God’s Covenant with Abram

15 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”^{(A) 2} But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”^{[a](B) 3} And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.”^{(C) 4} But the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.”^{(D) 5} He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”^{(E) 6} And he believed the Lord, and the Lord^[b] reckoned it to him as righteousness.

⁷ Then he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.”^{(F) 8} But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”^{(G) 9} He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” ¹⁰ He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other, but he did not cut the birds in two.^{(H) 11} And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

¹² As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.^{(I) 13} Then the Lord^[c] said to Abram, “Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years,^{(J) 14} but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.^{(K) 15} As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.^{(L) 16} And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”^(M)

¹⁷ When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.^{(N) 18} On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates,^{(O) 19} the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰ the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹ the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

The Great Flood

7 Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation.^{(A) 2} Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate;^{(B) 3} and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth. ⁴ For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” ⁵ And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.

⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. ⁷ And Noah with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood.^{(C) 8} Of clean animals and of animals that are not clean and of birds and of everything that creeps on the ground, ⁹ two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰ And after seven days the waters of the flood came on the earth.

¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.^{(D) 12} The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.^{(E) 13} On the very same day Noah with his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons entered the ark,^{(F) 14} they and every wild animal of every kind and all domestic animals of every kind and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth and every bird of every kind.^{[a] 15} They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life.^{(G) 16} And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him, and the Lord shut him in.^(H)

¹⁷ The flood continued forty days on the earth, and the waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth.^{(I) 18} The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters.^{(J) 19} The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; ²⁰ the waters swelled above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. ²¹ And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings;^{(K) 22} everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died.^{(L) 23} He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left and those with him in the ark.^{(M) 24} And the waters swelled on the earth for one hundred fifty days.^(N)

The Flood Subsides

8 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided;^{(O) 2} the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained,^{(P) 3} and the waters gradually receded from the earth. At the end of one hundred fifty days the waters had abated,^{(Q) 4} and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.^{(R) 5} The waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.

⁶ At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made^{(S) 7} and sent out the raven, and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth.^{(T) 8} Then he sent out the dove from him to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground, ⁹ but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark with him. ¹⁰ He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark, ¹¹ and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth.^{(U) 12} Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove, and it did not return to him any more.

¹³ In the six hundred first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth, and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked and saw that the face of the ground was drying.^{(V) 14} In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. ¹⁵ Then God said to Noah, ¹⁶ “Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you.^{(W) 17} Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—so that they may abound on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”^{(X) 18} So Noah went out with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. ¹⁹ And every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out of the ark by families.

God’s Promise to Noah

²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.^{(Y) 21} And when the Lord smelled the pleasing odor, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of humans, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done.^(Z)

The Covenant with Noah

9 God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.^{(AB) 2} The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. ³ Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you, and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.^{(AC) 4} Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.^{(AD) 5} For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each one for the blood of another, I will require a reckoning for human life.^(AE)

⁷ “And you, be fruitful and multiply, abound on the earth and have dominion over^[b] it.”^(AG)

⁸ Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ⁹ “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you^{(AH) 10} and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark.^{[c](AI) 11} I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”^{(AJ) 12} God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations:^{(AK) 13} I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.^{(AL) 14} When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, ¹⁵ I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.^{(AM) 16} When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”^{(AN) 17} God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Noah and His Sons

¹⁸ The sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan.^{(AO) 19} These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was peopled.^(AP)

²⁰ Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. ²¹ He drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he lay uncovered in his tent. ²² And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. ²³ Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.^{(AQ) 24} When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, ²⁵ he said,

²⁶ He also said,

²⁸ After the flood Noah lived three hundred fifty years. ²⁹ All the days of Noah were nine hundred fifty years, and he died.

Nations Descended from Noah

10 These are the descendants of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth; children were born to them after the flood.

² The descendants of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.^{(AU) 3} The descendants of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. ⁴ The descendants of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Rodanim.^{[e] 5} From these the coastland peoples spread. These are the descendants of Japheth^[f] in their lands, with their own language, by their families, in their nations.^(AV)

⁶ The descendants of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan.^{(AW) 7} The descendants of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The descendants of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. ⁸ Cush became the father of Nimrod; he was the first on earth to become a mighty warrior. ⁹ He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.”^{(AX) 10} The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh in the land of Shinar.^{(AY) 11} From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah, and ¹² Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. ¹³ Egypt became the father of Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim,^{(AZ) 14} Pathrusim, Casluhim, from whom the Philistines come, and Caphtorim.

¹⁵ Canaan became the father of Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth^{(BA) 16} and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, ¹⁷ the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, ¹⁸ the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the families of the Canaanites spread abroad.^{(BB) 19} And the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon in the direction of Gerar as far as Gaza and in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim as far as Lasha.^{(BC) 20} These are the descendants of Ham, by their families, their languages, their lands, and their nations.

²¹ To Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, children were born. ²² The descendants of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram.^{(BD) 23} The descendants of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.^{(BE) 24} Arpachshad became the father of Shelah, and Shelah became the father of Eber.^{(BF) 25} To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg,^[g] for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother’s name was Joktan.^{(BG) 26} Joktan became the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah,^{(BH) 27} Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, ²⁸ Obal, Abimael, Sheba, ²⁹ Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab; all these were the descendants of Joktan. ³⁰ The territory in which they lived extended from Mesha in the direction of Sephar, the hill country of the east. ³¹ These are the descendants of Shem, by their families, their languages, their lands, and their nations.

³² These are the families of Noah’s sons, according to their genealogies, in their nations, and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.^(BI)

The Tower of Babel

11 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. ² And as they migrated from the east,^[h] they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.^{(BJ) 3} And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”^{(BK) 5} The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built.^{(BL) 6} And the Lord said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.^{(BM) 7} Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”^{(BN) 8} So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.^{(BO) 9} Therefore it was called Babel,^[i] because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.^(BP)

Descendants of Shem

¹⁰ These are the descendants of Shem. When Shem was one hundred years old, he became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood,^{(BQ) 11} and Shem lived after the birth of Arpachshad five hundred years and had other sons and daughters.

¹² When Arpachshad had lived thirty-five years, he became the father of Shelah, ¹³ and Arpachshad lived after the birth of Shelah four hundred three years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁴ When Shelah had lived thirty years, he became the father of Eber, ¹⁵ and Shelah lived after the birth of Eber four hundred three years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁶ When Eber had lived thirty-four years, he became the father of Peleg, ¹⁷ and Eber lived after the birth of Peleg four hundred thirty years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁸ When Peleg had lived thirty years, he became the father of Reu, ¹⁹ and Peleg lived after the birth of Reu two hundred nine years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁰ When Reu had lived thirty-two years, he became the father of Serug, ²¹ and Reu lived after the birth of Serug two hundred seven years and had other sons and daughters.

²² When Serug had lived thirty years, he became the father of Nahor, ²³ and Serug lived after the birth of Nahor two hundred years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁴ When Nahor had lived twenty-nine years, he became the father of Terah, ²⁵ and Nahor lived after the birth of Terah one hundred nineteen years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁶ When Terah had lived seventy years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Descendants of Terah

²⁷ Now these are the descendants of Terah. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran was the father of Lot. ²⁸ Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans. ²⁹ Abram and Nahor took wives; the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah. She was the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. ³⁰ Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.^(BR)

³¹ Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot son of Haran and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there.^{(BS) 32} The days of Terah were two hundred five years, and Terah died in Haran.

The Call of Abram

12 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.^{(BT) 2} I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.^{(BU) 3} I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”^[j](BV)

⁴ So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.^{(BW) 5} Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot and all the possessions that they had gathered and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran, and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan,^{(BX) 6} Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak^[k] of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.^{(BY) 7} Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.^{(BZ) 8} From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east, and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord.^{(CA) 9} And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.

Abram and Sarai in Egypt

¹⁰ Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to reside there as an alien, for the famine was severe in the land. ¹¹ When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know well that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, ¹² and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; then they will kill me, but they will let you live.^{(CB) 13} Say you are my sister, so that it may go well with me because of you and that my life may be spared on your account.”^{(CC) 14} When Abram entered Egypt the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. ¹⁵ When the officials of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.^{(CD) 16} And for her sake he dealt well with Abram, and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female slaves, female donkeys, and camels.^(CE)

¹⁷ But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.^{(CF) 18} So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?^{(CG) 19} Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife, take her, and be gone.” ²⁰ And Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning him, and they set him on the way with his wife and all that he had.^(CH)

The Sign of the Covenant

17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty;^[a] walk before me, and be blameless.^{(A) 2} And I will make my covenant between me and you and will make you exceedingly numerous.”^{(B) 3} Then Abram fell on his face, and God said to him, ⁴ “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations.^{(C) 5} No longer shall your name be Abram,^[b] but your name shall be Abraham,^[c] for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations.^{(D) 6} I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.^{(E) 7} I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.^{(F) 8} And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding, and I will be their God.”^(G)

⁹ God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. ¹⁰ This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.^{(H) 11} You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.^{(I) 12} Throughout your generations every male among you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old, including the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring.^{(J) 13} Both the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money must be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. ¹⁴ Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”^(K)

¹⁵ God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. ¹⁶ I will bless her and also give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”^{(L) 17} Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”^{(M) 18} And Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live in your sight!” ¹⁹ God said, “No, but your wife Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac.^[d] I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.^{(N) 20} As for Ishmael, I have heard you; I will bless him and make him fruitful and exceedingly numerous; he shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.^{(O) 21} But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year.” ²² And when he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.

²³ Then Abraham took his son Ishmael and all the slaves born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him.^{(P) 24} Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.^{(Q) 25} And his son Ishmael was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. ²⁶ That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised, ²⁷ and all the men of his house, slaves born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

A Son Promised to Abraham and Sarah

18 The Lord appeared to Abraham^[e] by the oaks^[f] of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day.^{(R) 2} He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them and bowed down to the ground.^{(S) 3} He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. ⁴ Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.^{(T) 5} Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.”^{(U) 6} And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah and said, “Make ready quickly three measures^[g] of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” ⁷ Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. ⁸ Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them, and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.^(V)

⁹ They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” ¹⁰ Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him.^{(W) 11} Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.^{(X) 12} So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I be fruitful?”^{(Y) 13} The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ ¹⁴ Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.”^{(Z) 15} But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “Yes, you did laugh.”

Judgment Pronounced on Sodom

¹⁶ Then the men set out from there, and they looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to set them on their way. ¹⁷ The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, ¹⁸ seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?^{[h](AA) 19} No, for I have chosen^[i] him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”^{(AB) 20} Then the Lord said, “How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin!^{(AC) 21} I must go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me, and if not, I will know.”^(AD)

²² So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before the Lord.^{[j](AE) 23} Then Abraham came near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?^{(AF) 24} Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it?^{(AG) 25} Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”^{(AH) 26} And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.” ²⁷ Abraham answered, “Let me take it upon myself to speak to my lord, I who am but dust and ashes.^{(AI) 28} Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” ²⁹ Again he spoke to him, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” ³⁰ Then he said, “Oh, do not let my lord be angry if I speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” ³¹ He said, “Let me take it upon myself to speak to my lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” ³² Then he said, “Oh, do not let my lord be angry if I speak just once more. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.”^{(AJ) 33} And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.