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.