Genesis 18-19New King James Version (NKJV)
The Son of Promise
18 Then the Lord appeared to him by
the terebinth trees of Mamre,[a] as he was sitting in the tent door in
the heat of the day. 2 So he lifted his eyes and
looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he
ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, 3 and
said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, 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. After that
you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant.”
They said, “Do as you have said.”
6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to
Sarah and said, “Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and
make cakes.” 7 And Abraham ran to the herd, took a
tender and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened
to prepare it.8 So he took butter and milk and the calf
which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by
them under the tree as they ate.
9 Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah
your wife?”
So he said, “Here, in the tent.”
10 And He said, “I will certainly
return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall
have a son.”
(Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind
him.) 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well
advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.[b] 12 Therefore
Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have
pleasure, my lord being old also?”
13 And the Lord said to
Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since
I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord?
At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and
Sarah shall have a son.”
15 But Sarah denied it, saying,
“I did not laugh,” for she was afraid.
And He said, “No, but you did laugh!”
Abraham Intercedes for Sodom
16 Then the men rose from there and
looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to send them on the way. 17 And
the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, 18 since
Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of
the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I have
known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after
him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice,
that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” 20 And
the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is
great, and because their sin is very grave, 21 I
will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the
outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.”
22 Then the men turned away from
there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. 23 And
Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the
wicked? 24 Suppose there were fifty righteous
within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for
the fifty righteous that were in 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 not the
Judge of all the earth do right?”
26 So the Lord said, “If I
find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place
for their sakes.”
27 Then Abraham answered and said,
“Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon
myself to speak to the Lord: 28 Suppose there were
five less than the fifty righteous; would You destroy all of the city for lack
of five?”
So He said, “If I find there forty-five, I will not destroy it.”
29 And he spoke to Him yet again and
said, “Suppose there should be forty found there?”
So He said, “I will not do it for the sake
of forty.”
30 Then he said, “Let not the Lord be
angry, and I will speak: Suppose thirty should be found there?”
So He said, “I will not do it if I find
thirty there.”
31 And he said, “Indeed now, I have
taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: Suppose twenty should be found
there?”
So He said, “I will not destroy it for the
sake of twenty.”
32 Then he said, “Let not the Lord be
angry, and I will speak but once more: Suppose ten should be found there?”
And He said, “I will not destroy it for the
sake of ten.” 33 So the Lord went His way
as soon as He had finished speaking with Abraham; and Abraham returned to his
place.
Sodom’s Depravity
19 Now the two angels came to Sodom in the
evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he
rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. 2 And
he said, “Here now, my lords, please turn in to your servant’s house and spend
the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.”
And they said, “No, but we will spend the night in the open
square.”
3 But he insisted strongly; so they
turned in to him and entered his house. Then he made them a feast, and baked
unleavened bread, and they ate.
4 Now before they lay down, the men
of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every
quarter, surrounded the house. 5 And they called to
Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out
to us that we may know them carnally.”
6 So Lot went out to them through the
doorway, shut the door behind him, 7 and said,
“Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly! 8 See
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 as you wish; only do nothing to these men,
since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.”
9 And they said, “Stand back!” Then
they said, “This one came in to stay here, and he keeps acting
as a judge; now we will deal worse with you than with them.” So they pressed
hard against the man Lot, and came near to break down the door.10 But
the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and
shut the door. 11 And they struck the men who were at
the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they
became weary trying to find the door.
Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed
12 Then the men said to Lot, “Have
you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you
have in the city—take them out of this place!13 For
we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great
before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy
it.”
14 So Lot went out and spoke to his
sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, “Get up, get out of this
place; for the Lord will destroy this city!” But to his sons-in-law
he seemed to be joking.
15 When the morning dawned, the
angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, “Arise, take your wife and your two
daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.” 16 And
while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the
hands of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him, and they
brought him out and set him outside the city. 17 So
it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he[c] said, “Escape for your life! Do not
look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest
you be destroyed.”
18 Then Lot said to them, “Please,
no, my lords! 19 Indeed now, your servant has found
favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me
by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil
overtake me and I die. 20 See now, this city is near enough to
flee to, and it is a little one; please let me escape there (is it
not a little one?) and my soul shall live.”
21 And he said to him, “See, I have
favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city
for which you have spoken. 22 Hurry, escape there.
For I cannot do anything until you arrive there.”
Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
23 The sun had risen upon the earth
when Lot entered Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained
brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the
heavens.25 So He overthrew those cities, all the plain,
all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
26 But his wife looked back behind
him, and she became a pillar of salt.
27 And Abraham went early in the
morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 Then
he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and
he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a
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.
The Descendants of Lot
30 Then Lot went up out of Zoar and
dwelt in the mountains, and his two daughters were with him; for he was afraid
to dwell in Zoar. And he and his two daughters dwelt in a cave. 31 Now
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 custom of all the
earth.32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we
will lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father.” 33 So
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 It happened on the next day that
the firstborn said to the younger, “Indeed I lay with my father last night; let
us make him drink wine tonight also, and you go in andlie with him,
that we may preserve the lineage of our father.” 35 Then
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 Thus both the daughters of Lot were
with child by their father. 37 The firstborn bore a
son and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites
to this day.38 And the younger, she also bore a son and
called his name Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the people of
Ammon to this day.
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