Beginning
Yahweh Destroys Sodom and Gomorrah
19 Then the (A)two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. (B)Lot saw them and rose to meet them and [a]bowed down with his [b]face to the ground. 2 And he said, “Now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servant’s house, and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.” They said however, “No, but we shall spend the night in the square.” 3 Yet he pressed them strongly, so they turned aside to him and entered his house; (C)and he made a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. 4 Before they lay down, (D)the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, from young to old, all the people [c]from every quarter; 5 and they called to Lot and said to him, “(E)Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may [d]know them.” 6 But Lot went out to them at the doorway and shut the door behind him, 7 and said, “Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly. 8 Now behold, (F)I have two daughters who have not known a man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them what is good in your eyes; only do nothing to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the [e]shelter of my roof.” 9 But they said, “Step aside.” Furthermore, they said, “This one came to sojourn, and already (G)he is persistently acting like a judge; now we will treat you more wickedly than them.” So they pressed hard against [f]Lot and stepped up to break the door. 10 But (H)the men reached out their [g]hands and brought Lot into the house [h]with them and shut the door. 11 (I)And they [i]struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, from small to great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway.
12 Then the two men said to Lot, “Whom else have you here? A son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and everyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place; 13 for we are about to destroy this place because (J)their outcry has become great before Yahweh, so (K)Yahweh has sent us to destroy it.” 14 And Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who [j]were to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up, (L)get out of this place, for Yahweh will destroy the city.” (M)But he appeared to his sons-in-law [k]to be jesting.
15 Now at the [l]breaking of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the [m]punishment of the city.” 16 But he hesitated. So the men (N)seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the [n]hands of his two daughters, for (O)the compassion of Yahweh was upon him; and they brought him out and put him outside the city. 17 Now it happened, as they brought them outside, [o]one said, “(P)Escape for your life! (Q)Do not look behind you, and do not stay [p]anywhere in the (R)valley; escape to (S)the [q]mountains, lest you be swept away.” 18 But Lot said to them, “Oh no, my lords! 19 Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your lovingkindness, which you have shown me by preserving my life; but I cannot escape to the [r]mountains, lest calamity overtake me and I die; 20 now behold, this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) [s]that my life may be preserved.” 21 And he said to him, “Behold, I grant you this [t]request also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. 22 Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called [u](T)Zoar.
23 The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24 And Yahweh (U)rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Yahweh out of heaven, 25 and (V)He overthrew those cities, and all the [v]valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 Then his wife, from behind him, (W)looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
27 Now Abraham arose early in the morning and went to (X)the place where he had stood before Yahweh; 28 and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the [w]valley, and he saw, and behold, (Y)the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a [x]furnace.
29 Thus it happened, when God destroyed the cities of the [y]valley, that (Z)God remembered Abraham and (AA)sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.
Lot and His Daughters
30 And Lot went up from Zoar and [z](AB)stayed in the [aa]mountains, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to [ab]stay in Zoar; and he [ac]stayed in a cave, he and his two daughters. 31 Then the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man [ad]on earth to (AC)come in to us after the manner of the earth. 32 Come, (AD)let us make our father drink wine, and let us lie with him that we may preserve our seed through our father.” 33 So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. 34 Now it happened on the following day, that the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also; and you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve our seed through our father.” 35 So they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. 36 Thus both the daughters of Lot conceived by their father. 37 And the firstborn bore a son and called his name (AE)Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38 As for the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the [ae]sons of (AF)Ammon to this day.
Abraham Lies to Abimelech
20 And Abraham journeyed from (AG)there toward the land of (AH)the [af]Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur; then he sojourned in (AI)Gerar. 2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “(AJ)She is my sister.” So (AK)Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 3 (AL)But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night and said to him, “Behold, (AM)you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is [ag]married.” 4 (Now Abimelech had not come near her.) Then he said, “Lord, (AN)will You kill a nation, even though righteous? 5 Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she (AO)herself also said, ‘He is my brother.’ In (AP)the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my [ah]hands I have done this.” 6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Indeed, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also [ai](AQ)held you back from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her. 7 So now, return the man’s wife, for (AR)he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”
8 So Abimelech arose early in the morning and called all his servants and told all these things in their hearing; and the men were greatly afraid. 9 (AS)Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And [aj]how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom (AT)a great sin? You have done to me [ak]things that ought not to be done.” 10 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What have you seen, that you have done this thing?” 11 And Abraham said, “Because I said, surely there is no (AU)fear of God in this place, and (AV)they will kill me because of my wife. 12 Besides, she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife; 13 and it happened when (AW)God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, ‘This is [al]the lovingkindness which you will show to me: [am]everywhere we go, (AX)say of me, “He is my brother.”’” 14 (AY)Abimelech then took sheep and oxen and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham and returned his wife Sarah to him. 15 And Abimelech said, “(AZ)Behold, my land is before you; [an]settle wherever it is good in your sight.” 16 To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your (BA)brother one thousand pieces of silver; behold, it is [ao]your vindication before all who are with you, and before all you are [ap]cleared.” 17 (BB)And Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maidservants, so that they bore children. 18 (BC)For Yahweh had utterly shut all the wombs of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
Isaac Is Born
21 (BD)Now Yahweh visited Sarah as He had said, and Yahweh did for Sarah as He had [aq]promised. 2 (BE)So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at (BF)the appointed time of which God had spoken to him. 3 And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, (BG)Isaac. 4 Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was (BH)eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 Now Abraham was (BI)one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6 And Sarah said, “God has made (BJ)laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh [ar]with me.” 7 And she said, “(BK)Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
Sarah Sends Hagar Away
8 And the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 9 And Sarah saw (BL)the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, [as](BM)laughing in jest. 10 Therefore she said to Abraham, “(BN)Drive out this maidservant and her son! The son of this maidservant shall not be an heir with my son, with Isaac.” 11 (BO)And the matter [at]distressed Abraham greatly because of his son. 12 So God said to Abraham, “[au]Do not be distressed because of the boy and your maidservant; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her voice, for (BP)through Isaac your seed shall be named. 13 And of (BQ)the son of the maidservant I will make a nation also, because he is your seed.” 14 So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a [av]skin of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the child, and sent her away. So she went and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba.
15 When the water in the skin was finished, she [aw]put the child under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away, for she said, “Do not let me [ax]see when the child dies.” And she sat opposite him and (BR)lifted up her voice and wept. 17 Then God (BS)heard the voice of the boy crying; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter with you, Hagar? (BT)Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. 18 Arise, lift up the boy, and hold him by [ay]the hand, (BU)for I will make a great nation of him.” 19 Then God (BV)opened her eyes, and she saw (BW)a well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
20 (BX)And God was with the boy, and he grew; and he [az]lived in the wilderness and was an archer. 21 (BY)And he [ba]lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
A Covenant with Abimelech
22 Now it happened at that time, that (BZ)Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “(CA)God is with you in all that you do; 23 so now, (CB)swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my posterity, but according to the lovingkindness that I have shown you, you shall show me and the land in which you have sojourned.” 24 And Abraham said, “I swear it.” 25 But Abraham reproved Abimelech about the well of water which the servants of Abimelech (CC)had seized. 26 And Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, nor did I hear of it [bb]until today.”
27 So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and (CD)the two of them cut a covenant. 28 Then Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. 29 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What do these seven ewe lambs mean, which you have set by themselves?” 30 He said, “You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand so that it may be a (CE)witness to me, that I dug this well.” 31 Therefore he called that place (CF)Beersheba, because there the two of them swore an oath. 32 So they cut a covenant at Beersheba; and Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, arose and returned to the land of the Philistines. 33 And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there (CG)he called upon the name of Yahweh, the (CH)Everlasting God. 34 And Abraham sojourned (CI)in the land of the Philistines for many days.
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