Birth of Isaac Promised

18 Now the Lord appeared to Abraham by the terebinth trees of Mamre [in Hebron], while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. ² When he raised his eyes and looked up, behold, three men were standing [a little distance] from him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed down [with his face] to the ground, ³ and Abraham said, “My ^[a]lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, please do not pass by your servant [without stopping to visit]. ⁴ Please let a little water be brought [by one of my servants] and [you may] wash your feet, and recline and rest comfortably under the tree. ⁵ And I will bring a piece of bread to refresh and sustain ^[b]you; after that you may go on, since you have come to your servant.” And they replied, “Do as you have said.” ⁶ So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quickly, get ready three ^[c]measures of fine meal, knead it and bake cakes.” ⁷ Abraham also ran to the herd and brought a calf, tender and choice, and he gave it to the servant [to butcher], and he hurried to prepare it. ⁸ Then he took ^[d]curds and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before the men; and he stood beside them under the tree while they ate.

⁹ Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” ¹⁰ He said, “I will surely return to you at this ^[e]time next year; and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door, which was behind him.^{(A) 11} Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in years; she was past [the age of] childbearing. ¹² So Sarah laughed to herself [when she heard the Lord’s words], saying, “After I have become old, shall I have pleasure and delight, my lord (husband) being also old?”^{(B) 13} And the Lord asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh [to herself], saying, ‘Shall I really give birth [to a child] when I am so old?’ ¹⁴ Is anything too difficult or too wonderful for the ^[f]Lord? At the appointed time, when the season [for her delivery] comes, I will return to you and Sarah will have a son.”^{(C) 15} Then Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh”; because she was afraid. And He (the Lord) said, “No, but you did laugh.”

¹⁶ Then the men got up from there, and looked toward Sodom; and Abraham walked with them to send them on the way. ¹⁷ The Lord said, “Shall I keep secret from Abraham [My friend and servant] what I am going to do,^{(D) 18} since Abraham ^[g]is destined to become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him?^{(E) 19} For I have known (chosen, acknowledged) him [as My own], so that he may teach and command his children and [the sons of] his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is righteous and just, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has promised him.” ²⁰ And the Lord said, “The outcry [of the sin] of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. ²¹ I will go down now, and see whether they have acted [as vilely and wickedly] as the outcry which has come to Me [indicates]; and if not, I will know.”

²² Now the [two] men (angelic beings) turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. ²³ Abraham approached [the Lord] and said, “Will You really sweep away the righteous (those who do right) with the wicked (those who do evil)? ²⁴ Suppose there are fifty righteous [people] within the city; will You really sweep it away and not spare it for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it? ²⁵ Far be it from You to do ^[h]such a thing—to strike the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right [by executing just and righteous judgment]?” ²⁶ So the Lord said, “If I find within the city of Sodom fifty righteous [people], then I will spare the entire place for their sake.” ²⁷ Abraham answered, “Now behold, I who am but dust [in origin] and ashes have decided to speak to the Lord.^{(F) 28} If five of the fifty righteous are lacking, will You destroy the entire city for lack of five?” And He said, “If I find [at least] forty-five [righteous people] there, I will not destroy it.” ²⁹ Abraham spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose [only] forty are found there.” And He said, “I will not do it for the sake of the forty [who are righteous].” ³⁰ Then Abraham said [to Him], “Oh, may the Lord not be angry, and I will speak; suppose thirty [righteous people] are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.” ³¹ And he said, “Now behold, I have decided to speak to the Lord [again]. Suppose [only] twenty [righteous people] are found there?” And the Lord said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty.” ³² Then Abraham said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry [with me], and I will speak only this once; suppose ten [righteous people] are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.” ³³ As soon as He had finished speaking with Abraham the Lord departed, and Abraham returned to his own place.

The Doom of Sodom

19 It was evening when the two angels came to Sodom. Lot was sitting at Sodom’s [^[i]city] gate. Seeing them, Lot got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. ² And he said, “See here, my lords, please turn aside and come into your servant’s house, and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may get up early and go on your way.” But they said, “No, we shall spend the night in the open plaza [of the city].” ³ However, Lot strongly urged them, so they turned aside and entered his house; and he prepared a feast for them [with wine], and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. ⁴ But before they lay down [to sleep], the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, surrounded the house, ^[j]all the men from every quarter; ⁵ and they called out to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we may know them [intimately].” ⁶ But Lot went out of the doorway to the men, and shut the door after him, ⁷ and said, “Please, my brothers, do not do something so wicked. ⁸ See here, I have two daughters who have not known a man [intimately]; please let me bring them out to you [instead], and you can do as you please with them; only do nothing to these men, because they have in fact come under the shelter of my roof [for protection].” ⁹ But they said, “Get out of the way!” And they said, “This man (Lot) came [as an outsider] to live here temporarily, and now he is acting like a judge. Now we will treat you worse than your visitors!” So they rushed forward and pressed violently against ^[k]Lot and came close to breaking down the door [of his house]. ¹⁰ But the men (angels) reached out with their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door [after him]. ¹¹ They struck (punished) the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, from the young men to the old men, so that they exhausted themselves trying to find the doorway.

¹² And the [two] men (angels) asked Lot, “Have you any others here [in Sodom]—a son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters? Whomever you have in the city, take them out of here; ¹³ for we are destroying this place, because the outcry [for judgment] against them has grown so great before the Lord that the Lord has sent us to destroy and ruin it.” ¹⁴ So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were [betrothed, and legally promised] to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up, get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy this city!” But to his sons-in-law he appeared to be joking.

¹⁵ When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot [to hurry], saying, “Get up! Take your wife and two daughters who are here [and go], or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.” ¹⁶ But Lot hesitated and lingered. The men took hold of his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, because the Lord was merciful to him [for Abraham’s sake]; and they brought him out, and left him outside the city [with his family]. ¹⁷ When they had brought them outside, one [of the angels] said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, or stop anywhere in the entire valley; escape to the mountains [of Moab], or you will be consumed and swept away.” ¹⁸ But Lot said to them, “Oh no, [not that place] my lords! ¹⁹ Please listen, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your lovingkindness (mercy) to me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, because the disaster will overtake me and I will be killed. ²⁰ Now look, this town [in the distance] is near enough for us to flee to, and it is small [with only a few people]. Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) so that my life will be saved.” ²¹ And the angel said to him, “Behold, I grant you this request also; I will not destroy this town of which you have spoken. ²² Hurry and take refuge there, for I cannot do anything [to punish Sodom] until you arrive there.” For this reason the town was named Zoar (few, small).

²³ The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar. ²⁴ Then the Lord rained down brimstone (flaming sulfur) and fire on Sodom and on Gomorrah from the Lord out of heaven, ²⁵ and He overthrew (demolished, ended) those cities, and the entire valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and whatever grew on the ground. ²⁶ But Lot’s wife, from behind him, [foolishly, longingly] looked [back toward Sodom in an act of disobedience], and she ^[l]became a pillar of salt.^(G)

²⁷ Abraham started out early the next morning to the place where he [only the day before] had stood before the Lord; ²⁸ and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the valley [of the Dead Sea]; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of ^[m]the land went up like the smoke of a kiln (pottery furnace).

²⁹ Now when God ravaged and destroyed the cities of the plain [of Siddim], He remembered Abraham [and for that reason], and He sent [Abraham’s nephew] Lot out of the midst of the destruction, when He destroyed the cities in which Lot had lived.

Lot Is Debased

³⁰ Now Lot went up from Zoar, and lived in the mountain together with his two daughters, for he was afraid to stay [any longer] in Zoar; and he lived in a cave with his two daughters. ³¹ The firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is aging, and there is not a man on earth [available] to be intimate with us in the customary way [so that we may have children]. ³² Come, let us make our father drunk with wine, and we will lie with him so that we may preserve our family through our father.” ³³ So they gave their father 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 got up [because he was completely intoxicated]. ³⁴ Then the next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay with my father last night; let us make him drunk with wine tonight also, and then you go in and lie with him, so that we may preserve our family through our father.” ³⁵ So they gave their father wine that night also, and the younger got up and lay with him; and again he did not know when she lay down or when she got up. ³⁶ Thus both the daughters of Lot conceived by their father. ³⁷ The firstborn gave birth to a son, and named him Moab (from father); he is the father of the Moabites to this day. ³⁸ The younger also gave birth to a son and named him Ben-ammi (son of my people); he is the father of the Ammonites to this day.

Abraham’s Deception

20 Now Abraham journeyed from there toward the Negev (the South country), and settled between Kadesh and Shur; then he lived temporarily in Gerar. ² Abraham ^[n]said [again] of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” So ^[o]Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took ^[p]Sarah [into his harem]. ³ But God came to Abimelech in a dream during the night, and said, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken [as your wife], for she is another man’s wife.” ⁴ Now Abimelech had not yet come near her; so he said, “Lord, will you kill a people who are righteous and innocent and blameless [regarding Sarah]? ⁵ Did Abraham not tell me, ‘She is my sister?’ And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands I have done this.” ⁶ Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know you did this in the integrity of your heart, for it was I who kept you back and spared you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not give you an opportunity to touch her. ⁷ So now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her [to him], know that you shall die, you and all who are yours (your household).”

⁸ So Abimelech got up early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things; and the men were terrified. ⁹ Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I offended you that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me what ought not to be done [to anyone].” ¹⁰ And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What have you encountered or seen [in us or our customs], that you have done this [unjust] thing?” ¹¹ Abraham said, “Because I thought, ‘Surely there is no fear or reverence of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ ¹² Besides, she actually is my [half] sister; she is the daughter of my father [Terah], but not of my mother; and she became my wife. ¹³ When God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This kindness and loyalty you can show me: at every place we stop, say of me, “He is my brother.”’” ¹⁴ Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen and male and female slaves, and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him [as God commanded]. ¹⁵ So Abimelech said, “Behold, my land is before you; settle wherever you please.” ¹⁶ Then to Sarah he said, “Look, I have given this brother of yours a ^[q]thousand pieces of silver; it is to compensate you [for all that has happened] and to vindicate your honor before all who are with you; before all men you are cleared and compensated.” ¹⁷ So Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids, and they again gave birth to children, ¹⁸ for the Lord had securely closed the wombs of all [the women] in Abimelech’s household because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.^(H)