Chapter 18

Birth of Isaac Promised

1 Now athe Lord appeared to him by the 1boaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day.

2 When he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three amen were standing opposite him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth,

3 and said, “1My Lord, if now I have found favor in Your sight, please do not 2pass Your servant by.

4 “Please let a little water be brought and awash your feet, and 1rest yourselves under the tree;

5 and I will 1abring a piece of bread, that you may 2refresh yourselves; after that you may go on, since you have 3visited your servant.” And they said, “So do, as you have said.”

6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “1Quickly, prepare three 2measures of fine flour, knead it and make bread cakes.”

7 Abraham also ran to the herd, and took a tender and 1choice calf and gave it to the servant, and he hurried to prepare it.

8 He took curds and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and placed it before them; and he was standing by them under the tree 1as they ate.

9 Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “There, in the tent.”

10 He said, “aI will surely return to you 1at this time next year; and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door, which was behind him.

11 Now aAbraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; Sarah was bpast 1childbearing.

12 Sarah laughed 1to herself, saying, “aAfter I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my blord being old also?”

13 And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I indeed 1bear a child, when I am so old?’

14 “aIs anything too 1difficult for the Lord? At the bappointed time I will return to you, 2at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

15 Sarah denied it however, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. And He said, “No, but you did laugh.”

16 Then athe men rose up from there, and looked down toward Sodom; and Abraham was walking with them to send them off.

17 aThe Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham bwhat I am about to do,

18 since Abraham will surely become a great and 1mighty nation, and in him aall the nations of the earth will be blessed?

19 “For I have 1achosen him, so that he may bcommand his children and his household after him to ckeep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham dwhat He has spoken about him.”

20 And the Lord said, “aThe outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.

21 “I will ago down now, and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry, which has come to Me; and if not, I will know.”

22 Then athe men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before bthe Lord.

23 Abraham came near and said, “aWill You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

24 “Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not 1spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it?

25 “Far be it from You to do 1such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not athe Judge of all the earth 2deal justly?”

26 So the Lord said, “aIf I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will 1spare the whole place on their account.”

27 And Abraham replied, “Now behold, I have 1ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am but adust and ashes.

28 “Suppose the fifty righteous are lacking five, will You destroy the whole city because of five?” And He said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”

29 He spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose forty are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it on account of the forty.”

30 Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak; suppose thirty are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

31 And he said, “Now behold, I have 1ventured to speak to the Lord; suppose twenty are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the twenty.”

32 Then he said, “aOh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once; suppose ten are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the ten.”

33 As soon as He had finished speaking to Abraham athe Lord departed, and Abraham returned to his place.

Chapter 19

The Doom of Sodom

1 Now the atwo angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When bLot saw them, he rose to meet them and 1bowed down with his face to the ground.

2 And he said, “Now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servant’s house, and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.” They said however, “No, but we shall spend the night in the square.”

3 Yet he urged them strongly, so they turned aside to him and entered his house; aand he prepared a feast for them, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

4 Before they lay down, athe men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people 1from every quarter;

5 and they called to Lot and said to him, “aWhere are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may 1have relations with them.”

6 But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him,

7 and said, “Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly.

8 “Now behold, aI have two daughters who have not 1had relations with man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them 2whatever you like; only do nothing to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the 3shelter of my roof.”

9 But they said, “Stand aside.” Furthermore, they said, “This one came in 1as an alien, and already ahe is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them.” So they pressed hard against 2Lot and came near to break the door.

10 But athe men reached out their 1hands and brought Lot into the house 2with them, and shut the door.

11 aThey 1struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway.

12 Then the two men said to Lot, “Whom else have you here? A son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place;

13 for we are about to destroy this place, because atheir outcry has become so great before the Lord that bthe Lord has sent us to destroy it.”

14 Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who 1were to marry his daughters, and said, “Up, aget out of this place, for the Lord will destroy the city.” bBut he appeared to his sons-in-law 2to be jesting.

15 When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the 1punishment of the city.”

16 But he hesitated. So the men aseized his hand and the hand of his wife and the 1hands of his two daughters, for bthe compassion of the Lord was upon him; and they brought him out, and put him outside the city.

17 When they had brought them outside, 1one said, “aEscape for your life! bDo not look behind you, and do not stay 2anywhere in the cvalley; escape to dthe 3mountains, or you will be swept away.”

18 But Lot said to them, “Oh no, my lords!

19 “Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your lovingkindness, which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the 1mountains, for the disaster will overtake me and I will die;

20 now behold, this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) 1that my life may be saved.”

21 He said to him, “Behold, I grant you this 1request also, not to overthrow the town of which you have spoken.

22 “Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the town was called 1aZoar.

23 The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

24 Then the Lord arained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven,

25 and aHe overthrew those cities, and all the 1valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

26 But his wife, from behind him, alooked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 Now Abraham arose early in the morning and went to athe place where he had stood before the Lord;

28 and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the 1valley, and he saw, and behold, athe smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a 2furnace.

29 Thus it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the 1valley, that aGod remembered Abraham, and bsent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.

Lot Is Debased

30 Lot went up from Zoar, and 1astayed in the 2mountains, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to 3stay in Zoar; and he 1stayed in a cave, he and his two daughters.

31 Then the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man 1on earth to acome in to us after the manner of the earth.

32 “Come, alet us make our father drink wine, and let us lie with him that we may preserve 1our family through our father.”

33 So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.

34 On the following day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also; then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve 1our family through our father.”

35 So they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.

36 Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father.

37 The firstborn bore a son, and called his name aMoab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day.

38 As for the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the 1sons of aAmmon to this day.

Chapter 20

Abraham’s Treachery

1 Now Abraham journeyed from athere toward the land of bthe 1Negev, and 2settled between Kadesh and Shur; then he sojourned in cGerar.

2 Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “aShe is my sister.” So bAbimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.

3 aBut God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Behold, byou are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is 1married.”

4 Now Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, “Lord, awill You slay a nation, even though 1blameless?

5 “Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she aherself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In bthe integrity of my heart and the innocence of my 1hands I have done this.”

6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also 1akept you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her.

7 “Now therefore, restore the man’s wife, for ahe is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”

8 So Abimelech arose early in the morning and called all his servants and told all these things in their hearing; and the men were greatly frightened.

9 aThen Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And 1how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom ba great sin? You have done to me 2things that ought not to be done.”

10 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What have you 1encountered, that you have done this thing?”

11 Abraham said, “Because I thought, surely there is no afear of God in this place, and bthey will kill me because of my wife.

12 “Besides, she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife;

13 and it came about, when aGod caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, ‘This is 1the kindness which you will show to me: 2everywhere we go, bsay of me, “He is my brother.” ’ ”

14 aAbimelech then took sheep and oxen and male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and restored his wife Sarah to him.

15 Abimelech said, “aBehold, my land is before you; 1settle wherever 2you please.”

16 To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your abrother a thousand pieces of silver; behold, it is 1your vindication before all who are with you, and before all men you are cleared.”

17 aAbraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids, so that they bore children.

18 aFor the Lord had closed fast all the wombs of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.