¹⁶ Then ^(A)the men rose up from there, and looked down toward Sodom; and Abraham was walking with them to send them off. ^17 (B)The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham ^(C)what I am about to do, ¹⁸ since Abraham will certainly become a great and ^[a]mighty nation, and in him ^(D)all the nations of the earth will be blessed? ¹⁹ For I have ^[b](E)chosen him, so that he may ^(F)command his children and his household after him to ^(G)keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham ^(H)what He has spoken about him.” ²⁰ And the Lord said, “^(I)The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. ²¹ I will ^(J)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 ^(K)the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before ^(L)the Lord. ²³ Abraham approached and said, “^(M)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 ^[c]spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it? ²⁵ Far be it from You to do ^[d]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 ^(N)the Judge of all the earth ^[e]deal justly?” ²⁶ So the Lord said, “^(O)If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will ^[f]spare the entire place on their account.” ²⁷ And Abraham replied, “Now behold, I have ^[g]ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am only ^(P)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 ^[h]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, “^(Q)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 ^(R)the Lord departed, and Abraham returned to his place.

The Doom of Sodom

19 Now the ^(S)two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. When ^(T)Lot saw them, he stood up to meet them and ^[i]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; ^(U)and he prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. ⁴ Before they lay down, ^(V)the men of the city—the men of Sodom—surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people ^[j]from every quarter; ⁵ and they called to Lot and said to him, “^(W)Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may ^[k]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, ^(X)I have two daughters who have not ^[l]had relations with any man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them ^[m]whatever you like; only do not do anything to these men, because they have come under the ^[n]shelter of my roof.” ⁹ But they said, “Get out of the way!” They also said, “This one came in ^[o]as a foreigner, and already ^(Y)he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them!” So they pressed hard against ^[p]Lot and moved forward to break the door. ¹⁰ But ^(Z)the men reached out their ^[q]hands and brought Lot into the house ^[r]with them, and shut the door. ¹¹ Then ^(AA)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 ^(AB)their outcry has become so great before the Lord that ^(AC)the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” ¹⁴ So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who ^[s]were to marry his daughters, and said, “Up, ^(AD)get out of this place, for the Lord is destroying the city.” ^(AE)But he appeared to his sons-in-law ^[t]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 ^[u]punishment of the city.” ¹⁶ But he hesitated. So the men ^(AF)grasped his hand and the hand of his wife and the ^[v]hands of his two daughters, because ^(AG)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, ^[w]one said, “^(AH)Escape for your life! ^(AI)Do not look behind you, and do not stay ^[x]anywhere in the ^(AJ)surrounding area; escape to ^(AK)the ^[y]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 ^[z]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?) ^[aa]so that my life may be saved.” ²¹ And he said to him, “Behold, I grant you this ^[ab]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 ^[ac](AL)Zoar.

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

²⁷ Now Abraham got up early in the morning and went to ^(AP)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 ^[ae]behold, he saw ^(AQ)the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a ^[af]furnace.

²⁹ So it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the surrounding area, that ^(AR)God remembered Abraham, and ^(AS)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 ^(AT)stayed in the ^[ag]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 ^[ah]on earth to ^[ai](AU)have relations with us according to the custom of all the earth. ³² Come, ^(AV)let’s make our father drink wine, and let’s sleep with him so that we may keep ^[aj]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 ^[ak]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 ^(AW)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 ^[al]the sons of ^(AX)Ammon to this day.

The Cure for Anxiety

²⁵ “^(A)For this reason I say to you, ^[a]do not be ^(B)worried about your ^[b]life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing? ^26 (C)Look at the birds of the sky, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather crops into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more important than they? ²⁷ And which of you by ^(D)worrying can ^(E)add a single ^[c]day to his ^[d]life’s span? ²⁸ And why are you ^(F)worried about clothing? Notice how the lilies of the field grow; they do not labor nor do they spin thread for cloth, ²⁹ yet I say to you that not even ^(G)Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. ³⁰ But if God so clothes the ^(H)grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? ^(I)You of little faith! ³¹ Do not ^(J)worry then, saying, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear for clothing?’ ³² For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for ^(K)your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But ^[e]seek first ^[f]His kingdom and His righteousness, and ^(L)all these things will be ^[g]provided to you.

³⁴ “So do not ^(M)worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will ^[h]worry about itself. ^[i]Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Judging Others

7 “^(N)Do not ^[j]judge, so that you will not be judged. ² For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and ^[k](O)by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. ³ Why do you ^(P)look at the ^[l]speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ^4 (Q)Or how ^[m]can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the ^[n]speck out of your eye,’ and look, the log is in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the ^[o]speck out of your brother’s eye!

⁶ “^(R)Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

Prayer and the Golden Rule

⁷ “^[p](S)Ask, and ^(T)it will be given to you; ^[q]seek, and you will find; ^[r]knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. ⁹ Or what person is there among you ^[s]who, when his son asks for a loaf of bread, ^[t]will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or ^[u]if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? ¹¹ So if you, despite being ^[v]evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, ^(U)how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

¹² “In everything, ^(V)therefore, ^[w]treat people the same way you want ^[x]them to treat you, for ^(W)this is the Law and the Prophets.

The Narrow and Wide Gates

¹³ “^(X)Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. ¹⁴ For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

The Lord’s Glory and Mankind’s Dignity.

For the music director; on the Gittith. A Psalm of David.