Genesis 19-21

Easy-to-Read Version

Lot’s Visitors

19 That evening the two angels came to the city of Sodom. Lot was sitting near the city gates and saw them. He got up and went to them. He bowed to show respect and said, “Sirs, please come to my house, and I will serve you. There you can wash your feet and stay the night. Then tomorrow you can continue your journey.”

The angels answered, “No, we will stay the night in the city square.”

³ But Lot continued to ask them to come to his house, so they agreed and went with him. Lot gave them something to drink. He baked some bread for them, and they ate it.

⁴ That evening, just before bedtime, men from every part of town came to Lot’s house. They stood around the house and called to Lot. They said, ⁵ “Where are the two men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us. We want to have sex with them.”

⁶ Lot went outside and closed the door behind him. ⁷ He said to the men, “No, my friends, I beg you, please don’t do this evil thing! ⁸ Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man before. I will give my daughters to you. You can do anything you want with them. But please don’t do anything to these men. They have come to my house, and I must protect them.”^[a]

⁹ The men surrounding the house answered, “Get out of our way!” They said to themselves, “This man Lot came to our city as a visitor. Now he wants to tell us how we should live!” Then the men said to Lot, “We will do worse things to you than to them.” So the men started moving closer and closer to Lot. They were about to break down the door.

¹⁰ But the two men staying with Lot opened the door, pulled him back inside the house, and closed the door. ¹¹ Then they did something to the men outside the door—they caused all these evil men, young and old, to become blind. So the men trying to get in the house could not find the door.

The Escape From Sodom

¹² The two men said to Lot, “Are there any other people from your family living in this city? Do you have any sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or any other people from your family here? If so, you should tell them to leave now. ¹³ We are going to destroy this city. The Lord heard how evil this city is, so he sent us to destroy it.”

¹⁴ So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, the men who had married his other daughters. He said, “Hurry and leave this city! The Lord will soon destroy it!” But they thought he was joking.

¹⁵ The next morning at dawn, the angels were trying to make Lot hurry. They said, “This city will be punished, so take your wife and your two daughters who are still with you and leave this place. Then you will not be destroyed with the city.”

¹⁶ When Lot did not move fast enough, the two men grabbed his hand. They also took the hands of his wife and his two daughters. The two men led Lot and his family safely out of the city. The Lord was kind to Lot and his family. ¹⁷ So after the two men brought Lot and his family out of the city, one of the men said, “Now run to save your life! Don’t look back at the city, and don’t stop anywhere in the valley. Run until you are in the mountains. If you stop, you will be destroyed with the city!”

¹⁸ But Lot said to the two men, “Sirs, please don’t force me to run so far! ¹⁹ You have been very kind to me, your servant. You have been very kind to save me, but I cannot run all the way to the mountains. What if I am too slow and something happens? I will be killed! ²⁰ Look, there is a very small town near here. Let me run to that town. I can run there and be safe.”

²¹ The angel said to Lot, “Very well, I’ll let you do that. I will not destroy that town. ²² But run there quickly. I cannot destroy Sodom until you are safely in that town.” (That town is named Zoar,^[b] because it is a small town.)

Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed

²³ Lot was entering the town as the sun came up, ²⁴ and the Lord began to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. He caused fire and burning sulfur to fall from the sky. ²⁵ He destroyed the whole valley—all the cities, the people living in the cities, and all the plants in the valley.

²⁶ Lot’s wife was following behind him and looked back at the city. When she did, she became a block of salt.

²⁷ Early the next morning, Abraham got up and went to the place where he stood before the Lord. ²⁸ Abraham looked down into the valley toward the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He saw clouds of smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.

²⁹ God destroyed the cities in the valley, but he remembered what Abraham had said. So God sent Lot away from those cities before destroying them.

Lot and His Daughters

³⁰ Lot was afraid to stay in Zoar, so he and his two daughters went to live in the mountains in a cave. ³¹ One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Everywhere on the earth, men and women marry and have a family. But our father is old, and there are no men around here to give us children. ³² So let’s get our father drunk with wine. Then we can have sex with him. That way we can use our father to keep our family alive!”

³³ That night the two girls went to their father and got him drunk with wine. Then the older daughter went and had sexual relations with him. He did not even know when she came to bed or when she got up.

³⁴ The next day the older daughter said to the younger daughter, “Last night I went to bed with my father. Let’s get him drunk with wine again tonight. Then you can go and have sex with him. In this way we can use our father to have children, and our family will not come to an end.” ³⁵ So that night the two girls got their father drunk with wine. Then the younger daughter went and had sexual relations with him. Again, Lot did not know when she came to bed or when she got up.

³⁶ Both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant. Their father was the father of their babies. ³⁷ The older daughter gave birth to a son. She named him Moab.^[c] Moab is the ancestor of all the Moabites living today. ³⁸ The younger daughter also gave birth to a son. She named him Ben-Ammi.^[d] Ben-Ammi is the ancestor of all the Ammonites living today.

Abraham Goes to Gerar

20 Abraham left that place and traveled to the Negev. He settled in the city of Gerar, between Kadesh and Shur. While in Gerar, ² Abraham told people that Sarah was his sister. King Abimelech of Gerar heard this. Abimelech wanted Sarah, so he sent some servants to take her. ³ But one night God spoke to Abimelech in a dream and said, “You will die. The woman you took is married.”

⁴ But Abimelech had not yet slept with Sarah, so he said, “Lord, I am not guilty. Would you kill an innocent man? ⁵ Abraham himself told me, ‘This woman is my sister,’ and she also said, ‘This man is my brother.’ I am innocent. I did not know what I was doing.”

⁶ Then God said to Abimelech in a dream, “Yes, I know that you are innocent and that you did not know what you were doing. I saved you. I did not allow you to sin against me. I was the one who did not allow you to sleep with her. ⁷ So give Abraham his wife again. He is a prophet. He will pray for you, and you will live. But if you don’t give Sarah back to him, I promise that you will die. And all your family will die with you.”

⁸ So very early the next morning, Abimelech called all his servants and told them about the dream. The servants were very afraid. ⁹ Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “Why have you done this to us? What wrong did I do to you? Why did you lie and say that she was your sister? You brought great trouble to my kingdom. You should not have done this to me. ¹⁰ What were you afraid of? Why did you do this to me?”

¹¹ Then Abraham said, “I thought no one in this place respected God. I thought someone would kill me to get Sarah. ¹² She is my wife, but she is also my sister. She is the daughter of my father but not the daughter of my mother. ¹³ God led me away from my father’s house. He led me to wander to many different places. When that happened, I told Sarah, ‘Do something for me. Wherever we go, tell people you are my sister.’”

¹⁴ So Abimelech gave Sarah back to Abraham. Abimelech also gave Abraham some sheep, cattle, and slaves. ¹⁵ And Abimelech said, “Look all around you. This is my land. You may live any place you want.”

¹⁶ Abimelech said to Sarah, “I gave your brother Abraham 1000 pieces of silver. I did this to show that I am very sorry. I want everyone to see that I did the right thing.”

^17-18 The Lord made all the women in Abimelech’s family not able to have children. God did this because Abimelech had taken Sarah, Abraham’s wife. But Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his servant girls.

Finally, a Baby for Sarah

21 The Lord came back to visit Sarah as he said he would, and he kept his promise to her. ² At exactly the time God said it would happen, Sarah became pregnant and gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. ³ Abraham named his son Isaac.^{[e] 4} Abraham did what God commanded and circumcised Isaac when he was eight days old.

⁵ Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born. ⁶ Sarah said, “God has made me happy, and everyone who hears about this will be happy with me. ⁷ No one thought that I, Sarah, would be able to have Abraham’s child. But I have given Abraham a son, even though he is old.”

Trouble at Home

⁸ Isaac continued to grow, and soon he was old enough to begin eating solid food. So Abraham gave a big party. ⁹ Sarah saw Hagar’s son playing. (Hagar was the Egyptian slave woman who gave birth to Abraham’s first son.) ¹⁰ Sarah said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son. Send them away! When we die, our son Isaac will get everything we have. I don’t want that slave woman’s son sharing these things with my son Isaac!”

¹¹ This upset Abraham very much. He was worried about his son Ishmael. ¹² But God said to Abraham, “Don’t worry about the boy and the slave woman. Do what Sarah wants. Your descendants will be those who come through Isaac. ¹³ But I will also bless the son of your slave woman. He is your son, so I will make a great nation from his family also.”

¹⁴ Early the next morning Abraham took some food and water and gave them to Hagar. She carried them and left with her boy. She left that place and wandered in the desert of Beersheba.

¹⁵ After some time, when all their drinking water was gone, Hagar put her son under a bush. ¹⁶ Then she walked a short distance away and sat down. She thought her son would die because there was no water. She did not want to watch him die. She sat there and began to cry.

¹⁷ God heard the boy crying, and God’s angel called to Hagar from heaven. He said, “What is wrong, Hagar? Don’t be afraid! God has heard the boy crying there. ¹⁸ Go help the boy. Hold his hand and lead him. I will make him the father of many people.”

¹⁹ Then God allowed Hagar to see a well of water. So she went to the well and filled her bag with water. Then she gave water to the boy to drink.

²⁰ God continued to be with the boy while he grew up. Ishmael lived in the desert and became a hunter. He learned to shoot a bow very well. ²¹ His mother found a wife for him in Egypt. They continued to live in the Paran desert.

Abraham’s Bargain With Abimelech

²² Then Abimelech and Phicol spoke with Abraham. Phicol was the commander of Abimelech’s army. They said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do. ²³ So make a promise to me here before God. Promise that you will be fair with me and with my children. Promise that you will be kind to me and this country where you have lived. Promise that you will be as kind to me as I have been to you.”

²⁴ And Abraham said, “I promise to treat you the same way you have treated me.” ²⁵ Then Abraham complained to Abimelech because Abimelech’s servants had captured a well of water.

²⁶ But Abimelech said, “I don’t know who did this. You never told me about this before today!”

²⁷ So Abraham and Abimelech made an agreement. Abraham gave Abimelech some sheep and cattle as proof of the agreement. ²⁸ Abraham also put seven^[f] female lambs in front of Abimelech.

²⁹ Abimelech asked Abraham, “Why did you put these seven female lambs by themselves?”

³⁰ Abraham answered, “When you accept these lambs from me, it will be proof that I dug this well.”

³¹ So after that, the well was called Beersheba.^[g] Abraham gave the well this name because it was the place where they made a promise to each other.

³² So Abraham and Abimelech made an agreement at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol, his military commander, went back to the country of the Philistines.

³³ Abraham planted a special tree at Beersheba and prayed to the Lord, the God who lives forever. ³⁴ And Abraham lived as a stranger for a long time in the country of the Philistines.