God promises a son to Abraham

18 The Lord appeared to Abraham near the special oak trees of Mamre. It was the hot time of day and Abraham was sitting by the door of his tent. ² Abraham looked up and he saw three men. He ran in a hurry to meet them. He bent down to the ground to respect them.^[a]

³ Abraham said, ‘Please sir, stop here and let me serve you. That would make me very happy. ⁴ Let us bring some water so that you can all wash your feet. Then you can rest under this tree. ⁵ Let me also bring some food for you to eat. Now that you have come to my home, you should rest and become strong again. Then you will be ready to continue with your journey.’ The men replied, ‘That is good. Please do what you have said.’

⁶ Abraham went quickly to the tent. He said to Sarah, ‘Be quick! Get plenty of good flour and make bread with it.’ ⁷ Then Abraham ran to his cows. He chose a very nice young cow. He gave it to his servant. The servant quickly prepared it for the men to eat. ⁸ Then Abraham also brought some cream and some milk, as well as the meat from the cow. He put all the food in front of the men. While they ate it, Abraham stood near them, under a tree.

⁹ Then the men asked Abraham, ‘Where is Sarah, your wife?’ Abraham replied, ‘She is there in the tent.’

¹⁰ Then one of the men said, ‘I will certainly return to you at about this time next year. At that time Sarah, your wife, will have a son!’

Sarah was listening to all this. She was at the door of the tent, near to where they were talking. ¹¹ Abraham and Sarah were now very old. Sarah was past the age when she could give birth to a child. ¹² So Sarah laughed to herself. She thought, ‘I have become old and weak. My husband is also old. I will never have a baby and be happy like that.’

¹³ Then the Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh like that? She said, “I am too old to have a child.” ¹⁴ But surely, nothing is too difficult for the Lord to do. At this time next year, I will return to you and Sarah will have a son.’

¹⁵ Then Sarah was afraid. So she told a lie. She said, ‘I did not laugh.’ But the Lord said, ‘Yes, you did laugh.’

God decides to punish the people in Sodom

¹⁶ Then Abraham's visitors started to leave. They looked down in the valley towards Sodom. Abraham was walking with them to say ‘goodbye’ to them. ¹⁷ Then the Lord said to himself, ‘I should tell Abraham what I have decided to do. ¹⁸ Abraham's descendants will become a great nation of people. They will be very powerful. Through him, I will bless all the nations of the earth.^{[b] 19} I have chosen him so that he will teach my message to his children and their families. He will teach them to do what is right and what is fair. Then I, the Lord, will do for Abraham everything that I have promised to him.’

²⁰ So the Lord said to Abraham, ‘I have heard how bad the people in Sodom and Gomorrah are. Everybody says that their sins are very bad. ²¹ So I must go down there to see if it is really true. I will see if those people are as bad as everybody says they are. Then I will know what is true.’

²² The other two men then turned away and they went towards Sodom. But Abraham stayed there to talk with the Lord.

²³ Then Abraham went near to the Lord and he asked, ‘Will you destroy the good people as well as the bad people? ²⁴ There might be 50 people in the city who live in a good way. Will you still destroy the whole city? Or will you leave it there, because there are 50 good people in it? ²⁵ Will you kill them all, the good people and the bad people? Surely you would not do anything like that! You would not punish good people in the same way as bad people. You are the great judge of everyone on the earth. You will surely do what is right!’

²⁶ The Lord replied, ‘If I see that there are 50 good people in the city of Sodom, I will not destroy that place. Because of those 50 good people, I will leave the city there.’

²⁷ Then Abraham spoke again. He said, ‘I have been brave enough to speak to the Lord. I know that I am nothing more than dust and ashes.^{[c] 28} But let me ask you this. What will you do if there are 45 good people in the city? Will you destroy the city, because there are only five fewer good people there?’ The Lord replied, ‘If I see that there are 45 good people in the city, I will not destroy it.’

²⁹ Abraham spoke to God again. He said, ‘What will you do if only 40 good people are there?’ The Lord said, ‘Because of 40 good people, I will not destroy the city.’

³⁰ Then Abraham said, ‘Please do not be angry, Lord. Let me speak again. What will you do if there are only 30 good people there?’ The Lord answered, ‘I will not destroy the city if I find 30 good people there.’

³¹ Abraham said, ‘I have been brave to speak to you, Lord. What will you do if only 20 good people are there?’ The Lord said, ‘Because of 20 good people, I will not destroy the city.’

³² After all that, Abraham said, ‘Please do not be angry, Lord. Let me speak just one more time. If there are only ten good people there, what will you do?’ The Lord replied, ‘Because of ten good people, I will not destroy the city.’^[d]

³³ The Lord had finished speaking with Abraham. So he continued on his journey. Abraham returned home.

Lot leaves Sodom

19 The two angels arrived at Sodom. It was evening and Lot was sitting near the city gate. When Lot saw the angels, he got up to meet them. He turned his face towards the ground to respect them. ² Lot said, ‘My lords, please come to stay in my house. You can wash your feet and stay the night there. Then you can continue your journey early in the morning.’ The angels replied, ‘No, we will stay the night here in this public place.’ ³ But Lot continued to ask them to stay with him. So the angels went with Lot to his house. Lot prepared a big meal for them, with some bread that he had baked without yeast. The angels ate the food.

⁴ After that, they were preparing to go to bed. Then all the men who lived in Sodom came to Lot's house. They were old men and young men, who came from every part of the city. They stood all round the house. ⁵ The men shouted to Lot, ‘Where are the men who are staying with you tonight? Bring them out here to us. We want to have sex with them.’

⁶ Lot went outside to talk to the men. He shut the door of his house behind him. ⁷ He said, ‘No, my friends. Please do not do this evil thing. ⁸ See here! I have two daughters. They have never had sex with a man. Let me bring them out to you. Then you can do whatever you want with them. But do not do anything to these men. They are my visitors and I cannot let anyone hurt them.’

⁹ The men from the city said, ‘Do not try to stop us! You are a stranger here in this city. You cannot tell us what to do! Be careful or we will do even worse things to you.’ They pushed against Lot and tried to reach the door of his house. They wanted to break the door and go in to the house. ¹⁰ The two visitors who were inside the house opened the door. They pulled Lot back into his house and they shut the door quickly. ¹¹ Then they caused all the men outside to become blind. The young men of the city and the old men all became blind. As a result, they could not find the door of the house, even though they tried for some time.

¹² The two visitors asked Lot, ‘Do you have any of your family here in the city? Do you have any sons or daughters, or husbands for your daughters? If you have any family, you must take them away from here. ¹³ We will soon destroy this city. Everybody knows how bad the people who live here are. As a result, the Lord has sent us to destroy this place.’

¹⁴ So Lot went out of his house. He spoke to the men who would marry his daughters. He said to them, ‘Hurry! Leave this city now, because the Lord has decided to destroy it.’ But the men did not believe Lot. They thought he was not being serious.

¹⁵ At dawn, the two angels told Lot he must leave quickly. They said to him, ‘Hurry! Take your wife and take your two daughters who are here. If you do not go quickly, you will all die when the Lord destroys the city.’ ¹⁶ But Lot did not move.^[e] So the angels took hold of Lot's hand, as well as the hands of his wife and his two daughters. The Lord was very kind to Lot and his family and the angels led them away from the city.

¹⁷ When they had reached a place outside the city, one of the angels said, ‘Now run! Your lives are in danger. Do not look behind you! Do not stop anywhere in this valley. Run up into the mountains or you will die.’ ¹⁸ But Lot said, ‘No! Please, my lords, I cannot do that! ¹⁹ I am your humble servant and you have been very kind to me. You have saved my life. But I cannot run away into the mountains. If I try to do that, this punishment will catch me before I reach there. Then I will surely die. ²⁰ Look! See that town over there. It is near and I can run to it safely. And it is a small town. So please let me run there. You can see that it is only a small place. If I go there, I will stay alive.’

²¹ The angel said to Lot, ‘OK, I will let you do what you have asked. I will not destroy that town. ²² But run there quickly. I cannot do anything until you arrive in the town.’ (The name of the town became ‘Zoar’, because it was small.)

²³ Lot reached Zoar at the time when the sun was rising that morning.

²⁴ Then the Lord poured sulphur that was on fire down on Sodom and Gomorrah. It fell from the sky like rain.^{[f] 25} In that way God destroyed those cities and everything in the valley. He killed all the people who lived in those cities. And he killed all the plants that grew on the land.

²⁶ But as they ran away, Lot's wife looked back at the city. When she did that, she became a large piece of salt, like a pillar.^[g]

²⁷ Early in the morning, Abraham returned to the place where he had spoken with the Lord. ²⁸ He looked towards Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole valley. He saw thick dark smoke that was rising from the land. It was the smoke from a big fire.

²⁹ When God destroyed the cities of the valley, he saved Lot from that punishment. God remembered what Abraham had asked him. He took Lot away from the cities where he had lived. Then God destroyed those cities.

Lot and his daughters

³⁰ Lot was afraid to live in Zoar. So he took his two daughters and they went up into the mountains. They lived together in a cave. ³¹ One day, the older daughter said to her sister, ‘Our father is now old. There are no men who live near here, so there is nobody to marry us. We cannot have sex like everyone on the earth wants to do. ³² So we should give our father much wine to drink. When he becomes drunk, we will have sex with him. Then our father's family will continue to have descendants.’

³³ That night they caused their father to become drunk with wine. The older daughter had sex with him. Lot was very drunk. He did not know when she came to him. And he did not know when she left him. ³⁴ The next day the older daughter said to her younger sister, ‘Last night I had sex with my father. We should make him drunk with wine again tonight. Then you can have sex with him. As a result, our father's family will continue.’

³⁵ So that night, they caused their father to become drunk again. The younger daughter had sex with her father. He did not know when she came to him. And he did not know when she left him.

³⁶ In that way, Lot caused both of his daughters to become pregnant. ³⁷ The older daughter gave birth to a son. She called him Moab. He became the ancestor of the Moabites. ³⁸ The younger daughter also gave birth to a son. She called him Ben-Ammi. He became the ancestor of the Ammonites.