Genesis 19:1-11
Genesis 19:1-11 1 Now the two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them, bowed facedown, 2 and said, “My lords, please turn aside into the house of your servant; wash your feet and spend the night. Then you can rise early and go on your way.” “No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.” 3 But Lot insisted so strongly that they followed him into his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. 4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, surrounded the house. 5 They called out to Lot, saying, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have relations with them!” 6 Lot went outside to meet them, shutting the door behind him. 7 “Please, my brothers,” he pleaded, “don’t do such a wicked thing! 8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them to you, and you can do to them as you please. But do not do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.” 9 “Get out of the way!” they replied. And they declared, “This one came here as a foreigner, and he is already acting like a judge! Now we will treat you worse than them.” And they pressed in on Lot and moved in to break down the door. 10 But the men inside reached out, pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. 11 And they struck the men at the entrance, young and old, with blindness, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the door.
Genesis 18:16-33
Genesis 18:16-33 16 When the men got up to leave, they looked out over Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them off. 17 And the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? 18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and through him all the nations of the earth will be blessed. 19 For I have chosen him, so that he will command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, in order that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has promised.” 20 Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great. Because their sin is so grievous, 21 I will go down to see if their actions fully justify the outcry that has reached Me. If not, I will find out.” 22 And the two men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD. 23 Abraham stepped forward and said, “Will You really sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are fifty righteous ones in the city? Will You really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous ones who are there? 25 Far be it from You to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Will not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?” 26 So the LORD replied, “If I find fifty righteous ones within the city of Sodom, on their account I will spare the whole place.” 27 Then Abraham answered, “Now that I have ventured to speak to the Lord—though I am but dust and ashes— 28 suppose the fifty righteous ones lack five. Will You destroy the whole city for the lack of five?” He replied, “If I find forty-five there, I will not destroy it.” 29 Once again Abraham spoke to the LORD, “Suppose forty are found there?” He answered, “On account of the forty, I will not do it.” 30 Then Abraham said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak further. Suppose thirty are found there?” He replied, “If I find thirty there, I will not do it.” 31 And Abraham said, “Now that I have ventured to speak to the Lord, suppose twenty are found there?” He answered, “On account of the twenty, I will not destroy it.” 32 Finally, Abraham said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak once more. Suppose ten are found there?” And He answered, “On account of the ten, I will not destroy it.” 33 When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, He departed, and Abraham returned home.
Genesis 18:1-15
Genesis 18:1-15 1 Then the LORD appeared to Abraham by the Oaks of Mamre in the heat of the day, while he was sitting at the entrance of his tent. 2 And Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. 3 “My lord,” said Abraham, “if I have found favor in your sight, please do not pass your servant by. 4 Let a little water be brought, that you may wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree. 5 And I will bring a bit of bread so that you may refresh yourselves. This is why you have passed your servant’s way. After that, you may continue on your way.” “Yes,” they replied, “you may do as you have said.” 6 So Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick! Prepare three seahs of fine flour, knead it, and bake some bread.” 7 Meanwhile, Abraham ran to the herd, selected a tender and choice calf, and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. 8 Then Abraham brought curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and he set them before the men and stood by them under the tree as they ate. 9 “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked. “There, in the tent,” he replied. 10 Then the LORD said, “I will surely return to you at this time next year, and your wife Sarah will have a son!” Now Sarah was behind him, listening at the entrance to the tent. 11 And Abraham and Sarah were already old and well along in years; Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. 12 So she laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?” 13 And the LORD asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Can I really bear a child when I am old?’ 14 Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you—in about a year—and Sarah will have a son.” 15 But Sarah was afraid, so she denied it and said, “I did not laugh.” “No,” replied the LORD, “but you did laugh.”
Genesis 17:9-27
Genesis 17:9-27 9 God also said to Abraham, “You must keep My covenant—you and your descendants in the generations after you. 10 This is My covenant with you and your descendants after you, which you are to keep: Every male among you must be circumcised. 11 You are to circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and this will be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12 Generation after generation, every male must be circumcised when he is eight days old, including those born in your household and those purchased from a foreigner—even those who are not your offspring. 13 Whether they are born in your household or purchased, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh will be an everlasting covenant. 14 But if any male is not circumcised, he will be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.” 15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, do not call her Sarai, for her name is to be Sarah. 16 And I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will descend from her.” 17 Abraham fell facedown. Then he laughed and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at the age of ninety?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live under Your blessing!” 19 But God replied, “Your wife Sarah will indeed bear you a son, and you are to name him Isaac. I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. 20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you, and I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He will become the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But I will establish My covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this time next year.” 22 When He had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him. 23 On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or purchased with his money—every male among the members of Abraham’s household—and he circumcised them, just as God had told him. 24 So Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised, 25 and his son Ishmael was thirteen; 26 Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised on the same day. 27 And all the men of Abraham’s household—both servants born in his household and those purchased from foreigners—were circumcised with him.
Genesis 17:1-8
Genesis 17:1-8 1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be blameless. 2 I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.” 3 Then Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, 4 “As for Me, this is My covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will descend from you. 7 I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 And to you and your descendants I will give the land where you are residing—all the land of Canaan—as an eternal possession; and I will be their God.”
Genesis 16:1-16
Genesis 16:1-16 1 Now Abram’s wife Sarai had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Look now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go to my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3 So after he had lived in Canaan for ten years, his wife Sarai took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to Abram to be his wife. 4 And he slept with Hagar, and she conceived. But when Hagar realized that she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be upon you! I delivered my servant into your arms, and ever since she saw that she was pregnant, she has treated me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me.” 6 “Here,” said Abram, “your servant is in your hands. Do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she fled from her. 7 Now the angel of the LORD found Hagar by a spring of water in the desert—the spring along the road to Shur. 8 “Hagar, servant of Sarai,” he said, “where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I am running away from my mistress Sarai,” she replied. 9 So the angel of the LORD told her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority.” 10 Then the angel added, “I will greatly multiply your offspring so that they will be too numerous to count.” 11 The angel of the LORD proceeded: “Behold, you have conceived and will bear a son. And you shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard your cry of affliction. 12 He will be a wild donkey of a man, and his hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him; he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.” 13 So Hagar gave this name to the LORD who had spoken to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen the One who sees me!” 14 Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi. It is located between Kadesh and Bered. 15 And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.
Genesis 15:8-21
Genesis 15:8-21 8 But Abram replied, “Lord GOD, how can I know that I will possess it?” 9 And the LORD said to him, “Bring Me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a turtledove and a young pigeon.” 10 So Abram brought all these to Him, split each of them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. The birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11 And the birds of prey descended on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. 12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and suddenly great terror and darkness overwhelmed him. 13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14 But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will depart with many possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” 17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, behold, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the halves of the carcasses. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates— 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”
Genesis 15:1-7
Genesis 15:1-7 1 After these events, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” 2 But Abram replied, “O Lord GOD, what can You give me, since I remain childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Abram continued, “Behold, You have given me no offspring, so a servant in my household will be my heir.” 4 Then the word of the LORD came to Abram, saying, “This one will not be your heir, but one who comes from your own body will be your heir.” 5 And the LORD took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness. 7 The LORD also told him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”
Genesis 14:17-24
Genesis 14:17-24 17 After Abram returned from defeating Chedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). 18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine—since he was priest of God Most High— 19 and he blessed Abram and said: “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, 20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything. 21 The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people, but take the goods for yourself.” 22 But Abram replied to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the LORD God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, 23 that I will not accept even a thread, or a strap of a sandal, or anything that belongs to you, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ 24 I will accept nothing but what my men have eaten and the share for the men who went with me—Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre. They may take their portion.”
Genesis 14:10-16
Genesis 14:10-16 10 Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits, and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some men fell into the pits, but the survivors fled to the hill country. 11 The four kings seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food, and they went on their way. 12 They also carried off Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, since Lot was living in Sodom. 13 Then an escapee came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew. Now Abram was living near the Oaks of Mamre the Amorite, a brother of Eshcol and Aner, all of whom were bound by treaty to Abram. 14 And when Abram heard that his relative had been captured, he mobilized the 318 trained men born in his household, and they set out in pursuit as far as Dan. 15 During the night, Abram divided his forces and routed Chedorlaomer’s army, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. 16 He retrieved all the goods, as well as his relative Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the rest of the people.