it?" And the Lord answered and said: "Take Me a cow of three years old, and a she-goat of three years, and a ram of three years, a turtle also and a pigeon." And he took all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid the two pieces of each one against the other; but the birds he divided not. And the fowls came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away. And when the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a great and darksome horror seized upon him. And it was said unto him: "Know thou beforehand that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land not their own; and they shall bring them under bondage, and afflict them four hundred years. But I will judge the nation which they shall serve, and after this they shall come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, and be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return hither; for as yet the iniquities of the Amorrhites are not at the full." And when the sun was set, there arose a dark mist, and

THE BIRTH OF ISMAEL.

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there appeared a smoking furnace and a lamp of fire passing between those divisions. The same day God

TENTS OF SYRIAN ARAB SHEPHERDS, SHOWING THE MODE OF LIFE OF THE PATRIARCHS.

made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To thy seed will I give this land, from the river of Egypt even to the great river Euphrates."

§ 5. The Birth of Ismael (B.C. 2096) and the Covenant of Circumcision. God now continued to bless Abram; and Sara, growing impatient that the promises of God were still unfulfilled by the birth of the promised heir, gave her Egyptian handmaid Agar to be Abram's second When Agar found herself likely to become, as

wife.

she thought, the mother of the promised heir, she despised her mistress; and when she was punished for this by Sara, she ran away into the wilderness. An angel however appeared to her, and told her to return to her mistress, and to submit. Soon after her return, Ismael her son was born. God also appeared again to Abram, and made with him the Covenant of Circumcision, which became the mark by which God was pleased to keep His chosen people, from among whom the Messias was to be born, separate from the other nations. From this time Abram received the name of "Abraham," or "Father of many nations."

§6. The Lord appears to Abraham, promises Sara a Son, and announces the destruction of Sodom.

Abraham was sitting at the door of his tent in the heat of the day in the vale of Mambre; and as he lifted up his eyes, there appeared to him three men standing him ; and as soon as he saw them he ran to meet them from the door of his tent, and bowed down to the ground.

near

And he said: "Lord, if I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away from thy servant: I will fetch a little water, and wash ye your feet, and rest ye under the tree. And I will set a morsel of bread; and strengthen ye your heart, afterwards you shall pass on; for therefore are you come aside to your servant." And they said: "Do as thou hast spoken." Abraham made haste into the tent to Sara, and said to her: "Make haste, temper together three measures of flour,

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and make cakes upon the hearth." And he himself ran to the herd, and took from thence a calf very ten

der and very good, and gave it to a young man, who made haste and boiled it. He took also butter and milk and the calf which he had boiled, and set before them; but he stood by them under the tree. And when they had eaten, they said to him: "Where is

Sara thy wife?" He answered: "She is in the tent." And He said to him: "I will return and come to thee at this time, and Sara thy wife shall have a son." Which when Sara heard, she laughed behind the door of the tent. And the Lord said to Abraham : "Why did Sara laugh? Is there any thing hard to God? According to appointment I will return to thee at this same time, and Sara shall have a son." Sara denied, saying: "I did not laugh;" for she was afraid. But the Lord said: "Nay, but thou didst laugh."

And when the men rose up from thence, they turned their eyes towards Sodom; and Abraham walked with them, bringing them on the way. And the Lord said: "Can I hide from Abraham what I am about to do; seeing he shall become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth shall be blessed?" And the Lord said: "The cry of Sodom and Gomorrha is multiplied, and their sin is become exceedingly grievous. I will go down and see whether they have done according to the cry that is come to Me, or whether it be not so, that I may know." And they turned themselves from thence, and went their way to Sodom; but Abraham as yet stood before the Lord. And drawing nigh, he said: "Wilt Thou destroy the just with the wicked? If there be fifty just men in the city, shall they perish withal? and wilt Thou not spare that place for the sake of the fifty just, if they be therein? Far be it from Thee to do this thing, and to slay the just with the wicked, and for the just to be in like case as the wicked, this is not beseeming Thee Thou who judgest all the earth wilt not make