Abraham’s Three Visitors

18 Then the Lord appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre^(A) while he was sitting in the entrance of his tent during the heat of the day. ² He looked up, and he saw three men standing near him.^(B) When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them and bowed to the ground. ³ Then he said, “My lord,^[a] if I have found favor in your sight, please do not go on past your servant. ⁴ Let a little water be brought, that you may wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree. ⁵ I will bring a bit of bread so that you may strengthen yourselves.^[b] This is why you have passed your servant’s way. Later, you can continue on.”

“Yes,” they replied, “do as you have said.”

⁶ So Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick! Knead three measures^[c] of fine flour and make bread.”^{[d] 7} Meanwhile, Abraham ran to the herd and got a tender, choice calf. He gave it to a young man, who hurried to prepare it. ⁸ Then Abraham took curds^[e] and milk, and the calf that he had prepared, and set them before the men. He served^[f] them as they ate under the tree.

Sarah Laughs

⁹ “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.

“There, in the tent,” he answered.

¹⁰ The Lord said, “I will certainly come back to you in about a year’s time, and your wife Sarah will have a son!”^(C) Now Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him.

¹¹ Abraham and Sarah were old and getting on in years.^[g] Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.^{[h](D) 12} So she laughed to herself: “After I have become shriveled up and my lord is old, will I have delight?”^(E)

¹³ But the Lord asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Can I really have a baby when I’m old?’ ¹⁴ Is anything impossible for the Lord?^(F) At the appointed time I will come back to you, and in about a year she will have a son.”

¹⁵ Sarah denied it. “I did not laugh,” she said, because she was afraid.

But He replied, “No, you did laugh.”

Abraham’s Plea for Sodom

¹⁶ The men got up from there and looked out over Sodom, and Abraham was walking with them to see them off. ¹⁷ Then the Lord said, “Should I hide what I am about to do from Abraham?^{(G) 18} Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him.^{(H) 19} For I have chosen^[i] him so that he will command his children and his house after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. This is how the Lord will fulfill to Abraham what He promised him.” ²⁰ Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is immense, and their sin is extremely serious. ²¹ I will go down^(I) to see if what they have done justifies the cry that has come up to Me. If not, I will find out.”

²² The men turned from there and went toward Sodom^(J) while Abraham remained standing before the Lord.^{[j] 23} Abraham stepped forward and said, “Will You really sweep away the righteous with the wicked?^{(K) 24} What if there are 50 righteous people in the city? Will You really sweep it away instead of sparing the place for the sake of the 50 righteous people who are in it? ²⁵ You could not possibly do such a thing: to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. You could not possibly do that! Won’t the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”^(L)

²⁶ The Lord said, “If I find 50 righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”^(M)

²⁷ Then Abraham answered, “Since I have ventured to speak to the Lord—even though I am dust and ashes— ²⁸ suppose the 50 righteous lack five. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?”

He replied, “I will not destroy it if I find 45 there.”

²⁹ Then he spoke to Him again, “Suppose 40 are found there?”

He answered, “I will not do it on account of 40.”

³⁰ Then he said, “Let the Lord not be angry, and I will speak further. Suppose 30 are found there?”

He answered, “I will not do it if I find 30 there.”

³¹ Then he said, “Since I have ventured to speak to the Lord, suppose 20 are found there?”

He replied, “I will not destroy it on account of 20.”

³² Then he said, “Let the Lord not be angry, and I will speak one more time.^(N) Suppose 10 are found there?”

He answered, “I will not destroy it on account of 10.” ³³ When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, He departed, and Abraham returned to his place.

The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

19 The two angels entered Sodom^(O) in the evening as Lot was sitting at Sodom’s gate. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them. He bowed with his face to the ground ² and said, “My lords, turn aside to your servant’s house, wash your feet, and spend the night. Then you can get up early and go on your way.”

“No,” they said. “We would rather spend the night in the square.” ³ But he urged them so strongly that they followed him and went into his house. He prepared a feast and baked unleavened bread for them, and they ate.

⁴ Before they went to bed, the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, the whole population, surrounded the house. ⁵ They called out to Lot and said, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have sex with them!”^(P)

⁶ Lot went out to them at the entrance and shut the door behind him. ⁷ He said, “Don’t do this evil, my brothers. ⁸ Look, I’ve got two daughters who haven’t had sexual relations with a man.^(Q) I’ll bring them out to you, and you can do whatever you want^[k] to them. However, don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the protection of my roof.”

⁹ “Get out of the way!” they said, adding, “This one came here as a foreigner, but he’s acting like a judge!^(R) Now we’ll do more harm to you than to them.” They put pressure on Lot and came up to break down the door. ¹⁰ But the angels^[l] reached out, brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. ¹¹ They struck the men who were at the entrance of the house, both young and old, with a blinding light so that they were unable to find the entrance.^(S)

¹² Then the angels^[m] said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here: a son-in-law, your sons and daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of this place, ¹³ for we are about to destroy this place because the outcry against its people is so great before the Lord, that the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”^(T)

¹⁴ So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were going to marry^[n] his daughters. “Get up,” he said. “Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city!”^(U) But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

¹⁵ At daybreak the angels urged Lot on: “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment^[o] of the city.” ¹⁶ But he hesitated. Because of the Lord’s compassion for him, the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters. Then they brought him out and left him outside the city.

¹⁷ As soon as the angels got them outside, one of them^[p] said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look back and don’t stop anywhere on the plain! Run to the mountains, or you will be swept away!”

¹⁸ But Lot said to them, “No, my lords^[q]—please. ¹⁹ Your servant has indeed found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness by saving my life. But I can’t run to the mountains; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die. ²⁰ Look, this town is close enough for me to run to. It is a small place. Please let me go there—it’s only a small place, isn’t it?—so that I can survive.”

²¹ And he said to him, “All right,^[r] I’ll grant your request^[s] about this matter too and will not demolish the town you mentioned. ²² Hurry up! Run there, for I cannot do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city is Zoar.^[t](V)

²³ The sun had risen over the land when Lot reached Zoar. ²⁴ Then out of the sky the Lord rained burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord.^{(W) 25} He demolished these cities, the entire plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and whatever grew on the ground. ²⁶ But his wife looked back and became a pillar of salt.^(X)

²⁷ Early in the morning Abraham went to the place where he had stood before the Lord.^{(Y) 28} He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and he saw that smoke was going up from the land like the smoke of a furnace. ²⁹ So it was, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham and brought Lot out of the middle of the upheaval when He demolished the cities where Lot had lived.

The Origin of Moab and Ammon

³⁰ Lot departed from Zoar and lived in the mountains along with his two daughters, because he was afraid to live in Zoar. Instead, he and his two daughters lived in a cave. ³¹ Then the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to sleep with us as is the custom of all the land. ³² Come, let’s get our father to drink wine so that we can sleep with him and preserve our father’s line.” ³³ So they got their father to drink wine that night, and the firstborn came and slept with her father; he did not know when she lay down or when she got up.

³⁴ The next day the firstborn said to the younger, “Look, I slept with my father last night. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight so you can go sleep with him and we can preserve our father’s line.” ³⁵ That night they again got their father to drink wine, and the younger went and slept with him; he did not know when she lay down or when she got up.

³⁶ So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. ³⁷ The firstborn gave birth to a son and named him Moab.^[u] He is the father of the Moabites of today.^{(Z) 38} The younger also gave birth to a son, and she named him Ben-ammi.^[v] He is the father of the Ammonites of today.^(AA)