Genesis 18:1-22:24 ▼

Genesis 18

1 And YHWH appeared to him by the Oaks of Mamre, and he was sitting in the entrance of the tent in the heat of the day.

2 And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him. And he saw them, and he ran to meet them from the entrance of the tent, and he bowed himself to the earth.

3 And he said, “My lord, if now I have found favor in your eyes, please, do not pass on by Your servant.

4 Please let a little water be brought, and wash your⁺ feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.

5 And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your⁺ hearts; afterward, you⁺ may pass on, for upon thus you⁺ have come to your⁺ servant.” And they said, “Yes, you may do as you have said.”

6 And Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly take three seahs of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes.”

7 And Abraham ran to the herd, and he took a tender and good son of the herd and gave it to the young man, and he hurried to prepare it.

8 And he took butter and milk and the son of the herd that he had prepared, and he set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they ate.

9 And they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “Behold, in the tent.”

10 And He said, “I will surely return to you according to the time of life; and behold—a son to Sarah, your wife.” And Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, and it was behind him.

11 And Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in years; it had ceased to be for Sarah the way of women.

12 And Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I am worn out, shall there be to me pleasure? And my lord is old!”

13 And YHWH said to Abraham, “Why did this one, Sarah, laugh, saying, ‘Shall I truly bear a child when I am old?’

14 Is any word is too difficult for YHWH? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and unto Sarah will be a son.”

15 And Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. And He said, “No, but you did laugh.”

16 And the men rose from there and looked on the face of Sodom, and Abraham walked with them to send them off.

17 And YHWH said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?

18 And Abraham will surely become a nation great and mighty, and in him all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.

19 For I have known him in order that he may command his children and his house after him that they keep the way of YHWH by doing what is right and just, that YHWH may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.”

20 And YHWH said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grievous,

21 I will go down now and see whether the outcry against it that has come to Me they have done completely—and if not, I will know.”

22 And the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, and Abraham still stood before YHWH.

23 And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?

24 Suppose there are fifty righteous in the midst of the city; would You also destroy and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are within it?

25 Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked. Far be it from You! Shall the Judge of all the earth not do justice?”

26 And YHWH said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous in the midst of the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account.”

27 And Abraham answered and said, “Behold, please, I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord, and I am dust and ash.

28 Suppose there are lacking five of the fifty righteous? Would You destroy for the five the whole city?” And He said, “I will not destroy it if I find there forty and five.”

29 And he added again to speak to Him, and he said, “Suppose there should be found there forty?” And He said, “I will not do it on account of the forty.”

30 And he said, “Please, may the Lord not be hot, and I will speak. Suppose there should be found thirty.” And He said, “I will not do it if I find there thirty.”

31 And he said, “Behold, please, I have ventured to speak to the Lord. Suppose there should be found twenty.” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the twenty.”

32 And he said, “Please may the Lord not be hot, and I will speak but once more. Suppose there should be found ten.” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the ten.”

33 And YHWH went His way as soon as He had finished speaking with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

Genesis 19

1 And the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. And Lot saw them, and he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his nose to the earth.

2 And he said, “Behold now, my lords, please, turn in to the house of your⁺ servant, and spend the night and wash your⁺ feet. And you⁺ may rise early and go on your⁺ way.” And they said, “No, for we will spend the night in the open square.”

3 And he insisted on it strongly, and they turned in to him and entered into his house. And he made them a feast, and he baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

4 And before they lay down, the men of the city—the men of Sodom—encricled the house, from young to old, all the people from the end.

5 And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you this night? Bring them out to us that we may know them.”

6 And Lot went out to them through the doorway, and he shut the door behind him.

7 And he said, “Please, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.

8 Behold now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please let me bring them out to you⁺, and you⁺ may do to them according to what is good in your⁺ eyes. Only to these men do not anything, for upon thus they have come under the shadow of my roof.”

9 And they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This one came in to sojourn, and he is already acting like a judge! Now we will act wickedly to you more than to them!” And they pressed hard against the man Lot, and they came near to break down the door.

10 And the men stretched out their hands and pulled Lot with them into the house, and they shut the door.

11 And they struck with blindness the men who were at the doorway of the house, from small and to great, and they grew weary trying to find the door.

12 And the men said to Lot, “Who else do you have here—your son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and whoever you have in the city? Get them out of the place.

13 For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of YHWH, and YHWH has sent us to destroy it.”

14 And Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, the ones who had taken his daughters, and he said, “Get up, get out of this place, for YHWH will destroy the city.” And he seemed to be joking to his sons-in-law.

15 And as the dawn came up, and the angels pressed Lot, saying, “Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be destroyed in the iniquity of the city.”

16 And he lingered, and the men took hold of his hand and of the hand of his wife and of the hand of his two daughters—YHWH being merciful to him—and they brought him out and set him outside of the city.

17 And it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay in all the plain! Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed!”

18 And Lot said to them, “No, please, my lords!

19 Behold, please, your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have increased your kindness, which you have shown me by saving my life. And I am not able to escape to the mountains, lest the evil overtake me and I die.

20 Behold, please, this city is near to flee there, and it is a small place. Let me escape there, please. Is it not a small place? And my soul shall live!”

21 And he said to him, “Behold, I have sustained you also concerning this thing without overthrowing the city about which you have spoken.

22 Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Upon thus the name of the city was called Zoar.

23 When the sun had risen upon the earth and Lot had entered Zoar,

24 then YHWH rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from YHWH out of the heavens.

25 And He overthrew these cities, and all the plain, and all those dwelling in the cities, and what grew on the ground.

26 And his wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 And Abraham rose early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood there before the face of YHWH.

28 And he looked toward the face of Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the plain, and he saw, and behold, smoke from the land went up like the smoke of the furnace.

29 And it came to pass when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt.

30 And Lot went up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountains, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to dwell in Zoar. And he dwelt in the cave—he and his two daughters.

31 And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man on the earth to come in to us, as is the way of all the earth.

32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve the seed of our father.”

33 And they made their father drink 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 arose.

34 And it came to pass on the next day that the firstborn said to the younger, “Indeed, last night I lay with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also, and you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve the seed of our father.”

35 And they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.

36 And the two daughters of Lot conceived by their father.

37 And the firstborn bore a son, and she called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day.

38 And the younger, she also bore a son, and she called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the sons of Ammon to this day.

Genesis 20

1 And Abraham journeyed from there to the Negev, and he dwelt between Kadesh and between Shur, and he sojourned in Gerar.

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

3 And 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—and she is married to a husband.”

4 And Abimelech has not come near her, and he said, “Lord, will You slay even a righteous nation?

5 Did not he say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And even she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and in the innocence of my hands I have done this.”

6 And God said to him in the dream, “Indeed, I myself knew that you did this in the integrity of your heart, and I withheld you, indeed I, from sinning against Me; upon thus I did not let you touch her.

7 And now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet. And he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you will surely die—you and all that is yours.”

8 And Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants, and he told all these words in their ears; and the men were exceedingly afraid.

9 And Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? Deeds that are not to be done, you have done to me.”

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

11 And Abraham said, “Because I thought, ‘Surely the fear of God is not in this place, and they will kill me on account of my wife.’

12 And indeed she is also my sister, the daughter of my father but not the daughter of my mother. And she became my wife.

13 And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from the house of my father, that I said to her, ‘This is your kindness that you should do for me: In every place where we go there, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”

14 And Abimelech took flock, and cattle, and menservants, and maidservants, and he gave them to Abraham, and he returned to him Sarah his wife.

15 And Abimelech said, “Behold, my land is before you. Dwell wherever is good in your eyes.”

16 And to Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given a thousand pieces of silver to your brother; behold, it is for you a covering of the eyes, to all who are with you, and before all you are vindicated.”

17 And Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants, and they bore children.

18 For YHWH had completely closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah the wife of Abraham.

Genesis 21

1 And YHWH visited Sarah as He had said, and YHWH did for Sarah as He had spoken.

2 And Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him.

3 And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac.

4 And Abraham circumcised Isaac his son, a son of eight days, as God had commanded him.

5 And Abraham was a son of a hundred years when Isaac his son was born to him.

6 And Sarah said, “God has brought to me laughter; all who hear will laugh with me.”

7 And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne a son in his old age.”

8 And the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned.

9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking her son.

10 And she said to Abraham, “Drive out this maidservant and her son, for the son of this maidservant shall not be heir with my son, with Isaac.”

11 And the matter was very displeasing in the eyes of Abraham, for the cause of his son.

12 And God said to Abraham, “Let it not be wrong in your eyes because of the boy or because of your maidservant; all that Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice. For in Isaac your seed will be reckoned.

13 Yet the son of the maidservant I will make into a nation, because he is your seed.”

14 And Abraham rose early in the morning, and he took bread and a skin of water, and he gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and the boy; and he sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

15 And the water was used up from the skin, and she cast the boy under one of the bushes.

16 And she went and sat down by herself opposite him, as distance of the shot of a bow, for she said, “Do not let me see the death of the boy.” And she sat opposite him and lifted up her voice and wept.

17 And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar out of the heavens and said to her, “What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has listened to the voice of the boy where he is there.

18 Arise, lift up the boy, and hold him with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”

19 And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water, and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

20 And God was with the boy, and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness and became a great archer.

21 And He dwelt in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took for him a wife from the land of Egypt.

22 And it came to pass at that time that Abimelech spoke, and Phichol the commander of his army, to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do.

23 And now swear to me before God here that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my posterity, but that according to the kindness that I have done to you, you will do to me and to the land in that you are sojourning.”

24 And Abraham said, “I swear.”

25 And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of a well of water that the servants of Abimelech had seized.

26 And Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing, and you did not tell me, and I has not heard of it until today.”

27 And Abraham took flock and cattle and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them cut a covenant.

28 And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.

29 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What are they—these seven ewe lambs that you have set by themselves?”

30 And he said, “For these seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that it may be a witness for me that I have dug this well.”

31 Upon thus, he called that place Beersheba, because there the two of them swore an oath.

32 And they cut a covenant at Beersheba. And Abimelech rose, and Phichol the commander of his army, and they returned to the land of the Philistines.

33 And he planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of YHWH El-Olam.

34 And Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines many days.

Genesis 22

1 And it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Behold, I am here.”

2 And He said, “Take now your son, your only one, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell to you.”

3 And Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and he took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and he arose and went to the place of which God had told to him.

4 And on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and he saw the place from a distance.

5 And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the boy will go over there, and we will worship, and we will come back to you⁺.”

6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife, and they went, the two of them, together.

7 And Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Behold, I am here, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, and where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

8 And Abraham said, “God will see for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” And they went, the two of them, together.

9 And they came to the place that God had told him, and there Abraham built the altar and arranged the wood, and he bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

10 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

11 And the angel of YHWH called to him from the heavens and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Behold, I am here.”

12 And he said, “Do not stretch out your hand upon the boy, and do not do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only one, from me.”

13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a ram behind him, caught in the thicket by its horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it as a burnt offering instead of his son.

14 And Abraham called the name of that place “YHWH Yireh,” as it is said to this day, “On the mountain of YHWH it shall be seen.”

15 And the angel of YHWH called to Abraham a second time from the heavens

16 and said, “By Myself I have sworn, says YHWH, that because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only one,

17 that I will surely bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the shore of the sea; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies.

18 And in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have listened to My voice.”

19 And Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.

20 And it came to pass after these things that it was told to Abraham, saying, “Behold, Milcah has borne—even she—sons to Nahor your brother:

21 Uz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram,

22 and Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel.”

23 And Bethuel begat Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother.

24 And his concubine (and her name was Reumah), she also bore Tebah, and Gaham, and Tahash, and Maacah.