an Egyptian, and she on a day said to Abram her husband:  Thou seest I may bear no child, wherefore I would thou took Hagar my maid, that thou might get a child which I might keep and hold for mine.  And ten year after that Abram had dwelled in that land, he took Hagar, and anon she despised her mistress.  Then Sara said to Abram:  Thou dost evil.  My servant now hath me in despite, God judge this between thee and me.  To whom Abram answered:  Thine handmaid is in thine hands, chastise her as it pleaseth thee.  After this Sara chastised Hagar and put her to so great affliction that she went away; and as she went an angel met with her in the wilderness by a well, and said:  Hagar, whence comest and whither goest thou?  She answered:  I flee away from the face of my lady Sara.  To whom the angel said, return again and submit thee by humbleness unto thy lady, and I shall multiply thy seed, and so much people shall come of it that it cannot be numbered for multitude.  And he said furthermore:  Thou shalt bear a child and shalt call him Ishmael.  He shall be a fierce man, he shall be against all men, and all men against him.  Then Hagar returned home and served her lady, and soon after this she was delivered of Ishmael.  Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born.

When Abram was ninety-nine years, our Lord appeared to him and said:  Abram, lo!  I am the Lord Almighty, walk thou before me and be perfect, and I shall keep covenant between me and thee and shall multiply thy seed greatly.  And Abram fell down lowting low to the earth and thanked him.  Then our Lord said I am, and my covenant I shall keep to thee, thou shalt be father of much people.  Thou shalt no more be called Abram, but Abraham, for I have ordained thee father of much people.  I shall make thee to increase most abundantly; kings and princes shall come of thee, and shall stablish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed in thy generations.  I shall give to thee and to thy seed after thee the land of thy pilgrimage, all the land of Canaan, into their possession and I shall be their God.  Yet said God to Abraham:  And thou shalt keep thy covenant to me, and thine heirs after thee in their generations, and this shall be the covenant that ye shall keep and thine heirs after thee.  Every child masculine that shall be born shall be circumcised when he is eight days old.  And see that the men in your generation be circumcised, begin at thyself and thy children.  And all that dwell in thy kindred, who of you that shall not be circumcised shall be cast and put out for ever from my people, because he obeyeth not my statute and ordinance.  And thy wife Sara shall be called no more Sara but she shall be called Sarah, and I shall bless her, and shall give to thee a son of her, whom I shall bless also.  I shall him increase into nations, and kings of peoples shall come of him.  Abraham fell down on his face toward the earth and laughed in his heart, saying:  May it be that a woman of ninety years may bear a child?