God said to Noah and his sons,

and with all living beings---all birds and all animals---everything that came out of the boat with you.

As a sign of this everlasting covenant which I am making with you and with all living beings,

Whenever I cover the sky with clouds and the rainbow appears,

When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between me and all living beings on earth.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am the Almighty God. Obey me and always do what is right.

Abram bowed down with his face touching the ground, and God said,

Your name will no longer be Abram, but Abraham, because I am making you the ancestor of many nations.

"I will keep my promise to you and to your descendants in future generations as an everlasting covenant. I will be your God and the God of your descendants.

God said to Abraham, "You also must agree to keep the covenant with me, both you and your descendants in future generations.

From now on you must circumcise every baby boy when he is eight days old, including slaves born in your homes and slaves bought from foreigners. This will show that there is a covenant between you and me.

Each one must be circumcised, and this will be a physical sign to show that my covenant with you is everlasting.

God said to Abraham, "You must no longer call your wife Sarai; from now on her name is Sarah.

Abraham bowed down with his face touching the ground, but he began to laugh when he thought, "Can a man have a child when he is a hundred years old? Can Sarah have a child at ninety?"

But God said, "No. Your wife Sarah will bear you a son and you will name him Isaac. I will keep my covenant with him and with his descendants forever. It is an everlasting covenant.

But I will keep my covenant with your son Isaac, who will be born to Sarah about this time next year."

On that same day Abraham obeyed God and circumcised his son Ishmael and all the other males in his household, including the slaves born in his home and those he had bought.

and his son Ishmael was thirteen.

together with all of Abraham's slaves.

The LORD, the God of heaven, brought me from the home of my father and from the land of my relatives, and he solemnly promised me that he would give this land to my descendants. He will send his angel before you, so that you can get a wife there for my son.

And that is how God will bless my descendants, because he has made an eternal covenant with me, an agreement that will not be broken, a promise that will not be changed. That is all I desire; that will be my victory, and God will surely bring it about.

"Listen now, my people, and come to me; come to me, and you will have life! I will make a lasting covenant with you and give you the blessings I promised to David.

The LORD says, "The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.

The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

I will make an eternal covenant with them. I will never stop doing good things for them, and I will make them fear me with all their heart, so that they will never turn away from me.

"I have made a covenant with the day and with the night, so that they always come at their proper times; and that covenant can never be broken.

I will increase the number of descendants of my servant David and the number of priests from the tribe of Levi, so that it will be as impossible to count them as it is to count the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the seashore."

"Have you noticed how people are saying that I have rejected Israel and Judah, the two families that I chose? And so they look with contempt on my people and no longer consider them a nation.

And just as surely as I have done this, so I will maintain my covenant with Jacob's descendants and with my servant David. I will choose one of David's descendants to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will be merciful to my people and make them prosperous again."

My friends, I am going to use an everyday example: when two people agree on a matter and sign an agreement, no one can break it or add anything to it.

What I mean is that God made a covenant with Abraham and promised to keep it. The Law, which was given four hundred and thirty years later, cannot break that covenant and cancel God's promise.

God has raised from death our Lord Jesus, who is the Great Shepherd of the sheep as the result of his blood, by which the eternal covenant is sealed. May the God of peace provide you with every good thing you need in order to do his will, and may he, through Jesus Christ, do in us what pleases him. And to Christ be the glory forever and ever! Amen.

The LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "This is the country that I am going to give to your descendants." Then Abram built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

I am going to give you and your descendants all the land that you see, and it will be yours forever.

I will give to you and to your descendants this land in which you are now a foreigner. The whole land of Canaan will belong to your descendants forever, and I will be their God."

I will give you as many descendants as there are stars in the sky, and I will give them all this territory. All the nations will ask me to bless them as I have blessed your descendants.

May he bless you and your descendants as he blessed Abraham, and may you take possession of this land, in which you have lived and which God gave to Abraham!"

And there was the LORD standing beside him. "I am the LORD, the God of Abraham and Isaac," he said. "I will give to you and to your descendants this land on which you are lying.

They will be as numerous as the specks of dust on the earth. They will extend their territory in all directions, and through you and your descendants I will bless all the nations.

I will give you the land which I gave to Abraham and to Isaac, and I will also give it to your descendants after you."

He said to his brothers, "I am about to die, but God will certainly take care of you and lead you out of this land to the land he solemnly promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."

and so I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and to bring them out of Egypt to a spacious land, one which is rich and fertile and in which the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites now live.

I also made my covenant with them, promising to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they had lived as foreigners.

My angel will go ahead of you and take you into the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I will destroy them.

"I will make the people who oppose you afraid of me; I will bring confusion among the people against whom you fight, and I will make all your enemies turn and run from you.

I will not drive them out within a year's time; if I did, the land would become deserted, and the wild animals would be too many for you.

I will make the borders of your land extend from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Mediterranean Sea and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give you power over the inhabitants of the land, and you will drive them out as you advance.

Obey the laws that I am giving you today. I will drive out the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as you advance.

The southern border will extend from the wilderness of Zin along the border of Edom. It will begin on the east at the southern end of the Dead Sea.

Break camp and move on. Go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the surrounding regions---to the Jordan Valley, to the hill country and the lowlands, to the southern region, and to the Mediterranean coast. Go to the land of Canaan and on beyond the Lebanon Mountains as far as the great Euphrates River.

All of this is the land which I, the LORD, promised to give to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their descendants. Go and occupy it.' "

"The LORD your God will bring you into the land that you are going to occupy, and he will drive many nations out of it. As you advance, he will drive out seven nations larger and more powerful than you: the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

All the ground that you march over will be yours. Your territory will extend from the desert in the south to the Lebanon Mountains in the north, and from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.

Then the LORD said to Moses, "This is the land that I promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob I would give to their descendants. I have let you see it, but I will not let you go there."

As I told Moses, I have given you and all my people the entire land that you will be marching over.

Your borders will reach from the desert in the south to the Lebanon Mountains in the north; from the great Euphrates River in the east, through the Hittite country, to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.

The people of Israel had already conquered and occupied the land east of the Jordan, from the Arnon Valley up the Jordan Valley and as far north as Mount Hermon. They defeated two kings.

it included the Jordan Valley from Lake Galilee south to Beth Jeshimoth (east of the Dead Sea) and on toward the foot of Mount Pisgah.

His kingdom included Mount Hermon, Salecah, and all of Bashan as far as the boundaries of Geshur and Maacah, as well as half of Gilead, as far as the territory of King Sihon of Heshbon.

Joshua and the people of Israel defeated all the kings in the territory west of the Jordan, from Baalgad in the valley of Lebanon to Mount Halak in the south near Edom. Joshua divided this land among the tribes and gave it to them as a permanent possession.

The people of Israel defeated the kings of the following cities: Jericho, Ai (near Bethel),

Jarmuth, Lachish,

Debir, Geder,

Libnah, Adullam,

Tappuah, Hepher,

Madon, Hazor,

The second assignment made was for the families of the tribe of Simeon. Its territory extended into the land assigned to the tribe of Judah.

Hazar Shual, Balah, Ezem,

Ziklag, Beth Marcaboth, Hazar Susah,

There were also Ain, Rimmon, Ether, and Ashan: four cities, along with the towns around them.

Since Judah's assignment was larger than was needed, part of its territory was given to the tribe of Simeon.

From there the border went west to Mareal, touching Dabbesheth and the stream east of Jokneam.

It continued east from there to Gath Hepher and Ethkazin, turning in the direction of Neah on the way to Rimmon.

It included Kattath, Nahalal, Shimron, Idalah, and Bethlehem: twelve cities, along with the towns around them.

The fourth assignment made was for the families of the tribe of Issachar.

Hapharaim, Shion, Anaharath,

Remeth, Engannim, Enhaddah, and Bethpazzez.

These cities and their towns were in the land which the families of the tribe of Issachar received as their possession.

Its area included Helkath, Hali, Beten, Achshaph,

As it turned east, the border went to Bethdagon, touching Zebulun and Iphtahel Valley on the way north to Bethemek and Neiel. It continued north to Cabul,

The border then turned to Ramah, reaching the fortified city of Tyre; then it turned to Hosah and ended at the Mediterranean Sea. It included Mahalab, Achzib,

These cities and their towns were in the land which the families of the tribe of Asher received as their possession.

Its border went from Heleph to the oak in Zaanannim, on to Adaminekeb and to Jamnia, as far as Lakkum, and ended at the Jordan.

The fortified cities were Ziddim, Zer, Hammath, Rakkath, Chinnereth,

Kedesh, Edrei, Enhazor,

Solomon's kingdom included all the nations from the Euphrates River to Philistia and the Egyptian border. They paid him taxes and were subject to him all his life.

He was supreme ruler of all the kings in the territory from the Euphrates River to Philistia and the Egyptian border.

You found that he was faithful to you, and you made a covenant with him. You promised to give him the land of the Canaanites, the land of the Hittites and the Amorites, the land of the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Girgashites, to be a land where his descendants would live. You kept your promise, because you are faithful.

"I will give you the land of Canaan," he said. "It will be your own possession."

where it will turn toward the valley at the border of Egypt and end at the Mediterranean.

went on to Azmon, and followed the stream on the border of Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea, where the border ended. That was the southern border of Judah.

On that day, from the Euphrates to the Egyptian border, the LORD will gather his people one by one, as threshing separates the wheat from the chaff.

The third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria, and the fourth river is the Euphrates.

Then he defeated the king of the Syrian state of Zobah, Hadadezer son of Rehob, as Hadadezer was on his way to restore his control over the territory by the upper Euphrates River.

They had large herds in the land of Gilead, and so they occupied the land as far east as the desert that stretches all the way to the Euphrates River.