Fire, Brimstone, and Repeated Mistakes

¹The two angels came to Sodom at evening. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them. He bowed himself with his face to the earth,

²and he said, “See now, my lords, please come into your servant’s house, stay all night, wash your feet, and you can rise up early, and go on your way.” They said, “No, but we will stay in the street all night.”

³He urged them greatly, and they came in with him, and entered into his house. He made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

⁴But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter.

⁵They called to Lot, and said to him, “Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them.”

⁶Lot went out to them through the door, and shut the door after himself.

⁷He said, “Please, my brothers, don’t act so wickedly.

⁸See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof.”

⁹They said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one fellow came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself a judge. Now we will deal worse with you than with them!” They pressed hard on the man Lot, and came near to break the door.

¹⁰But the men reached out their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door.

¹¹They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.

¹²The men said to Lot, “Do you have anybody else here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place:

¹³for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown so great before the LORD that the LORD has sent us to destroy it.”

¹⁴Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up! Get out of this place, for the LORD will destroy the city!” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking.

¹⁵When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city.”

¹⁶But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and his two daughters’ hands, the LORD being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city.

¹⁷It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, “Escape for your life! Don’t look behind you, and don’t stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed!”

¹⁸Lot said to them, “Oh, not so, my lord.

¹⁹See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can’t escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die.

²⁰See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn’t it a little one?), and my soul will live.”

²¹He said to him, “Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.

²²Hurry, escape there, for I can’t do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

²³The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

²⁴Then the LORD rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of the sky.

²⁵He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.

²⁶But Lot’s wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

²⁷Abraham went up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD.

²⁸He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.

²⁹When God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.

³⁰Lot went up out of Zoar, and lived in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his two daughters.

³¹The firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on the earth to come in to us in the way of all the earth.

³²Come, let’s make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.”

³³They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she arose.

³⁴It came to pass on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let’s make him drink wine again tonight. You go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.”

³⁵They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger went and lay with him. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she got up.

³⁶Thus both of Lot’s daughters were with child by their father.

³⁷The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day.

³⁸The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.

¹Abraham traveled from there toward the land of the South, and lived between Kadesh and Shur. He lived as a foreigner in Gerar.

²Abraham said about Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.

³But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man, because of the woman whom you have taken; for she is a man’s wife.”

⁴Now Abimelech had not come near her. He said, “Lord, will you kill even a righteous nation?

⁵Didn’t he tell me, ‘She is my sister’? She, even she herself, said, ‘He is my brother.’ I have done this in the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands.”

⁶God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also withheld you from sinning against me. Therefore I didn’t allow you to touch her.

⁷Now therefore, restore the man’s wife. For he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. If you don’t restore her, know for sure that you will die, you, and all who are yours.”

⁸Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ear. The men were very scared.

⁹Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said to him, “What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done deeds to me that ought not to be done!”

¹⁰Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you have done this thing?”

¹¹Abraham said, “Because I thought, ‘Surely the fear of God is not in this place. They will kill me for my wife’s sake.’

¹²Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.

¹³When God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is your kindness which you shall show to me. Everywhere that we go, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”

¹⁴Abimelech took sheep and cattle, male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and restored Sarah, his wife, to him.

¹⁵Abimelech said, “Behold, my land is before you. Dwell where it pleases you.”

¹⁶To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. Behold, it is for you a covering of the eyes to all that are with you. In front of all you are vindicated.”

¹⁷Abraham prayed to God. So God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants, and they bore children.

¹⁸For the LORD had closed up tight all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.