The Call of Abram

12 The Lord said to Abram:

⁴ So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran.^{(G) 5} He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people he had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, ⁶ Abram passed through the land to the site of Shechem,^(H) at the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷ Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.”^(I) So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.

¹¹ “For My name will be great among the nations,^(A) from the rising of the sun to its setting. Incense^[a] and pure offerings will be presented in My name in every place because My name will be great among the nations,”^[b] says Yahweh of Hosts.

²⁴ He replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”^(A)

³⁶ So the Jews said, “See how He loved^(A) him!”

Paul Answers an Objection

3 So what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? ² Considerable in every way. First, they were entrusted^(A) with the spoken words of God.^(B)

⁴ They are Israelites,^(A) and to them belong the adoption,^(B) the glory,^(C) the covenants,^(D) the giving of the law,^(E) the temple service,^(F) and the promises.^{(G) 5} The ancestors are theirs,^(H) and from them, by physical descent,^[a] came the Messiah,^(I) who is God^(J) over all,^(K) praised forever.^[b](L) Amen.

⁸ For I say that the Messiah became a servant of the circumcised^[a] on behalf of God’s truth,^(A) to confirm the promises to the fathers,^{(B) 9} and so that Gentiles^(C) may glorify God for His mercy.^(D) As it is written: