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Birth of Isaac Promised

18 Now the Lord appeared to Abraham by the terebinth trees of Mamre [in Hebron], while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. When he raised his eyes and looked up, behold, three men were standing [a little distance] from him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed down [with his face] to the ground, and Abraham said, “My [a]lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, please do not pass by your servant [without stopping to visit]. Please let a little water be brought [by one of my servants] and [you may] wash your feet, and recline and rest comfortably under the tree. And I will bring a piece of bread to refresh and sustain [b]you; after that you may go on, since you have come to your servant.” And they replied, “Do as you have said.” So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quickly, get ready three [c]measures of fine meal, knead it and bake cakes.” Abraham also ran to the herd and brought a calf, tender and choice, and he gave it to the servant [to butcher], and he hurried to prepare it. Then he took [d]curds and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before the men; and he stood beside them under the tree while they ate.

Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” 10 He said, “I will surely return to you at this [e]time next year; and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door, which was behind him.(A) 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in years; she was past [the age of] childbearing. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself [when she heard the Lord’s words], saying, “After I have become old, shall I have pleasure and delight, my lord (husband) being also old?”(B) 13 And the Lord asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh [to herself], saying, ‘Shall I really give birth [to a child] when I am so old?’ 14 Is anything too difficult or too wonderful for the [f]Lord? At the appointed time, when the season [for her delivery] comes, I will return to you and Sarah will have a son.”(C) 15 Then Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh”; because she was afraid. And He (the Lord) said, “No, but you did laugh.”

16 Then the men got up from there, and looked toward Sodom; and Abraham walked with them to send them on the way. 17 The Lord said, “Shall I keep secret from Abraham [My friend and servant] what I am going to do,(D) 18 since Abraham [g]is destined to become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him?(E) 19 For I have known (chosen, acknowledged) him [as My own], so that he may teach and command his children and [the sons of] his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is righteous and just, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has promised him.” 20 And the Lord said, “The outcry [of the sin] of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. 21 I will go down now, and see whether they have acted [as vilely and wickedly] as the outcry which has come to Me [indicates]; and if not, I will know.”

22 Now the [two] men (angelic beings) turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. 23 Abraham approached [the Lord] and said, “Will You really sweep away the righteous (those who do right) with the wicked (those who do evil)? 24 Suppose there are fifty righteous [people] within the city; will You really sweep it away and not spare it for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it? 25 Far be it from You to do [h]such a thing—to strike the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right [by executing just and righteous judgment]?” 26 So the Lord said, “If I find within the city of Sodom fifty righteous [people], then I will spare the entire place for their sake.” 27 Abraham answered, “Now behold, I who am but dust [in origin] and ashes have decided to speak to the Lord.(F) 28 If five of the fifty righteous are lacking, will You destroy the entire city for lack of five?” And He said, “If I find [at least] forty-five [righteous people] there, I will not destroy it.” 29 Abraham spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose [only] forty are found there.” And He said, “I will not do it for the sake of the forty [who are righteous].” 30 Then Abraham said [to Him], “Oh, may the Lord not be angry, and I will speak; suppose thirty [righteous people] are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.” 31 And he said, “Now behold, I have decided to speak to the Lord [again]. Suppose [only] twenty [righteous people] are found there?” And the Lord said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty.” 32 Then Abraham said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry [with me], and I will speak only this once; suppose ten [righteous people] are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.” 33 As soon as He had finished speaking with Abraham the Lord departed, and Abraham returned to his own place.

The Doom of Sodom

19 It was evening when the two angels came to Sodom. Lot was sitting at Sodom’s [[i]city] gate. Seeing them, Lot got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. And he said, “See here, my lords, please turn aside and come into your servant’s house, and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may get up early and go on your way.” But they said, “No, we shall spend the night in the open plaza [of the city].” However, Lot strongly urged them, so they turned aside and entered his house; and he prepared a feast for them [with wine], and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. But before they lay down [to sleep], the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, surrounded the house, [j]all the men from every quarter; and they called out to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we may know them [intimately].” But Lot went out of the doorway to the men, and shut the door after him, and said, “Please, my brothers, do not do something so wicked. See here, I have two daughters who have not known a man [intimately]; please let me bring them out to you [instead], and you can do as you please with them; only do nothing to these men, because they have in fact come under the shelter of my roof [for protection].” But they said, “Get out of the way!” And they said, “This man (Lot) came [as an outsider] to live here temporarily, and now he is acting like a judge. Now we will treat you worse than your visitors!” So they rushed forward and pressed violently against [k]Lot and came close to breaking down the door [of his house]. 10 But the men (angels) reached out with their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door [after him]. 11 They struck (punished) the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, from the young men to the old men, so that they exhausted themselves trying to find the doorway.

12 And the [two] men (angels) asked Lot, “Have you any others here [in Sodom]—a son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters? Whomever you have in the city, take them out of here; 13 for we are destroying this place, because the outcry [for judgment] against them has grown so great before the Lord that the Lord has sent us to destroy and ruin it.” 14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were [betrothed, and legally promised] to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up, get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy this city!” But to his sons-in-law he appeared to be joking.

15 When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot [to hurry], saying, “Get up! Take your wife and two daughters who are here [and go], or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.” 16 But Lot hesitated and lingered. The men took hold of his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, because the Lord was merciful to him [for Abraham’s sake]; and they brought him out, and left him outside the city [with his family]. 17 When they had brought them outside, one [of the angels] said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, or stop anywhere in the entire valley; escape to the mountains [of Moab], or you will be consumed and swept away.” 18 But Lot said to them, “Oh no, [not that place] my lords! 19 Please listen, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your lovingkindness (mercy) to me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, because the disaster will overtake me and I will be killed. 20 Now look, this town [in the distance] is near enough for us to flee to, and it is small [with only a few people]. Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) so that my life will be saved.” 21 And the angel said to him, “Behold, I grant you this request also; I will not destroy this town of which you have spoken. 22 Hurry and take refuge there, for I cannot do anything [to punish Sodom] until you arrive there.” For this reason the town was named Zoar (few, small).

23 The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained down brimstone (flaming sulfur) and fire on Sodom and on Gomorrah from the Lord out of heaven, 25 and He overthrew (demolished, ended) those cities, and the entire valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and whatever grew on the ground. 26 But Lot’s wife, from behind him, [foolishly, longingly] looked [back toward Sodom in an act of disobedience], and she [l]became a pillar of salt.(G)

27 Abraham started out early the next morning to the place where he [only the day before] had stood before the Lord; 28 and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the valley [of the Dead Sea]; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of [m]the land went up like the smoke of a kiln (pottery furnace).

29 Now when God ravaged and destroyed the cities of the plain [of Siddim], He remembered Abraham [and for that reason], and He sent [Abraham’s nephew] Lot out of the midst of the destruction, when He destroyed the cities in which Lot had lived.

Lot Is Debased

30 Now Lot went up from Zoar, and lived in the mountain together with his two daughters, for he was afraid to stay [any longer] in Zoar; and he lived in a cave with his two daughters. 31 The firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is aging, and there is not a man on earth [available] to be intimate with us in the customary way [so that we may have children]. 32 Come, let us make our father drunk with wine, and we will lie with him so that we may preserve our family through our father.” 33 So they gave their father 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 got up [because he was completely intoxicated]. 34 Then the next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay with my father last night; let us make him drunk with wine tonight also, and then you go in and lie with him, so that we may preserve our family through our father.” 35 So they gave their father wine that night also, and the younger got up and lay with him; and again he did not know when she lay down or when she got up. 36 Thus both the daughters of Lot conceived by their father. 37 The firstborn gave birth to a son, and named him Moab (from father); he is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38 The younger also gave birth to a son and named him Ben-ammi (son of my people); he is the father of the Ammonites to this day.

Footnotes

  1. Genesis 18:3 At some point during this encounter, Abraham understood that one of the three men was actually God appearing as a man (or as an angel; cf note 16:7), and he addressed Him as such in v 14. Verse 13 confirms that it was the Lord who spoke to him. The other two men were angels.
  2. Genesis 18:5 Lit your heart.
  3. Genesis 18:6 Heb seim, plural of seah; since one seah equals about nine quarts, this was a large quantity. However, Abraham was asking Sarah to make cakes of bread which actually could be baked quickly because they were similar to pizza dough, that is, large, round, and flat. Together with the other food that Abraham provided (vv 7, 8), his promise of “a piece of bread” in v 5 was greatly understated, and the generous meal reflected the respect that he held for his special visitors.
  4. Genesis 18:8 Or sour milk, or perhaps butter. It may have served as a kind of condiment for the bread.
  5. Genesis 18:10 Lit when the time revives. Some regard this as a reference to springtime. Others think it means “the time when the life is ready.”
  6. Genesis 18:14 The divine Hebrew name YHWH (Yahweh), usually represented by “Lord,” occurs more than 5,000 times in the Bible.
  7. Genesis 18:18 Lit will surely.
  8. Genesis 18:25 Lit according to this word.
  9. Genesis 19:1 In ancient times this was the primary place of commerce and legal business.
  10. Genesis 19:4 The emphasis in the text that all the men of Sodom came reveals the depth of their depravity.
  11. Genesis 19:9 Lit the man.
  12. Genesis 19:26 Lot’s wife not only “looked back” to where her interests were, but perhaps lingered behind and was overtaken by the fire and brimstone; her dead body likely became continually encrusted with salt since this disaster occurred in the salt-rich area around the Dead Sea.
  13. Genesis 19:28 Not only were Sodom and Gomorrah blazing ruins, but also Admah and Zeboiim (Deut 29:23; Hos 11:8), as well as all the towns in the Valley of Siddim; Zoar was the lone exception.

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