Day 6. Genesis 16-18

Genesis 16-18

Genesis 16

¹Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.

Kinky

²And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.

"Go in unto" means the same as "know"; also means "uncover nakedness".

⁴And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.

Alright, here's the scenario. Sarai couldn't have kids, but she had a good friend who didn't have anything wrong with her. So, she "gave" her handmaiden to Abram so that he could have kids. In verse 3, Hagar became Abram's wife. Then Sarai got mad at Hagar because her husband married her, and she was able to have a kid instead of her.

⁵And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD judge between me and thee.

Sarai realized her mistake.

⁶But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thine hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face.

Abram, not wanting to pick favorites (remember, Sarai was a babe so much that the pharaoh of Egypt took her to be his wife) between his first and second wife, allowed Sarai to determine the fate of Hagar. (Not Hagar the Horrible).

Hagar winds up by a fountain in the wilderness, there she runs into an angel, who asks why she's there, and she said she was running away from Sarai. The angel tells her to return.

¹¹And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.

¹²And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

Ishmael, he is considered to be the ancestor of the northern Arab people. Funny, that makes the Arab's Hebrew... hahahhaaha.

¹⁵And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son's name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael.

¹⁶And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.

Abram became a father at age 86. Wow, that's some potent spunk.

Genesis 17

¹And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

God shows up on earth again. This may, or may not have been a vision.

⁴As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.

God's covenant with Abram was that he would have children who would be innumerable. Oddly, if you think of modern Jews (their race, not religion) they can claim to trace their origins back to Abram. As an American mutt, I don't know where my lineage traces to. Other than Arabs and Jews, can any other race trace themselves back to a single person?

⁵Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.

And now, Abram becomes Abraham. God promises Abram (oops, Abraham) that his children, and everyone after them, will get the land that was promised (from the Nile to the Euphrates). All they have to do is...

¹⁰This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.

¹¹And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

Religious Male Circumcision. The cutting off of the foreskin. FYI, the feast of the circumcision of christ takes place on January 1. People celebrate that. Really. They do.

¹²And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.

At 8 days a boy is circumcised. Since Christmas is Dec. 25, he would have been cut on Jan 1.

¹⁴And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.

This is another example of a line that was probably added AFTER the actual event, since it makes no context in this. His people? That term hasn't been used yet to describe anyone's offspring. When Moses is writing the law in Lev. 7, 17, 20, and 23, along with Numbers "his people" a lot. Many of the time, it also has "cut off from" with it. It doesn't seem as though it belongs.

¹⁵And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.

Sarai is now Sarah, and my spellchecker is happy.

¹⁶And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.

I think this kind of upset Abraham.

¹⁷Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?

I'll assume Sarah was still hot. Also, how does the author know what someone "said in his heart". Oh, because it was god who wrote this, not Moses.

¹⁸And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!

Even though Abraham was 100, he was still a good father to his son Ishmael. He wished that Ishmael would be the one to be the father of his people.

¹⁹And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.

Isaac will be Abraham's son. Ishmael was Abram's son.

²⁰And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.

The Arab's are a pretty powerful nation.

²¹But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.

Here we see the skipping of the birthright. The birthright is the privilege that the firstborn gets. Usually most of the inheritance goes to the eldest, while the younger has to fend for themselves.

²³And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him.

What would you think if a 99 year old came at you with a knife claiming god told him to cut the foreskin off your penis?

Ishmael was 13 when he got chopped.

Abraham: Son, come here.
Ishmael: What is it dad?
Abraham: I need to talk to you.
Ishmael: ok, on my way... hey, dad, what's with the knife???
Abraham: Son, god told me to cut the foreskin off of my penis, additionally, I am to cut it off yours and everyone else that works for me.
Ishmael: ok, if god said so

(wait, there's NO WAY any 13 year old would say that)

Ishmael: get away from me you crazy old bastard... arrrrrghhh MOM, dad's trying to cut off my dick... MOM

(meanwhile Sarah is like, cut off his whole penis! I hate that boy!)

Genesis 18

¹And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;

God appeared to Abraham.

²And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,

Abraham was visited by three men.

⁴Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree:

⁵And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said.

He offered them water, bread and some rest. He also got them some calf to eat, along with butter and milk.

⁹And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent.

Man, I wish we still talked like that. It sounds almost like a magician. Where is your wife? BEHOLD. Honey are you in the shower? BEHOLD, look at my nudity! Hey where is the beer? BEHOLD, it's in the fridge!

¹⁰And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him.

¹¹Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.

They again told Abraham about Sarah having a boy. Sarah was old. There's some interesting phraseology there, "it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women". They are saying she reached menopause , she stopped having her period. Menopause means "end of monthly cycles" from the Greek pausis (cessation) and mensis (month).

Sarah laughed this off.

¹⁴Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.

Is there anything too hard for the LORD?

¹⁵Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. And he said, Nay; but thou didst laugh.

God: you laughed
Sarah: no I didn't
God: yes you did

¹⁶And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom: and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way.

¹⁷And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do;

God and the other two angels just stopped at Abraham's tents while they were on their way to go destroy Sodom. They dropped off some good news to Abraham and Sarah before they went to go slaughter the cities of the plain.

²⁰And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;

²¹I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.

God wants to destroy Sodom. He REALLY wants to do it.

²³And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?

²⁴Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?

Abraham starts to bargain with god.

²⁶And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.

God said if he can find 50 people, he won't kill them. He doesn't say men, he doesn't apply any special qualifies to the number of the righteous, he just says fifty righteous.

Abraham asks, well, what if there's only 45?

²⁸Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it.

Forty... thirty... twenty... ten.

³²And he said, Oh let not the LORD be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake.

Ten righteous. God said he wouldn't destroy Sodom if there were 10 righteous people found there.

What happened to all of Lot's former employees?

Things to ponder from today:

1. What would you think if your 99 year old father showed up with a knife and said he was going to cut part of your penis off?
2. If you offer your spouse/significant other/lover a romp with your friend, should you be surprised when they wind up having a good time?
3. Can you find 50, 45, 40, 30, 20, 10 righteous people in your town?
4. Wouldn't it be easier to kill the one person who led the town of Sodom to be evil back earlier, than to go and destroy the whole city now?

Day 5. Genesis 13-15

Genesis 13-15

Genesis 13

¹And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.

²And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.

Apparently the drought had ended. We aren't told exactly how long Abram stayed in Egypt.

³And he went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Hai;

Oh hai, welcome to Bethel. Bethel means "House of El" (El is another name for god). Edward Robinson believed that Bethel is now Beitin. There are some significant things that wind up happening at Bethel. It may or may not be the same place. Pretty much anywhere that someone encounters the old testament god, can be named Beth El.

⁵And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents.

⁶And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together.

Lot was traveling with Abram. They were a rather large group.

⁷And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.

Lot and Abram weren't fighting, but their workers were fighting over who would get the best land/watering holes/places to stay.

Abram offers Lot a choice.

⁹Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.

If you take the left, I'll take the right.

¹⁰And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.

¹¹Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other.

Here we see some foreshadowing. The towns of Sodom and Gomorrah were mentioned earlier in Gen 10:19. Their destruction hasn't been brought up yet.

¹²Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.

Lot moved into town. Abram stayed as a vagabond rancher. We aren't told what happened to all those herdmen who worked for Lot.

¹³But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.

Men of Sodom. This is where the term sodomy comes from. Sodomy covers anal intercourse, oral intercourse, and bestiality.

¹⁴And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:

¹⁵For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.

Here we have another covenant between god and a human.

¹⁶And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.

That's a lot of offspring.

¹⁸Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.

Abram will stay at Mamre for a while.

Genesis 14

¹And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations;

This should give an exact date.

Amraphel of Shinar. Shinar is a name for Mesopotamia or Babylon. Amraphel is associated with Hammurabi. Drop the H and BI in Hammurabi; drop the EL in Amraphel and you are left with Ammura and Amraph respectively. Remember EL normally means God (beth el). Hammurabi was king of Babylon from 1792 to 1750 BC.

Arioch king of Ellasar. It is believed this is Eri-aku king of Larsa (Assyria).

Chedorlaomer king of Elam. It is believed this is Kudur-Lagamar king of Elam. Others believe it is Kutir-Lagamar.

Tidal king of nations. Tudhaliya was the name of several Hittite kings. They ruled from the 1430s to the 1100's. It wouldn't have been any of them. Bestowing the title of Tidal (Tudhaliya) would have been because at the time, the Hittite kingdom had several nations involved, Ammurru and Mittani.

With the kings named, it is still impossible to put an exact date of this event.

²That these made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar.

The first four kings attacked the kings of these cities: Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela. The historicity of these kings is doubtful.

³All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea.

The battle of the Vale of Siddim! Did it happen?

According to Genesis 14, the kings in verse 2 paid tribute to Chedorlaomer for twelve years, but rebelled in the thirteenth. So, the kings from the Babylon area went and attacked the kings of the cities of the plain.

¹⁰And the vale of Siddim was full of slimepits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there; and they that remained fled to the mountain.

The Jordan River is the only major water source flowing in the Dead Sea. There are small springs under and around it, that creates quicksand pits along the edges. That could be the slimepits mentioned in verse 10.

¹¹And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way.

¹²And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.

Lot was captured, along with all his goods.

¹³And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew; for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner: and these were confederate with Abram.

This is the first mention of the word Hebrew. It is used 45 times in the bible. The word Hebrew basically means anyone who is a descendant of Eber. Eber was a great great grandson of Noah.

Noah > Shem > Arphaxad > Shelah > Eber

Hebrews are Semitic.

¹⁴And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.

Wow, pursued them to Dan. That's rather interesting. Abram may have pursued them to the area that became Dan, but Dan wouldn't be named Dan until about a thousand years later. Dan is one of the sons of Jacob; one of the tribes of Israel. Dan (in Israel) is the northernmost town in the kingdom of Israel. Prior to being Dan, the area was known as Laish.

Remember, the book of Genesis is attributed to Moses. It is claimed that each word was written by god. Moses received it on Mount Sinai. In order for this to have been written by Moses (who never made it into Israel) he would have had to have known that Dan was going to take over the northern part of Israel, when they took over the area. It's odd that they didn't use another city name, since they use (practically) made up king names.


¹⁶And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.

So, Abram managed to defeat the combined kingdom of what was Babylonia with only 318 people. This event should have been recorded somewhere else. Oddly there is no mention of Abram on the Hammurabi page on Wikipedia.

¹⁷And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's dale.

Chedorlaomer was the Elamite king. If we read the Hammurabi page on wiki, we see that in 1763 defeated the Elamites.

¹⁸And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.

We don't know Melchizedek's lineage for sure. According to the Second Book of Enoch, he was born of a virgin, to Sofonim, the wife of Nir (a married virgin?) who was a brother of Noah. He came out physically developed, clothed, speaking and blessing the lord. (I can see why she died, giving birth to a clothed child) Forty days later he was taken by the archangel Gabriel to the Garden of Eden and was preserved from Noah's flood.

So, according to that story, Melchizedek is Noah's nephew. He's alive during the time of Abraham.

Lamech > Noah > Shem > Arphaxad > Shelah > Eber > Peleg > Reu > Serug > Nachor > Terah > Abram

Lamech > Nir > Melchizedek

Bread and wine? That's the Lord's Supper.

¹⁹And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:

Way to go Abram.

²¹And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.

The Sodom king, (Bera?) who fell in verse 10, unless a new king was crowned, offered Abram whatever he wanted from the things he brought back.

²³That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich:

²⁴Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.

Abram had enough stuff, he didn't even take a shoelace. He did let the people with him take some stuff though.

Did Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre count in the 318?

Genesis 15

¹After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.

God is now standoffish. Remember, he used to walk around in the garden with Adam and Eve. He used to walk with Noah. Then after the flood he disappeared. He used to accept the offerings directly from Cain and Abel, now they have to be burnt offerings so that the smoke goes up to heaven. God used to talk to people, now he's showing up in visions.

²And Abram said, LORD God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?

God has already promised that Abram's seed will be like the dust. Abram is now complaining that he hasn't had any kids yet.

God then tells Abram to make him an offering.

⁹And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.

Where's the partridge in a pear tree?

Heifers are sacrificed in Numbers 19 for people who come into contact with a corpse.

She goats are sacrificed in Numbers 15 for people who sin through ignorance.

Rams are sacrificed in Leviticus 5 for people who sin through trespass.

Turtledoves are sacrificed for a purifying sin offering, as is the young pigeon in Leviticus 12. They are used for the purifying after the birth of a child. Because giving birth is a sin.

¹²And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.

God then gave Abram the dream that his offspring would go into Egypt and serve there.

¹³And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;

¹⁸In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

From the river of Egypt to the Euphrates, that's a long way. The river of Egypt is obviously the Nile. Nile to Euphrates... This covers much of Egypt, all of Jordan, some of Syria and some of Iraq. People claim that the blue stripes on Israel's flag represent those two rivers, and not the traditional stripes on the prayer shawl.

Points to ponder from today:

1. Did Abram exist?
2. Who was Melchizedek?
3. Many people claim the bible is an historically accurate document, if the bible can't get the history parts correct, then why do you believe it can get the theological parts correct?

Day 4. Genesis 10-12

Genesis 10-12

Genesis 10

¹Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.

The begats. Everyone hates the begats. Unless you love the begats. I kind of like them.

When you look up Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their offspring, you are reading something called the "table of nations". There are a whole lot of places that have various tables of nations. This one, is my favorite.

Genesis 10: 2-5 is the sons of Japheth.

Gomer
Magog
Madai
Javan
Tubal
Meshech
Tiras

Verses 6-20 are the sons of Ham.

Cush
Mizraim
Phut
Canaan (the cursed one)

Verses 21-31 are the sons of Shem.

Elam
Asshur
Arphaxad
Lud
Aram

Remember, Shem is the father of the Semitic people. The Hebrews (Abraham) came through the Arphaxad line.

³²These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.

Many (if not all) historical groups have a flood myth.

The Sumerian myth had the god Enki warning Ziusudra to build a large boat, then Ziusudra's offspring repopulated the earth.

The Babylonian myth is called the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Greek mythology had three floods: Ogyges, Deucalion, and Dardanus.

Norse mythology had two floods.

The Aztec's had one; as did the Caddo, Hopi, Inca, and Maya.

Many people believe that the reason behind the myth is the discovery of sea shells (fossils) inland. In "How the Earth Was Made" Episode: Sahara, the show starts out with a lady walking up to the bones of a whale in the middle of the Sahara. In others, they show fossilized shells in the Rocky Mountains. Ancient people would have had to come up with a way to explain finding these things. Having the entire world flooded would make a good enough excuse.

Genesis 11

¹And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

Here we get the Tower of Babel.

³And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

⁴And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

That was kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Let us make a name, lest we be scattered. Do'h.

God went down to see what the people were doing.

⁶And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

⁷Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

⁸So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

So, the people had their language changed.

⁹Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

That's why it's called babbling. Because your speech is confounded.

Some people believe that the tower of Babel was the Etemenanki (temple of the foundation of heaven and earth), which was a ziggurat dedicated to Marduk. That ziggurat has been built, destroyed, and rebuilt several times throughout history. The last time it was destroyed was by Alexander the Great in 323 BC.

¹⁰These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:

Part 2 of Genesis 11 is the generations of Shem... except that this is the names and ages of the offspring of Arphaxad.

Arphaxad > Salah > Eber > Peleg > Reu > Serug > Nahor > Terah

Terah had three kids: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran was the father of Lot. Haran died early so Lot was pretty much Terah's third son.

Abram took a wife, Sarai.

³⁰But Sarai was barren; she had no child.

Baren wives is a common story in the old testament.

Genesis 12

¹Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

Babel was in/around Babylon (Iraq). So we aren't told exactly when the tower of Babel incident occurred, so we'll assume that Abram and his family were all somewhere in the Iraq area.

³And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

When you wonder why the United States shows such support for Israel. This verse is one of those main reasons. This verse is the foundation of why the religious right wants us to support Israel.

⁴So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

Remember, Lot was Abram's nephew.

⁷And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.

That was part of the land of Canaan.

¹⁰And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.

Remember to earlier when we discussed the Green Sahara? That time ended in the 4th millennium BCE. If the desertification started from the edges and worked to the middle, then the area of Israel would have been one of the first areas to dry up, while Egypt would have lasted green longer. (possibly). Egypt itself had the Nile running through it, so that area would have survived the drought better.

¹¹And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon:

Sarai was a hottie, Abram was afraid that the Egyptians would think she was hot.

¹²Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.

¹³Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.

Abram told Sarah (oops I'm getting ahead of myself) to tell the Egyptians that she was his sister, and not his wife. Because Abram was a wuss.

¹⁵The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.

Pharaoh thought she was hot, so he took her to be a wife. We aren't told exactly how Abram felt about this. We are told how god felt.

¹⁷And the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife.

God plagued Egypt. God LOVES to plague Egypt. That's one of the things he does good. We aren't told exactly what these plagues were. But it probably had something to do with the end of the Neolithic Subpluvial.

Pharaoh calls Abram in...

¹⁹Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way.

²⁰And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.

So, Pharaoh sends Abram and Sarai away; but, he didn't just send them away, he gave Abram great riches to take her away.

Abram will become one of the main characters in Genesis. He is pretty much the father of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Soon, he'll get his name changed to Abraham. The "God of Abraham" is one of the main descriptors of the hebrew god, that's the nickname that ties the three religions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism together. In our readings of Abram so far, we've seen that he's a person who will lie, claiming his wife is his sister, so that he won't be killed.

Things to ponder from today:

1. Is there any truth to the flood mythology? If it's so prevalent in all those society, can some of it be true?
2. Is the tower of Babel story historically accurate?
3. Why isn't this pharaoh's name mentioned? Doing the math from the flood, it is possible to come up with when Abram was born. (1948 from creation; roughly 1800 BCE) The Pharaoh could have been Amenemhet III, or a different pharaoh in the Thirteenth Dynasty.
4. Other than worshiping the correct diety, has Abram done anything that sets him apart as even a good person?