Genesis 18-19

Complete Jewish Bible

Parashah 4: Vayera (He appeared) 18:1–22:24

18 Adonai appeared to Avraham by the oaks of Mamre as he sat at the entrance to the tent during the heat of the day. ² He raised his eyes and looked, and there in front of him stood three men. On seeing them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, prostrated himself on the ground, ³ and said, “My lord, if I have found favor in your sight, please don’t leave your servant. ⁴ Please let me send for some water, so that you can wash your feet; then rest under the tree, ⁵ and I will bring a piece of bread. Now that you have come to your servant, refresh yourselves before going on.” “Very well,” they replied, “do what you have said.”

⁶ Avraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly, three measures of the best flour! Knead it and make cakes.” ⁷ Avraham ran to the herd, took a good, tender calf and gave it to the servant, who hurried to prepare it. ⁸ Then he took curds, milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it all before the men; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate. ⁹ They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” He said, “There, in the tent.” ¹⁰ He said, “I will certainly return to you around this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” Sarah heard him from the entrance of the tent, behind him. ¹¹ Avraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years; Sarah was past the age of childbearing. ¹² So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, “I am old, and so is my lord; am I to have pleasure again?” ¹³ Adonai said to Avraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and ask, ‘Am I really going to bear a child when I am so old?’ ¹⁴ Is anything too hard for Adonai? At the time set for it, at this season next year, I will return to you; and Sarah will have a son.” (ii) ¹⁵ Sarah denied it, saying, “I didn’t either laugh,” because she was afraid. He said, “Not so — you did laugh.”

¹⁶ The men set out from there and looked over toward S’dom, and Avraham went with them to see them on their way. ¹⁷ Adonai said, “Should I hide from Avraham what I am about to do, ¹⁸ inasmuch as Avraham is sure to become a great and strong nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed by him? ¹⁹ For I have made myself known to him, so that he will give orders to his children and to his household after him to keep the way of Adonai and to do what is right and just, so that Adonai may bring about for Avraham what he has promised him.”

²⁰ Adonai said, “The outcry against S’dom and ‘Amora is so great and their sin so serious ²¹ that I will now go down and see whether their deeds warrant the outcry that has reached me; if not, I will know.” ²² The men turned away from there and went toward S’dom, but Avraham remained standing before Adonai. ²³ Avraham approached and said, “Will you actually sweep away the righteous with the wicked? ²⁴ Maybe there are fifty righteous people in the city; will you actually sweep the place away, and not forgive it for the sake of the fifty righteous who are there? ²⁵ Far be it from you to do such a thing — to kill the righteous along with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike! Far be it from you! Shouldn’t the judge of all the earth do what is just?” ²⁶ Adonai said, “If I find in S’dom fifty who are righteous, then I will forgive the whole place for their sake.”

²⁷ Avraham answered, “Here now, I, who am but dust and ashes, have taken it upon myself to speak to Adonai. ²⁸ What if there are five less than fifty righteous?” He said, “I won’t destroy it if I find forty-five there.”

²⁹ He spoke to him yet again: “What if forty are found there?” He said, “For the sake of the forty I won’t do it.”

³⁰ He said, “I hope Adonai won’t be angry if I speak. What if thirty are found there?” He said, “I won’t do it if I find thirty there.”

³¹ He said, “Here now, I have taken it upon myself to speak to Adonai. What if twenty are found there?” He said, “For the sake of the twenty I won’t destroy it.”

³² He said, “I hope Adonai won’t be angry if I speak just once more. What if ten are found there?” He said, “For the sake of the ten I won’t destroy it.” ³³ Adonai went on his way as soon as he had finished speaking to Avraham, and Avraham returned to his place.

19 (iii) The two angels came to S’dom that evening, when Lot was sitting at the gate of S’dom. Lot saw them, got up to greet them and prostrated himself on the ground. ² He said, “Here now, my lords, please come over to your servant’s house. Spend the night, wash your feet, get up early, and go on your way.” “No,” they answered, “we’ll stay in the square.” ³ But he kept pressing them; so they went home with him; and he made them a meal, baking matzah for their supper, which they ate.

⁴ But before they could go to bed, the men of the city surrounded the house — young and old, everyone from every neighborhood of S’dom. ⁵ They called Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to stay with you tonight? Bring them out to us! We want to have sex with them!” ⁶ Lot went out to them and stood in the doorway, closing the door behind him, ⁷ and said, “Please, my brothers, don’t do such a wicked thing. ⁸ Look here, I have two daughters who are virgins. Please, let me bring them out to you, and you can do with them what seems good to you; but don’t do anything to these men, since they are guests in my house.” ⁹ “Stand back!” they replied. “This guy came to live here, and now he’s decided to play judge. For that we’ll deal worse with you than with them!” Then they crowded in on Lot, in order to get close enough to break down the door. ¹⁰ But the men inside reached out their hands, brought Lot into the house to them and shut the door. ¹¹ Then they struck the men at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they couldn’t find the doorway.

¹² The men said to Lot, “Do you have any people here besides yourself? Whomever you have in the city — son-in-law, your sons, your daughters — bring them out of this place; ¹³ because we are going to destroy it. Adonai has become aware of the great outcry against them, and Adonai has sent us to destroy it.” ¹⁴ Lot went out and spoke with his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, “Get up and leave this place, because Adonai is going to destroy the city.” But his sons-in-law didn’t take him seriously.

¹⁵ When morning came, the angels told Lot to hurry. “Get up,” they said, “and take your wife and your two daughters who are here; otherwise you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.” ¹⁶ But he dallied, so the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand and the hands of his two daughters — Adonai was being merciful to him — and led them, leaving them outside the city. ¹⁷ When they had brought them out, he said, “Flee for your life! Don’t look behind you, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain, but escape to the hills! Otherwise you will be swept away.” ¹⁸ Lot said to them, “Please, no, my lord! ¹⁹ Here, your servant has already found favor in your sight, and you have shown me even greater mercy by saving my life. But I can’t escape to the hills, because I’m afraid the disaster will overtake me, and I will die. ²⁰ Look, there’s a town nearby to flee to, and it’s a small one. Please let me escape there — isn’t it just a small one? — and that way I will stay alive.”

(iv) ²¹ He replied, “All right, I agree to what you have asked. I won’t overthrow the city of which you have spoken. ²² Hurry, and escape to that place, because I can’t do anything until you arrive there.” For this reason the city was named Tzo‘ar [small].

²³ By the time Lot had come to Tzo‘ar, the sun had risen over the land. ²⁴ Then Adonai caused sulfur and fire to rain down upon S’dom and ‘Amora from Adonai out of the sky. ²⁵ He overthrew those cities, the entire plain, all the inhabitants of the cities and everything growing in the ground. ²⁶ But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a column of salt.

²⁷ Avraham got up early in the morning, went to the place where he had stood before Adonai, ²⁸ and looked out toward S’dom and ‘Amora, scanning the entire plain. There before him the smoke was rising from the land like smoke from a furnace! ²⁹ But when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Avraham and sent Lot out, away from the destruction, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.

³⁰ Lot went up from Tzo‘ar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, because he was afraid to stay in Tzo‘ar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. ³¹ The firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there isn’t a man on earth to come in to us in the manner customary in the world. ³² Come, let’s have our father drink wine; then we’ll sleep with him, and that way we’ll enable our father to have descendants.”

³³ So they plied their father with wine that night, and the older one went in and slept with her father; he didn’t know when she lay down or when she got up. ³⁴ The following day, the older said to the younger, “Here, I slept last night with my father. Let’s make him drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him, and that way we’ll enable our father to have descendants.” ³⁵ They plied their father with wine that night also, and the younger one got up and slept with him, and he didn’t know when she lay down or when she got up. ³⁶ Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father.

³⁷ The older one gave birth to a son and called him Mo’av; he is the ancestor of Mo’av to this day. ³⁸ The younger also gave birth to a son, and she called him Ben-‘Ammi; he is the ancestor of the people of ‘Amon to this day.