“The Lord who rules over all says, ‘Ask the priests about the law.

Tell Zerubbabel governor of Judah: ‘I am ready to shake the sky and the earth.

The Lord then addressed good, comforting words to the angelic messenger who was speaking to me.

The Lord will take possession of Judah as his portion in the holy land and he will choose Jerusalem once again.

I asked the messenger who was speaking to me, “Where are they taking the basket?”

Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech and their companions to seek the Lord’s favor

Moreover, as for you, because of our covenant relationship secured with blood, I will release your prisoners from the waterless pit.

So on that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.”

and rejected Esau. I turned Esau’s mountains into a deserted wasteland and gave his territory to the wild jackals.”

And Adam had marital relations with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son. She named him Seth, saying, “God has given me another child in place of Abel because Cain killed him.”

Shem and Japheth took the garment and placed it on their shoulders. Then they walked in backwards and covered up their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so they did not see their father’s nakedness.

That day the Lord made a covenant with Abram: “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River –

God said, “No, Sarah your wife is going to bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac. I will confirm my covenant with him as a perpetual covenant for his descendants after him.

Abraham took his son Ishmael and every male in his household (whether born in his house or bought with money) and circumcised them on that very same day, just as God had told him to do.

I have chosen him so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. Then the Lord will give to Abraham what he promised him.”

Early in the morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took two of his young servants with him, along with his son Isaac. When he had cut the wood for the burnt offering, he started out for the place God had spoken to him about.

“Do not harm the boy!” the angel said. “Do not do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God because you did not withhold your son, your only son, from me.”

Abraham looked up and saw behind him a ram caught in the bushes by its horns. So he went over and got the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

I will indeed bless you, and I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be as countless as the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the strongholds of their enemies.

“Listen, sir, you are a mighty prince among us! You may bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will refuse you his tomb to prevent you from burying your dead.”