Genesis 19; Genesis 20; Genesis 21

Genesis 19

1 The two messengers entered Sodom in the evening. Lot, who was sitting at the gate of Sodom, saw them, got up to greet them, and bowed low.

2 He said, "Come to your servant's house, spend the night, and wash your feet. Then you can get up early and go on your way." But they said, "No, we will spend the night in the town square."

3 He pleaded earnestly with them, so they went with him and entered his house. He made a big meal for them, even baking unleavened bread, and they ate.

4 Before they went to bed, the men of the city of Sodom—everyone from the youngest to the oldest—surrounded the house

5 and called to Lot, "Where are the men who arrived tonight? Bring them out to us so that we may have sex with them."

6 Lot went out toward the entrance, closed the door behind him,

7 and said, "My brothers, don't do such an evil thing.

8 I've got two daughters who are virgins. Let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them whatever you wish. But don't do anything to these men because they are now under the protection of my roof."

9 They said, "Get out of the way!" And they continued, "Does this immigrant want to judge us? Now we will hurt you more than we will hurt them." They pushed Lot back and came close to breaking down the door.

10 The men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house with them and slammed the door.

11 Then the messengers blinded the men near the entrance of the house, from the youngest to the oldest, so that they groped around trying to find the entrance.

12 The men said to Lot, "Who's still with you here? Take away from this place your sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and everyone else you have in the city

13 because we are about to destroy this place. The LORD has found the cries of injustice so serious that the LORD sent us to destroy it."

14 Lot went to speak to his sons-in-law, married to his daughters, and said, "Get up and get out of this place because the LORD is about to destroy the city." But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

15 When dawn broke, the messengers urged Lot, "Get up and take your wife and your two daughters who are here so that you are not swept away because of the evil in this city."

16 He hesitated, but because the LORD intended to save him, the men grabbed him, his wife, and two daughters by the hand, took him out, and left him outside the city.

17 After getting them out, the men said, "Save your lives! Don't look back! And don't stay in the valley. Escape to the mountains so that you are not swept away."

18 But Lot said to them, "No, my lords, please.

19 You've done me a favor and have been so kind to save my life. But I can't escape to the mountains since the catastrophe might overtake me there and I'd die.

20 This city here is close enough to flee to, and it's small. It's small, right? Let me escape there, and my life will be saved."

21 He said to Lot, "I'll do this for you as well; I won't overthrow the city that you have described.

22 Hurry! Escape to it! I can't do anything until you get there." That is why the name of the city is Zoar.

23 As the sun rose over the earth, Lot arrived in Zoar;

24 and the LORD rained down burning asphalt from the skies onto Sodom and Gomorrah.

25 The LORD destroyed these cities, the entire valley, everyone who lived in the cities, and all of the fertile land's vegetation.

26 When Lot's wife looked back, she turned into a pillar of salt.

27 Abraham set out early for the place where he had stood with the LORD,

28 and looked out over Sodom and Gomorrah and over all the land of the valley. He saw the smoke from the land rise like the smoke from a kiln.

29 When God destroyed the cities in the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot away from the disaster that overtook the cities in which Lot had lived.

30 Since Lot had become fearful of living in Zoar, he and his two daughters headed up from Zoar and settled in the mountains where he and his two daughters lived in a cave.

31 The older daughter said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there are no men in the land to sleep with us as is the custom everywhere.

32 Come on, let's give our father wine to drink, lie down with him, and we'll have children from our father."

33 That night they served their father wine, and the older daughter went in and lay down with her father, without him noticing when she lay down or got up.

34 The next day the older daughter said to the younger, "Since I lay down with our father last night, let's serve him wine tonight too, and you go in and lie down with him so that we will both have children from our father."

35 They served their father wine that night also, and the younger daughter lay down with him, without him knowing when she lay down or got up.

36 Both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father.

37 The older daughter gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the ancestor of today's Moabites.

38 The younger daughter also gave birth to a son and named him Ben-ammi. He is the ancestor of today's Ammonites.

Genesis 20

1 Abraham traveled from there toward the land of the arid southern plain, and he settled as an immigrant in Gerar, between Kadesh and Shur.

2 Abraham said of his wife Sarah, "She's my sister." So King Abimelech of Gerar took her into his household.

3 But God appeared to Abimelech that night in a dream and said to him, "You are as good as dead because of this woman you have taken. She is a married woman."

4 Now Abimelech hadn't gone near her, and he said, "Lord, will you really put an innocent nation to death?

5 Didn't he say to me, ‘She's my sister,' and didn't she—even she—say, ‘He's my brother'? My intentions were pure, and I acted innocently when I did this."

6 God said to him in the dream, "I know that your intentions were pure when you did this. In fact, I kept you from sinning against me. That's why I didn't allow you to touch her.

7 Now return the man's wife. He's a prophet; he will pray for you so you may live. But if you don't return her, know that you and everyone with you will die!"

8 Abimelech got up early in the morning and summoned all of his servants. When he told them everything that had happened, the men were terrified.

9 Then Abimelech summoned Abraham and said to him, "What have you done to us? What sin did I commit against you that you have brought this terrible sin to me and my kingdom, by doing to me something that simply isn't done?"

10 Abimelech said to Abraham, "What were you thinking when you did this thing?"

11 Abraham said, "I thought to myself, No one reveres God here and they will kill me to get my wife.

12 She is, truthfully, my sister—my father's daughter but not my mother's daughter—and she's now my wife.

13 When God led me away from my father's household, I said to her, ‘This is the loyalty I expect from you: in each place we visit, tell them, “He is my brother.”'"

14 Abimelech took flocks, cattle, male servants, and female servants, and gave them to Abraham; and Abimelech returned his wife Sarah.

15 Abimelech said, "My land is here available to you. Live wherever you wish."

16 To Sarah, he said, "I've given your brother one thousand pieces of silver. It means that neither you nor anyone with you has done anything wrong. Everything has been set right."

17 Abraham prayed to God; and God restored Abimelech, his wife, and his women servants to health, and they were able to have children.

18 Because of the incident with Abraham's wife Sarah, the LORD had kept all of the women in Abimelech's household from having children.

Genesis 21

1 The LORD was attentive to Sarah just as he had said, and the LORD carried out just what he had promised her.

2 She became pregnant and gave birth to a son for Abraham when he was old, at the very time God had told him.

3 Abraham named his son—the one Sarah bore him—Isaac.

4 Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old just as God had commanded him.

5 Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born.

6 Sarah said, "God has given me laughter. Everyone who hears about it will laugh with me."

7 She said, "Who could have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse sons? But now I've given birth to a son when he was old!"

8 The boy grew and stopped nursing. On the day he stopped nursing, Abraham prepared a huge banquet.

9 Sarah saw Hagar's son laughing, the one Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham.

10 So she said to Abraham, "Send this servant away with her son! This servant's son won't share the inheritance with my son Isaac."

11 This upset Abraham terribly because the boy was his son.

12 God said to Abraham, "Don't be upset about the boy and your servant. Do everything Sarah tells you to do because your descendants will be traced through Isaac.

13 But I will make of your servant's son a great nation too, because he is also your descendant."

14 Abraham got up early in the morning, took some bread and a flask of water, and gave it to Hagar. He put the boy in her shoulder sling and sent her away. She left and wandered through the desert near Beer-sheba.

15 Finally the water in the flask ran out, and she put the boy down under one of the desert shrubs.

16 She walked away from him about as far as a bow shot and sat down, telling herself, I can't bear to see the boy die. She sat at a distance, cried out in grief, and wept.

17 God heard the boy's cries, and God's messenger called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "Hagar! What's wrong? Don't be afraid. God has heard the boy's cries over there.

18 Get up, pick up the boy, and take him by the hand because I will make of him a great nation."

19 Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well. She went over, filled the water flask, and gave the boy a drink.

20 God remained with the boy; he grew up, lived in the desert, and became an expert archer.

21 He lived in the Paran desert, and his mother found him an Egyptian wife.

22 At that time Abimelech, and Phicol commander of his forces, said to Abraham, "God is with you in everything that you do.

23 So give me your word under God that you won't cheat me, my children, or my descendants. Just as I have treated you fairly, so you must treat me and the land in which you are an immigrant."

24 Abraham said, "I give you my word.

25 Then Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well that Abimelech's servants had seized.

26 Abimelech said, "I don't know who has done this, and you didn't tell me. I didn't even hear about it until today."

27 Abraham took flocks and cattle, gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them drew up a treaty.

28 Abraham set aside, by themselves, seven female lambs from the flock.

29 So Abimelech said to Abraham, "What are these seven lambs you've set apart?"

30 Abraham said, "These seven lambs that you take from me will attest that I dug this well."

31 Therefore, the name of that place is Beer-sheba because there they gave each other their word.

32 After they drew up a treaty at Beer-sheba, Abimelech, and Phicol commander of his forces, returned to the land of the Philistines.

33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and he worshipped there in the name of the LORD, El Olam.

34 Abraham lived as an immigrant in the Philistines' land for a long time.