The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

19 The two angels entered Sodom^(A) in the evening as Lot was sitting in Sodom’s gateway. 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!” ^(B)

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 been intimate with a man.^(C) I’ll bring them out to you, and you can do whatever you want^[a] 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 an alien, but he’s acting like a judge!^(D) 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^[b] 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 blindness^[c] so that they were unable to find the entrance.^(E)

¹² Then the angels 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.”^(F)

¹⁴ So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were going to marry his daughters. “Get up,” he said. “Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city!” ^(G) 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^[d] 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. They brought him out and left him outside the city.

¹⁷ As soon as the angels got them outside, one of them^[e] 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^[f]—please. ¹⁹ Your servant has indeed found favor with you, 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 flee to. It is a small place. Please let me run to it—it’s only a small place, isn’t it?—so that I can survive.”

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

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

²⁷ Early in the morning Abraham went to the place where he had stood before the Lord.^{(K) 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.^[j] He is the father of the Moabites of today.^{(L) 38} The younger also gave birth to a son, and she named him Ben-ammi.^[k] He is the father of the Ammonites of today.^(M)

Sarah Rescued from Abimelech

20 From there Abraham traveled to the region of the Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he was staying in Gerar,^{(N) 2} Abraham said about his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.”^(O) So King Abimelech of Gerar had Sarah brought to him.

³ But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “You are about to die because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman.”^[l]

⁴ Now Abimelech had not approached her, so he said, “Lord, would you destroy a nation even though it is innocent? ⁵ Didn’t he himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ I did this with a clear conscience^[m] and clean^[n] hands.”

⁶ Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience.^[o] I have also kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I have not let you touch her. ⁷ Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet,^(P) and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, know that you will certainly die, you and all who are yours.”

⁸ Early in the morning Abimelech got up, called all his servants together, and personally^[p] told them all these things, and the men were terrified.

⁹ Then Abimelech called Abraham in and said to him, “What have you done to us? How did I sin against you that you have brought such enormous guilt on me and on my kingdom? You have done things to me that should never be done.”^{(Q) 10} Abimelech also asked Abraham, “What made you do this?”

¹¹ Abraham replied, “I thought, ‘There is absolutely no fear of God in this place.^(R) They will kill me because of my wife.’ ¹² Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. ¹³ So when God had me wander from my father’s house,^(S) I said to her: Show your loyalty to me wherever we go and say about me, ‘He’s my brother.’”^(T)

¹⁴ Then Abimelech took flocks and herds and male and female slaves, gave them to Abraham, and returned his wife Sarah to him. ¹⁵ Abimelech said, “Look, my land is before you.^(U) Settle wherever you want.”^{[q] 16} And he said to Sarah, “Look, I am giving your brother one thousand pieces of silver. It is a verification of your honor^[r] to all who are with you. You are fully vindicated.”

¹⁷ Then Abraham prayed to God,^(V) and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female slaves so that they could bear children, ¹⁸ for the Lord had completely closed all the wombs in Abimelech’s household on account of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

Psalm 1

The Two Ways

The Traditions of the Elders

7 The^(A) Pharisees^(B) and some of the scribes^(C) who had come from Jerusalem^(D) gathered around him. ² They observed that some of his disciples were eating bread with unclean^(E)—that is, unwashed—hands. ³ (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, keeping the tradition of the elders. ⁴ When they come from the marketplace,^(F) they do not eat unless they have washed.^(G) And there are many other customs they have received and keep, like the washing of cups, pitchers, kettles, and dining couches.^[a](H)) ⁵ So the Pharisees^(I) and the scribes^(J) asked him, “Why don’t your disciples live^[b] according to the tradition of the elders,^(K) instead of eating bread with ceremonially unclean^[c] hands?”

⁶ He answered them, “Isaiah^(L) prophesied^(M) correctly about you hypocrites,^(N) as it is written: ^(O)

⁸ Abandoning the command of God, you hold on to human tradition.”^{[e] 9} He also said to them, “You have a fine way of invalidating God’s command in order to set up^[f] your tradition! ¹⁰ For Moses^(T) said: Honor your father and your mother; ^[g](U) and Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death.^{[h](V) 11} But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or mother: Whatever benefit^(W) you might have received from me is corban’” (that is, an offering^(X) devoted to God), ¹² “you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. ¹³ You nullify the word of God^(Y) by your tradition that you have handed^(Z) down. And you do many other similar things.”

¹⁴ Summoning^(AA) the crowd again, he told them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand:^{(AB) 15} Nothing that goes into a person from outside can defile him but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”^[i]

¹⁷ When he went into the house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about the parable. ¹⁸ He said to them, “Are you also as lacking in understanding? Don’t you realize that nothing going into a person from the outside can defile him? ¹⁹ For it doesn’t go into his heart but into the stomach^(AC) and is eliminated” (thus he declared all foods clean^(AD)). ²⁰ And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. ²¹ For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities,^(AE) thefts, murders,^{(AF) 22} adulteries,^(AG) greed,^(AH) evil actions, deceit,^(AI) self-indulgence,^(AJ) envy,^[j] slander,^(AK) pride,^(AL) and foolishness.^{(AM) 23} All these evil things come from within and defile a person.”

A Gentile Mother’s Faith

²⁴ He got up and departed from^(AN) there to the region of Tyre.^[k](AO) He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it, but he could not escape notice. ²⁵ Instead, immediately after hearing about him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit^(AP) came and fell at his feet.^{(AQ) 26} The woman was a Gentile,^[l](AR) a Syrophoenician by birth, and she was asking him to cast the demon^(AS) out of her daughter. ²⁷ He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, because it isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”^(AT)

²⁸ But she replied to him, “Lord,^(AU) even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

²⁹ Then he told her, “Because of this reply, you may go. The demon has left your daughter.” ³⁰ When she went back to her home, she found her child lying on the bed, and the demon was gone.

Jesus Does Everything Well

³¹ Again, leaving the region of Tyre,^(AV) he went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee,^(AW) through^[m] the region of the Decapolis.^{(AX) 32} They brought to him a deaf^(AY) man who had difficulty speaking^(AZ) and begged Jesus to lay his hand on^(BA) him. ³³ So he took him away from the crowd in private. After putting his fingers in the man’s ears and spitting,^(BB) he touched his tongue. ³⁴ Looking up to heaven,^(BC) he sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphatha!”^[n] (that is, “Be opened!”). ³⁵ Immediately his ears were opened,^(BD) his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak clearly.^{(BE) 36} He ordered them to tell no one,^(BF) but the more he ordered them, the more they proclaimed it.^(BG)

³⁷ They were extremely astonished and said, “He has done everything well.^(BH) He even makes the deaf^(BI) hear and the mute speak.”^(BJ)