Genesis 17 is about the covenant given by the Lord with Abram and his descendants. The Lord appeared to Abram and called him to "walk before me and be blameless". The Lord confirmed His covenant that he would make Abram a father of many nations and gave him a new name, Abraham. God said the covenant would be an everlasting covenant for generations to come and reminded him also of the promise of the whole land of Canaan to be an everlasting possession to Abraham's descendants. God said "I will be their God" and "as for you, you must keep my covenant... every male among you shall be circumcised." God said, "my covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant". Then God said, "As for Sarai, .. her name will be Sarah.. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations, kings of peoples will come from her". But, Abraham fell down laughing , asking "will a son be born to a man a hundred years old?" God answered, "Yes, you wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac.. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants". Though Abraham seemed to have doubts about having children at his age, he faithfully took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household, every male including himself, and were all circumcised just as the Lord had commanded to honor the covenant.

In Genesis 16, Abram and Sarai make plans to have a child a different way, rather than trusting God and waiting for God to fulfill his promise. They instead ask their servant, Hagar, to have relations with Abram and conceive a child. Sarai later regretted the decision and treated Hagar harshly and Hagar left town. An angel of the Lord spoke to Hagar and instructed her to return and submit to Sarai. The angel also said to her "the Lord will greatly multiply your descendants". So, the Lord showed compassion to Hagar and blessed her and she was amazed saying, "You are the God who sees me".

In Genesis 15, God speaks to Abram in three visions and gives the covenant promise to his descendants. In the first vision, God reminds Abram of His protection and the great reward and blessings that He is going to give him. But, Abram is confused and asks, "what good are blessings when I don't even have a son?". God reassures him that he will have a son to inherit the blessings and all that He is giving to Abram. In fact, God tells Abram that his descendants will be great in number like the stars in the night sky. At this, "Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord declared him righteous because of his faith". God also reminded Abram that He is the same God who brought him out of his former homeland and will give him a new "promised" land.
To further reassure Abram of the promise of the land He would give him, God told him to bring animal sacrifices and they performed a traditional agreement custom of cutting the animals in half. Abram experienced two more prophetic visions, which the Lord explained to him. The first was a "terrifying vision of darkness and horror", which the Lord explained as a time when Abram's descendants will be oppressed in a foreign land as slaves. But, the Lord also explained that they would return to the land with great wealth one day. In the last vision, Abram saw a "smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the animal carcasses", which symbolized the covenant the Lord made with Abram that day.

Genesis 14 tells of wars that broke out between several of the region’s rival kings. “The kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela formed an alliance and mobilized their armies in Siddim. For twelve years they had all been subject to King Kedorlaomer, but now in the thirteenth year they rebelled”. They invaded the areas of Sodom and Gomorrah and plundered all their food and wealth, capturing Lot and all his belongings too. Lot had chosen this area to settle due to its potential for growing his wealth, despite the risks of neighboring cities like Sodom. Now Lot consequently had lost everything. Abram soon learned of what had happened to Lot , and he (with the other men of his household ) went after the rebel army and recovered everything (the goods that had been taken, his nephew and his possessions, and all the other captives). It seems to be implied in the chapter that Abram must have had great faith that God would give him victory and protection against the powerful king’s armies that had captured Lot. Afterwards, the king of Sodom offered some of the plunder for Abram to take for himself, but Abram told him that he relied only on God’s provision and blessings.

Genesis 13 tells of how Abram and Lot, both now owning lots of cattle, sheep, and many tents, began to have difficulties. Their herdsmen argued and fought , since there wasn't enough pasture to support both of their flocks together. Abram humbly asked Lot to choose an area where he'd like to settle and Abram offered to leave and find another area. Abram trusted that God would provide for his family and flocks, so he allowed Lot to have first choice of the most fertile area. Lot chose the Jordan valley near the city of Sodom, where the people were known to be "unusually wicked and sinned greatly against the Lord". So Abram stayed in the land of Canaan. Immediately after Lot took his family and flocks and left, the Lord spoke to Abram , "Look as afar as you can see in every direction. I am going to give this land to you and your offspring as a permanent possession." God also reminded him of the promise to bless him and make his number of descendants great --- "like the dust of the earth".

Genesis 12 introduces Abram, who is called out of his country, away from his people, and away from his father's household, to become a new people whom God promised to bless, provide for, and protect. Abram was faithful and obeyed the Lord, separating himself and his descendants from those who had lost touch with the God of creation and the deliverer from the devastation of the flood. Sin had continued to permeate humanity, despite the "re-set" of wiping out all living things outside Noah's boat, since "every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood". Though Abram faithfully followed the Lord's instructions, he later trusted in himself and his own wisdom for protection from the Egyptians and suffered the consequences. The chapter ends with Abram and his household being escorted out of Egypt with all their belongings, demonstrating God's faithfulness to the promises made to Abram's people despite Abram's actions.

Genesis 10-11 provide genealogy details of the descendants of Noah. The account of the tower of Babel explains how the descendants were scattered over the all the earth. They had attempted to glorify themselves and "make a name" for themselves ( v.4) by building a city with a tower that reached to the heavens, "but the Lord came down ... and confused their language so they will not understand each other... scattered them from there... and they stopped building the city."