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Psalm 86

Supplication for Help against Enemies

A Prayer of David.
¹ Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me,
   for I am poor and needy.
² Preserve my life, for I am devoted to you;
   save your servant who trusts in you.
You are my God; ³be gracious to me, O Lord,
   for to you do I cry all day long.
⁴ Gladden the soul of your servant,
   for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
⁵ For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
   abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you.
⁶ Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer;
   listen to my cry of supplication.
⁷ In the day of my trouble I call on you,
   for you will answer me.

⁸ There is none like you among the gods, O Lord,
   nor are there any works like yours.
⁹ All the nations you have made shall come
   and bow down before you, O Lord,
   and shall glorify your name.
¹⁰ For you are great and do wondrous things;
   you alone are God.

The Call of Abram

12Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ²I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’^*

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ⁵Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, ⁶Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak^* of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, ‘To your offspring^* I will give this land.’ So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. ⁸From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. ⁹And Abram journeyed on by stages towards the Negeb.

God’s Covenant with Abram

15After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.’ ²But Abram said, ‘O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?’^{* 3}And Abram said, ‘You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.’ ⁴But the word of the Lord came to him, ‘This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.’ ⁵He brought him outside and said, ‘Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ ⁶And he believed the Lord; and the Lord ^* reckoned it to him as righteousness.