January 6
Genesis 19:1 — 21:34
January 6
Genesis
19:1 —
21:34
19
Now the two angels arrived at Sodom by evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate
of Sodom. When Lot caught sight of them, then he got up to meet them and bowed
down with his face to the earth.
2 And he
proceeded to say: “Please, now, my lords, turn aside, please, into the house of
YOUR servant and stay overnight and have YOUR feet washed. Then YOU must get up
early and travel on YOUR way.” To this they said: “No, but in the public square
is where we shall stay overnight.”
3 But he
was very insistent with them, so that they turned aside to him and came into his
house. Then he made a feast for them, and he baked unfermented cakes, and they
went to eating.
4 Before
they could lie down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the
house, from boy to old man, all the people in one mob.
5 And
they kept calling out to Lot and saying to him: “Where are the men who came in
to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have intercourse with them.”
6 Finally
Lot went out to them to the entrance, but he shut the door behind him.
7 Then
he said: “Please, my brothers, do not act badly.
8 Please,
here I have two daughters who have never had intercourse with a man. Please, let
me bring them out to YOU. Then do to them as is good in YOUR eyes. Only to these
men do not do a thing, because that is why they have come under the shadow of my
roof.”
9 At
this they said: “Stand back there!” And they added: “This lone man came here to
reside as an alien and yet he would actually play the judge. Now we are going to
do worse to you than to them.” And they came pressing heavily in on the man, on
Lot, and were getting near to break in the door.
10 So
the men thrust out their hands and brought Lot in to them, into the house, and
they shut the door.
11 But
they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, from
the least to the greatest, so that they were wearing themselves out trying to
find the entrance.
12 Then
the men said to Lot: “Do you have anyone else here? Son-in-law and your sons and
your daughters and all who are yours in the city, bring out of the place!
13 For
we are bringing this place to ruin, because the outcry against them has grown
loud before Jehovah, so that Jehovah sent us to bring the city to ruin.”
14 Hence
Lot went on out and began to speak to his sons-in-law who were to take his
daughters, and he kept on saying: “Get up! Get out of this place, because
Jehovah is bringing the city to ruin!” But in the eyes of his sons-in-law he
seemed like a man who was joking.
15 However,
when the dawn ascended, then the angels became urgent with Lot, saying: “Get up!
Take your wife and your two daughters who are found here, for fear you may be
swept away in the error of the city!”
16 When
he kept lingering, then in the compassion of Jehovah upon him, the men seized
hold of his hand and of the hand of his wife and of the hands of his two
daughters and they proceeded to bring him out and to station him outside the
city.
17 And
it came about that, as soon as they had brought them forth to the outskirts, he
began to say: “Escape for your soul! Do not look behind you and do not stand
still in all the District! Escape to the mountainous region for fear you may be
swept away!”
18 Then
Lot said to them: “Not that, please, Jehovah!
19 Please,
now, your servant has found favor in your eyes so that you are magnifying your
loving-kindness, which you have exercised with me to preserve my soul alive, but
I—I am not able to escape to the mountainous region for fear calamity may keep
close to me and I certainly die.
20 Please,
now, this city is nearby to flee there and it is a small thing. May I, please,
escape there—is it not a small thing?—and my soul will live on.”
21 So
he said to him: “Here I do show you consideration to this extent also, by my not
overthrowing the city of which you have spoken.
22 Hurry!
Escape there, because I am not able to do a thing until your arriving there!”
That is why he called the name of the city Zoar.
23 The
sun had gone forth over the land when Lot arrived at Zoar.
24 Then
Jehovah made it rain sulphur and fire from Jehovah, from the heavens, upon Sodom
and upon Gomorrah.
25 So he
went ahead overthrowing these cities, even the entire District and all the
inhabitants of the cities and the plants of the ground.
26 And
his wife began to look around from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
27 Now
Abraham made his way early in the morning to the place where he had stood before
Jehovah.
28 Then
he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah
and toward all the land of the District and saw a sight. Why, here thick smoke
ascended from the land like the thick smoke of a kiln!
29 And
it came about that when God brought the cities of the District to ruin God kept
Abraham in mind in that he took steps to send Lot out of the midst of the
overthrow when overthrowing the cities among which Lot had been dwelling.
30 Later
Lot went up from Zoar and began dwelling in the mountainous region, and his two
daughters along with him, because he got afraid of dwelling in Zoar. So he
began dwelling in a cave, he and his two daughters.
31 And
the firstborn proceeded to say to the younger woman: “Our father is old and
there is not a man in the land to have relations with us according to the way of
the whole earth.
32 Come,
let us give our father wine to drink and let us lie down with him and preserve
offspring from our father.”
33 So
they kept giving their father wine to drink during that night; then the
firstborn went in and lay down with her father, but he did not know when she lay
down and when she got up.
34 And
it came about on the next day that the firstborn then said to the younger: “Here
I lay down with my father last night. Let us give him wine to drink tonight
also. Then you go in, lie down with him, and let us preserve offspring from our
father.”
35 So
they repeatedly gave their father wine to drink during that night also; then the
younger got up and lay down with him, but he did not know when she lay down and
when she got up.
36 And
both the daughters of Lot became pregnant from their father.
37 In
time the firstborn became mother to a son and called his name Moab. He is the
father of Moab, to this day.
38 As
for the younger, she too gave birth to a son and then called his name Ben-ammi.
He is the father of the sons of Ammon, to this day.
20
Now Abraham moved camp from there to the land of the Negeb and took up dwelling
between Kadesh and Shur and residing as an alien at Gerar.
2 And
Abraham repeated concerning Sarah his wife: “She is my sister.” With that Abimelech
king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.
3 Afterward
God came to Abimelech
in a dream by night and said to him: “Here you are as good as dead because of
the woman whom you have taken, since she is owned by another owner as his wife.”
4 However,
Abimelech
had not gone near her. Hence he said: “Jehovah, will you kill a nation that is
really righteous?
5 Did
not he say to me, ‘She is my sister’? and she—did not she too say, ‘He is my
brother’? In the honesty of my heart and with innocency of my hands I have done
this.”
6 At
that the [true] God said to him in the dream: “I too have known that in the
honesty of your heart you have done this, and I was also holding you back from
sinning against me. That is why I did not allow you to touch her.
7 But
now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will make supplication
for you. So keep living. But if you are not returning her, know that you will
positively die, you and all who are yours.”
8 So Abimelech
got up early in the morning and proceeded to call all his servants and to speak
of all these things in their ears. And the men got very much afraid.
9 Then Abimelech
called Abraham and said to him: “What have you done to us, and what sin have I
committed against you, in that you have brought upon me and my kingdom a great
sin? Deeds that should not have been done you have done in connection with me.”
10 And
Abimelech
went on to say to Abraham: “What did you have in view in that you have done this
thing?”
11 To
this Abraham said: “It was because I said to myself, ‘Doubtless there is no fear
of God in this place, and they will certainly kill me because of my wife.’
12 And,
besides, she is truly my sister, the daughter of my father, only not the
daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.
13 And
it came about that, when God caused me to wander from the house of my father,
then I said to her, ‘This is your loving-kindness which you may exercise toward
me: At every place where we shall come say of me: “He is my brother.”’”
14 Following
that Abimelech
took sheep and cattle and menservants and maidservants and gave them to Abraham
and returned to him Sarah his wife.
15 Further
Abimelech
said: “Here my land is available to you. Dwell where it is good in your eyes.”
16 And
to Sarah he said: “Here I do give a thousand silver pieces of money to your
brother. Here it is for you a covering of the eyes to all who are with you, and
before everybody, and you are cleared of reproach.”
17 And
Abraham began to make supplication to the [true] God; and God proceeded to heal
Abimelech
and his wife and his slave girls, and they began bearing children.
18 For
Jehovah had tightly shut up every womb of the house of Abimelech
because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
21
And Jehovah turned his attention to Sarah just as he had said, and Jehovah now
did to Sarah just as he had spoken.
2 And
Sarah became pregnant and then bore a son to Abraham in his old age at the
appointed time of which God had spoken to him.
3 Accordingly
Abraham called the name of his son who had been born to him, whom Sarah had
borne to him, Isaac.
4 And
Abraham proceeded to circumcise Isaac his son when eight days old, just as God
had commanded him.
5 And
Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac his son was born to him.
6 Then
Sarah said: “God has prepared laughter for me: everybody hearing of it will
laugh at me.”
7 And
she added: “Who would have uttered to Abraham, ‘Sarah will certainly suckle
children,’ whereas I have given birth to a son in his old age?”
8 Now
the child kept growing and came to be weaned; and Abraham then prepared a big
feast on the day of Isaac’s being weaned.
9 And
Sarah kept noticing the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to
Abraham, poking fun.
10 So
she began to say to Abraham: “Drive out this slave girl and her son, for the son
of this slave girl is not going to be an heir with my son, with Isaac!”
11 But
the thing proved to be very displeasing to Abraham as regards his son.
12 Then
God said to Abraham: “Do not let anything that Sarah keeps saying to you be
displeasing to you about the boy and about your slave girl. Listen to her voice,
because it is by means of Isaac that what will be called your seed will be.
13 And
as for the son of the slave girl, I shall also constitute him a nation, because
he is your offspring.”
14 So
Abraham got up early in the morning and took bread and a skin water bottle and
gave it to Hagar, setting it upon her shoulder, and the child, and then
dismissed her. And she went her way and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
15 Finally
the water became exhausted in the skin bottle and she threw the child under one
of the bushes.
16 Then
she went on and sat down by herself, about the distance of a bowshot away,
because she said: “Let me not see it when the child dies.” So she sat down at a
distance and began to raise her voice and weep.
17 At
that God heard the voice of the boy, and God’s angel called to Hagar out of the
heavens and said to her: “What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not be afraid,
because God has listened to the voice of the boy there where he is.
18 Get
up, lift up the boy and take hold of him with your hand, because I shall
constitute him a great nation.”
19 Then
God opened her eyes so that she caught sight of a well of water; and she went
and began to fill the skin bottle with water and to give the boy a drink.
20 And
God continued to be with the boy, and he kept growing and dwelling in the
wilderness; and he became an archer.
21 And
he took up dwelling in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother proceeded to
take a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
22 Now
it came about at that time that Abimelech
together with Phicol the chief of his army said to Abraham: “God is with you in
everything you are doing.
23 So
now swear to me here by God that you will not prove false to me and to my
offspring and to my posterity; that, according to the loyal love with which I
have dealt with you, you will deal with me and with the land in which you have
been residing as an alien.”
24 So
Abraham said: “I shall swear.”
25 When
Abraham criticized Abimelech
severely as regards the well of water that the servants of Abimelech
had seized by violence,
26 then
Abimelech
said: “I do not know who did this thing, neither did you yourself tell it to me,
and I myself have also not heard of it except today.”
27 With
that Abraham took sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech,
and both of them proceeded to conclude a covenant.
28 When
Abraham set seven female lambs of the flock by themselves,
29 Abimelech
went on to say to Abraham: “What is the meaning here of these seven female lambs
that you have set by themselves?”
30 Then
he said: “You are to accept the seven female lambs at my hand, that it may serve
as a witness for me that I have dug this well.”
31 That
is why he called that place Beer-sheba, because there both of them had taken
an oath.
32 So
they concluded a covenant at Beer-sheba, after which Abimelech
got up together with Phicol the chief of his army and they returned to the land
of the Philistines.
33 After
that he planted a tamarisk tree at Beer-sheba and called there upon the name
of Jehovah the indefinitely lasting God.
34 And
Abraham extended his residence as an alien in the land of the Philistines
many days.