Genesis 18-20

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

18 Now the Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks or terebinths of Mamre; as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day,

² He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men stood at a little distance from him. He ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the ground

³ And said, My lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant, I beg of you.

⁴ Let a little water be brought, and you may wash your feet and recline and rest yourselves under the tree.

⁵ And I will bring a morsel (mouthful) of bread to refresh and sustain your hearts before you go on further—for that is why you have come to your servant. And they replied, Do as you have said.

⁶ So Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah and said, Quickly get ready three measures of fine meal, knead it, and bake cakes.

⁷ And Abraham ran to the herd and brought a calf tender and good and gave it to the young man [to butcher]; then he [Abraham] hastened to prepare it.

⁸ And he took curds and milk and the calf which he had made ready, and set it before [the men]; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

⁹ And they said to him, Where is Sarah your wife? And he said, [She is here] in the tent.

^10 [a][The Lord] said, I will surely return to you when the season comes round, and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son. And Sarah was listening and heard it at the tent door which was behind Him.^(A)

¹¹ Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in years; it had ceased to be with Sarah as with [young] women. [She was past the age of childbearing].

¹² Therefore Sarah laughed to herself, saying, After I have become aged shall I have pleasure and delight, my lord (husband), being old also?^(B)

¹³ And the Lord asked Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I really bear a child when I am so old?

¹⁴ Is anything too hard or too wonderful ^[b]for the Lord? At the appointed time, when the season [for her delivery] comes around, I will return to you and Sarah shall have borne a son.^(C)

¹⁵ Then Sarah denied it, saying, I did not laugh; for she was afraid. And He said, No, but you did laugh.

¹⁶ The men rose up from there and faced toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way.

¹⁷ And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham [My friend and servant] what I am going to do,^(D)

¹⁸ Since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed through him and shall bless themselves by him?^(E)

¹⁹ For I have known (chosen, acknowledged) him [as My own], so that he may teach and command his children and the sons of his house after him to keep the way of the Lord and to do what is just and righteous, so that the Lord may bring Abraham what He has promised him.

²⁰ And the Lord said, Because the shriek [of the sins] of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is exceedingly grievous,

²¹ I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether [as vilely and wickedly] as is the cry of it which has come to Me; and if not, I will know.

²² Now the [two] men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord.

²³ And Abraham came close and said, Will You destroy the righteous (those upright and in right standing with God) together with the wicked?

²⁴ Suppose there are in the city fifty righteous; will You destroy the place and not spare it for [the sake of] the fifty righteous in it?

²⁵ Far be it from You to do such a thing—to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as do the wicked! Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth execute judgment and do righteously?

²⁶ And the Lord said, If I find in the city of Sodom fifty righteous (upright and in right standing with God), I will spare the whole place for their sake.

²⁷ Abraham answered, Behold now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord.

²⁸ If five of the fifty righteous should be lacking—will You destroy the whole city for lack of five? He said, If I find forty-five, I will not destroy it.

²⁹ And [Abraham] spoke to Him yet again, and said, Suppose [only] forty shall be found there. And He said, I will not do it for forty’s sake.

³⁰ Then [Abraham] said to Him, Oh, let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak [again]. Suppose [only] thirty shall be found there. And He answered, I will not do it if I find thirty there.

³¹ And [Abraham] said, Behold now, I have taken upon myself to speak [again] to the Lord. Suppose [only] twenty shall be found there. And [the Lord] replied, I will not destroy it for twenty’s sake.

³² And he said, Oh, let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again only this once. Suppose ten [righteous people] shall be found there. And [the Lord] said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.

³³ And the Lord went His way when He had finished speaking with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

19 It 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.

² And 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.

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

⁵ And 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.

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

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

⁸ Look 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.

⁹ But 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.

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

¹¹ And 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.

¹² And 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,

¹³ For 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.

¹⁴ And 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.

¹⁵ When 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.

¹⁶ But 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.

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

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

¹⁹ Behold 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.

²⁰ See 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!

²¹ And [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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

²⁹ When 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.

³⁰ And 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.

³¹ The 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.

³² Come, 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.

³³ And 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.

³⁴ Then 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.

³⁵ And 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.

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

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

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

20 Now Abraham journeyed from there toward the ^[f]South country (the Negeb) and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur; and he lived temporarily in Gerar.

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

³ But 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.

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

⁵ Did 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.

⁶ Then 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.

⁷ So 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.

⁸ So 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.

⁹ Then 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].

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

¹¹ And 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.

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

¹³ When 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.

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

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

¹⁶ And 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.

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

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