Genesis 19-21 (Amplified Bible)

Genesis 19

 ¹IT WAS evening when the two angels came to Sodom. Lot was sitting at Sodom's [city] gate. Seeing them, Lot rose up to meet them and bowed to the ground.

    ²And he said, My lords, turn aside, I beg of you, into your servant's house and spend the night and bathe your feet. Then you can arise early and go on your way. But they said, No, we will spend the night in the square.

    ³[Lot] entreated and urged them greatly until they yielded and [with him] entered his house. And he made them a dinner [with drinking] and had unleavened bread which he baked, and they ate.

    ⁴But before they lay down, the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, all the men from every quarter, surrounded the house.

    ⁵And they called to Lot and said, Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know (be intimate with) them.

    ⁶And Lot went out of the door to the men and shut the door after him

    ⁷And said, I beg of you, my brothers, do not behave so wickedly.

    ⁸Look now, I have two daughters who are virgins; let me, I beg of you, bring them out to you, and you can do as you please with them. But only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.

    ⁹But they said, Stand back! And they said, This fellow came in to live here temporarily, and now he presumes to be [our] judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them. So they rushed at and pressed violently against Lot and came close to breaking down the door.

    ¹⁰But the men [the angels] reached out and pulled Lot into the house to them and shut the door after him.

    ¹¹And they struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness [which dazzled them], from the youths to the old men, so that they wearied themselves [groping] to find the door.

    ¹²And the [two] men asked Lot, Have you any others here--sons-in-law or your sons or your daughters? Whomever you have in the city, bring them out of this place,

    ¹³For we will spoil and destroy [Sodom]; for the outcry and shriek against its people has grown great before the Lord, and He has sent us to destroy it.

    ¹⁴And Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, Up, get out of this place, for the Lord will spoil and destroy this city! But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be [only] joking.

    ¹⁵When morning came, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, Arise, take your wife and two daughters who are here [and be off], lest you [too] be consumed and swept away in the iniquity and punishment of the city.

    ¹⁶But while he lingered, the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, for the Lord was merciful to him; and they brought him forth and set him outside the city and left him there.

    ¹⁷And when they had brought them forth, they said, Escape for your life! Do not look behind you or stop anywhere in ^[a]the whole valley; escape to the mountains [of Moab], lest you be consumed.

    ¹⁸And Lot said to them, Oh, not that, my lords!

    ¹⁹Behold now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your kindness and mercy to me in saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest the evil overtake me, and I die.

    ²⁰See now yonder city; it is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh, let me escape to it! Is it not a little one? And my life will be saved!

    ²¹And [the angel] said to him, See, I have yielded to your entreaty concerning this thing also; I will not destroy this city of which you have spoken.

    ²²Make haste and take refuge there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar [little].

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

    ²⁴Then the Lord rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of the heavens.

    ²⁵He overthrew, destroyed, and ended those cities, and all the valley and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

    ²⁶But [Lot's] wife looked back from behind him, and she ^[b]became a pillar of salt.

    ²⁷Abraham went up early the next morning to the place where he [only the day before] had stood before the Lord.

    ²⁸And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the valley, and saw, and behold, the smoke of ^[c]the country went up like the smoke of a furnace.

    ²⁹When God ravaged and destroyed the cities of the plain [of Siddim], He [earnestly] remembered Abraham [imprinted and fixed him indelibly on His mind], and He sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when He overthrew the cities where Lot lived.

    ³⁰And Lot went up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him, for he feared to dwell in Zoar; and he lived in a cave, he and his two daughters.

    ³¹The elder said to the younger, Our father is aging, and there is not a man on earth to live with us in the customary way.

    ³²Come, let us make our father drunk with wine, and we will lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring (our race) through our father.

    ³³And they made their father drunk with wine that night, and the older went in and lay with her father; and he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she arose.

    ³⁴Then the next day the firstborn said to the younger, See here, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drunk with wine tonight also, and then you go in and lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring (our race) through our father.

    ³⁵And they made their father drunk with wine again that night, and the younger arose and lay with him; and he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she arose.

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

    ³⁷The older bore a son, and named him Moab [of a father]; he is the father of the Moabites to this day.

    ³⁸The younger also bore a son and named him Ben-ammi [son of my people]; he is the father of the Ammonites to this day.

   

Genesis 20

 ¹NOW ABRAHAM journeyed from there toward the ^[d]South country (the Negeb) and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur; and he lived temporarily in Gerar.

    ²And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister. And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah [into his harem].

    ³But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said, Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken [as your own], for she is a man's wife.

    ⁴But Abimelech had not come near her, so he said, Lord, will you slay a people who are just and innocent?

    ⁵Did not the man tell me, She is my sister? And she herself said, He is my brother. In integrity of heart and innocency of hands I have done this.

    ⁶Then 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 occasion to touch her.

    ⁷So now restore to the man his wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not restore her [to him], know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.

    ⁸So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things; and the men were exceedingly filled with reverence and fear.

    ⁹Then 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].

    ¹⁰And Abimelech said to Abraham, What did you see [in us] that [justified] you in doing such a thing as this?

    ¹¹And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely there is no reverence or fear of God at all in this place, and they will slay me because of my wife.

    ¹²But truly, she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father but not of my mother; and she became my wife.

    ¹³When God caused me to wander from my father's house, I said to her, This kindness you can show me: at every place we stop, say of me, He is my brother.

    ¹⁴Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham and restored to him Sarah his wife.

    ¹⁵And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before you; dwell wherever it pleases you.

    ¹⁶And to Sarah he said, Behold, I have given this brother of yours a thousand pieces of silver; see, it is to compensate you [for all that has occurred] and to vindicate your honor before all who are with you; before all men you are cleared and compensated.

    ¹⁷So Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his female slaves, and they bore children,

    ¹⁸For the Lord had closed fast the wombs of all in Abimelech's household because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

   

Genesis 21

 ¹THE LORD visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for her as He had promised.

    ²For Sarah became pregnant and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time God had told him.

    ³Abraham ^[e]named his son whom Sarah bore to him Isaac [laughter].

    ⁴And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.

    ⁵Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac was born.

    ⁶And Sarah said, God has made me to laugh; all who hear will laugh with me.

    ⁷And she said, Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children at the breast? For I have borne him a son in his old age!^(A)

    ⁸And the child grew and was ^[f]weaned, and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.

    ⁹Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking [Isaac].

    ¹⁰Therefore she said to Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son, for the son of this bondwoman shall not be an heir with my son Isaac.^(B)

    ¹¹And the thing was very grievous (serious, evil) in Abraham's sight on account of his son [Ishmael].

    ¹²God said to Abraham, Do not let it seem grievous and evil to you because of the youth and your bondwoman; in all that Sarah has said to you, do what she asks, for in Isaac shall your posterity be called.^(C)

    ¹³And I will make a nation of the son of the bondwoman also, because he is your offspring.

    ¹⁴So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a bottle of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulders, and he sent her and the ^[g]youth away. And she wandered on [aimlessly] and lost her way in the wilderness of Beersheba.

    ¹⁵When the water in the bottle was all gone, Hagar caused the youth to lie down under one of the shrubs.

    ¹⁶Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about a bowshot, for she said, Let me not see the death of the lad. And as she sat down opposite him, ^[h]he lifted up his voice and wept and she raised her voice and wept.

    ¹⁷And God heard the voice of the youth, and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven and said to her, What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the youth where he is.

    ¹⁸Arise, raise up the youth and support him with your hand, for I intend to make him a great nation.

    ¹⁹Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the [empty] bottle with water and caused the youth to drink.

    ²⁰And God was with the youth, and he developed; and he dwelt in the wilderness and became an archer.

    ²¹He dwelt in the Wilderness of Paran; and his mother took a wife for him out of the land of Egypt.

    ²²At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, God is with you in everything you do.

    ²³So now, swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my son or with my posterity; but as I have dealt with you kindly, you will do the same with me and with the land in which you have sojourned.

    ²⁴And Abraham said, I will swear.

    ²⁵When Abraham complained to and reasoned with Abimelech about a well of water [Abimelech's] servants had violently seized,

    ²⁶Abimelech said, I know not who did this thing; you did not tell me, and I did not hear of it until today.

    ²⁷So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a league or covenant.

    ²⁸Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs of the flock,

    ²⁹And Abimelech said to Abraham, What do these seven ewe lambs which you have set apart mean?

    ³⁰He said, You are to accept these seven ewe lambs from me as a witness for me that I dug this well.

    ³¹Therefore that place was called Beersheba [well of the oath], because there both parties swore an oath.

    ³²Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba; then Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army returned to the land of the Philistines.

    ³³Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the Lord, the Eternal God.

    ³⁴And Abraham sojourned in Philistia many days.