Genesis 18:1-21:7

New American Standard Bible

Birth of Isaac Promised

18 Now ^(A)the Lord appeared to ^[a]Abraham by the ^[b](B)oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. ² When he raised his eyes and looked, behold, three ^(C)men were standing opposite him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed down to the ground, ³ and said, “^[c]My Lord, if now I have found favor in Your sight, please do not ^[d]pass Your servant by. ⁴ Please let a little water be brought and ^(D)wash ^[e]your feet, and make yourselves comfortable under the tree; ⁵ and I will ^[f](E)bring a piece of bread, so that you may ^[g]refresh yourselves; after that you may go on, since you have ^[h]visited your servant.” And they said, “So do as you have said.” ⁶ So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “^[i]Quickly, prepare three ^[j]measures of fine flour, knead it, and make bread cakes.” ⁷ Abraham also ran to the herd, and took a tender and ^[k]choice 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 set it before them; and he was standing by them under the tree ^[l]as they ate.

⁹ Then they said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” ¹⁰ He said, “^(F)I will certainly return to you ^[m]at this time next year; and behold, your wife Sarah will have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door, which was behind him. ¹¹ Now ^(G)Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; Sarah was ^(H)past ^[n]childbearing. ¹² So Sarah laughed ^[o]to herself, saying, “^(I)After I have become old, am I to have pleasure, my ^(J)lord being old also?” ¹³ But the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I actually give birth to a child, when I am so old?’ ^14 (K)Is anything too ^[p]difficult for the Lord? At the ^(L)appointed time I will return to you, ^[q]at 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 ^(M)the men rose up from there, and looked down toward Sodom; and Abraham was walking with them to send them off. ^17 (N)The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham ^(O)what I am about to do, ¹⁸ since Abraham will certainly become a great and ^[r]mighty nation, and in him ^(P)all the nations of the earth will be blessed? ¹⁹ For I have ^[s](Q)chosen him, so that he may ^(R)command his children and his household after him to ^(S)keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham ^(T)what He has spoken about him.” ²⁰ And the Lord said, “^(U)The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. ²¹ I will ^(V)go down now and see whether they have done entirely as the outcry, which has come to Me indicates; and if not, I will know.”

Abraham Appeals for Sodom

²² Then ^(W)the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before ^(X)the Lord. ²³ Abraham approached and said, “^(Y)Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? ²⁴ Suppose there are fifty righteous people within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not ^[t]spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it? ²⁵ Far be it from You to do ^[u]such a thing, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not ^(Z)the Judge of all the earth ^[v]deal justly?” ²⁶ So the Lord said, “^(AA)If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will ^[w]spare the entire place on their account.” ²⁷ And Abraham replied, “Now behold, I have ^[x]ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am only ^(AB)dust and ashes. ²⁸ Suppose the fifty righteous are lacking five, will You destroy the entire city because of five?” And He said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” ²⁹ And 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 ^[y]ventured 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, “^(AC)Oh 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 ^(AD)the Lord departed, and Abraham returned to his place.

The Doom of Sodom

19 Now the ^(AE)two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. When ^(AF)Lot saw them, he stood up to meet them and ^[z]bowed 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, “No, but we shall spend the night in the public square.” ³ Yet he strongly urged them, so they turned aside to him and entered his house; ^(AG)and he prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. ⁴ Before they lay down, ^(AH)the men of the city—the men of Sodom—surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people ^[aa]from every quarter; ⁵ and they called to Lot and said to him, “^(AI)Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may ^[ab]have 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 look, ^(AJ)I have two daughters who have not ^[ac]had relations with any man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them ^[ad]whatever you like; only do not do anything to these men, because they have come under the ^[ae]shelter of my roof.” ⁹ But they said, “Get out of the way!” They also said, “This one came in ^[af]as a foreigner, and already ^(AK)he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them!” So they pressed hard against ^[ag]Lot and moved forward to break the door. ¹⁰ But ^(AL)the men reached out their ^[ah]hands and brought Lot into the house ^[ai]with them, and shut the door. ¹¹ Then ^(AM)they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, from the small to the great, so that they became weary of trying to find the doorway.

¹² Then the two men said to Lot, “Whom else do you have here? A son-in-law and your sons and daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place; ¹³ for we are about to destroy this place, because ^(AN)their outcry has become so great before the Lord that ^(AO)the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” ¹⁴ So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who ^[aj]were to marry his daughters, and said, “Up, ^(AP)get out of this place, for the Lord is destroying the city.” ^(AQ)But he appeared to his sons-in-law ^[ak]to be joking.

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 ^[al]punishment of the city.” ¹⁶ But he hesitated. So the men ^(AR)grasped his hand and the hand of his wife and the ^[am]hands of his two daughters, because ^(AS)the 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, ^[an]one said, “^(AT)Escape for your life! ^(AU)Do not look behind you, and do not stay ^[ao]anywhere in the ^(AV)surrounding area; escape to ^(AW)the ^[ap]mountains, 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 compassion, which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the ^[aq]mountains, 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?) ^[ar]so that my life may be saved.” ²¹ And he said to him, “Behold, I grant you this ^[as]request 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 town was named ^[at](AX)Zoar.

²³ The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar. ²⁴ Then the Lord ^(AY)rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of heaven, ²⁵ and ^(AZ)He overthrew those cities, and all the surrounding area, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. ²⁶ But ^[au]Lot’s wife, from behind him, ^(BA)looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

²⁷ Now Abraham got up early in the morning and went to ^(BB)the place where he had stood before the Lord; ²⁸ and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the surrounding area; and ^[av]behold, he saw ^(BC)the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a ^[aw]furnace.

²⁹ So it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the surrounding area, that ^(BD)God remembered Abraham, and ^(BE)sent Lot out of the midst of the destruction, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.

Lot and His Daughters

³⁰ Now Lot went up from Zoar with his two daughters and ^(BF)stayed in the ^[ax]mountains, because he was afraid to stay in Zoar; and he stayed 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 ^[ay]on earth to ^[az](BG)have relations with us according to the custom of all the earth. ³² Come, ^(BH)let’s make our father drink wine, and let’s sleep with him so that we may keep ^[ba]our family alive through our father.” ³³ So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and slept with her father; and he did not know when she lay down or got up. ³⁴ On the following day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Look, I slept last night with my father; let’s make him drink wine tonight too, then you go in and sleep with him, so that we may keep ^[bb]our family alive through our father.” ³⁵ So they had their father drink wine that night too, and the younger got up and slept with him; and he did not know when she lay down or got up. ³⁶ And so both of the daughters of Lot conceived by their father. ³⁷ The firstborn gave birth to a son, and named him ^(BI)Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day. ³⁸ As for the younger, she also gave birth to a son, and named him Ben-ammi; he is the father of ^[bc]the sons of ^(BJ)Ammon to this day.

Abraham’s Treachery

20 Now Abraham journeyed from ^(BK)there toward the land of ^(BL)the ^[bd]Negev, and ^[be]settled between Kadesh and Shur; then he lived for a time in ^(BM)Gerar. ² And Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “^(BN)She is my sister.” So ^(BO)Abimelech king of Gerar sent men and took Sarah. ^3 (BP)But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Behold, ^(BQ)you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is ^[bf]married.” ⁴ Now Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, “Lord, ^(BR)will You kill a nation, even though ^[bg]blameless? ⁵ Did he himself not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she ^(BS)herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In ^(BT)the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my ^[bh]hands 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 ^[bi](BU)kept you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her. ⁷ Now then, return the man’s wife, for ^(BV)he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, know that you will certainly die, you and all who are yours.”

⁸ So Abimelech got up early in the morning and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ^[bj]presence; and the people were greatly frightened. ^9 (BW)Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And ^[bk]how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom ^(BX)a great sin? You have done to me ^[bl]things that ought not to be done.” ¹⁰ And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What have you ^[bm]encountered, that you have done this thing?” ¹¹ Abraham said, “Because I thought, surely there is no ^(BY)fear of God in this place, and ^(BZ)they 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 ^(CA)God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, ‘This is ^[bn]the kindness which you will show to me: ^[bo]everywhere we go, ^(CB)say of me, “He is my brother.”’” ^14 (CC)Abimelech then took sheep and oxen and male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and returned his wife Sarah to him. ¹⁵ Abimelech said, “^(CD)Behold, my land is before you; ^[bp]settle wherever ^[bq]you please.” ¹⁶ To Sarah he said, “Look, I have given your ^(CE)brother a thousand pieces of silver. ^[br]It is ^[bs]your vindication before all who are with you, and before everyone you are cleared.” ¹⁷ Then ^(CF)Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his female slaves, so that they gave birth to children. ^18 (CG)For the Lord had completely closed all the wombs of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

Isaac Is Born

21 ^(CH)Then the Lord took note of Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had ^[bt]promised. ^2 (CI)So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at ^(CJ)the appointed time of which God had spoken to him. ³ Abraham named his son who was born to him, the son whom Sarah bore to him, ^(CK)Isaac. ⁴ Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was ^(CL)eight days old, as God had commanded him. ⁵ Now Abraham was ^(CM)a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. ⁶ Sarah said, “God has made ^(CN)laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh ^[bu]with me.” ⁷ And she said, “^(CO)Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have given birth to a son in his old age.”