A Son Is Promised to Abraham

¹The Lord appeared to Abraham at the sacred trees of Mamre. As Abraham was sitting at the entrance of his tent during the hottest part of the day,

²he looked up and saw three men standing there. As soon as he saw them, he ran out to meet them. Bowing down with his face touching the ground,

³he said, “Sirs, please do not pass by my home without stopping; I am here to serve you.

⁴Let me bring some water for you to wash your feet; you can rest here beneath this tree.

⁵I will also bring a bit of food; it will give you strength to continue your journey. You have honored me by coming to my home, so let me serve you.” They replied, “Thank you; we accept.”

⁶Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick, take a sack of your best flour, and bake some bread.”

⁷Then he ran to the herd and picked out a calf that was tender and fat, and gave it to a servant, who hurried to get it ready.

⁸He took some cream, some milk, and the meat, and set the food before the men. There under the tree he served them himself, and they ate.

⁹Then they asked him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” “She is there in the tent,” he answered.

¹⁰One of them said, “Nine months from now I will come back, and your wife Sarah will have a son.” Sarah was behind him, at the door of the tent, listening.

¹¹Abraham and Sarah were very old, and Sarah had stopped having her monthly periods.

¹²So Sarah laughed to herself and said, “Now that I am old and worn out, can I still enjoy sex? And besides, my husband is old too.”

¹³Then the Lord asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Can I really have a child when I am so old?’

¹⁴Is anything too hard for the Lord? As I said, nine months from now I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁵Because Sarah was afraid, she denied it. “I didn't laugh,” she said. “Yes, you did,” he replied. “You laughed.”

Abraham Pleads for Sodom

¹⁶Then the men left and went to a place where they could look down at Sodom, and Abraham went with them to send them on their way.

¹⁷And the Lord said to himself, “I will not hide from Abraham what I am going to do.

¹⁸His descendants will become a great and mighty nation, and through him I will bless all the nations.

¹⁹I have chosen him in order that he may command his sons and his descendants to obey me and to do what is right and just. If they do, I will do everything for him that I have promised.”

²⁰Then the Lord said to Abraham, “There are terrible accusations against Sodom and Gomorrah, and their sin is very great.

²¹I must go down to find out whether or not the accusations which I have heard are true.”

²²Then the two men left and went on toward Sodom, but the Lord remained with Abraham.

²³Abraham approached the Lord and asked, “Are you really going to destroy the innocent with the guilty?

²⁴If there are fifty innocent people in the city, will you destroy the whole city? Won't you spare it in order to save the fifty?

²⁵Surely you won't kill the innocent with the guilty. That's impossible! You can't do that. If you did, the innocent would be punished along with the guilty. That is impossible. The judge of all the earth has to act justly.”

²⁶The Lord answered, “If I find fifty innocent people in Sodom, I will spare the whole city for their sake.”

²⁷Abraham spoke again: “Please forgive my boldness in continuing to speak to you, Lord. I am only a man and have no right to say anything.

²⁸But perhaps there will be only forty-five innocent people instead of fifty. Will you destroy the whole city because there are five too few?” The Lord answered, “I will not destroy the city if I find forty-five innocent people.”

²⁹Abraham spoke again: “Perhaps there will be only forty.” He replied, “I will not destroy it if there are forty.”

³⁰Abraham said, “Please don't be angry, Lord, but I must speak again. What if there are only thirty?” He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty.”

³¹Abraham said, “Please forgive my boldness in continuing to speak to you, Lord. Suppose that only twenty are found?” He said, “I will not destroy the city if I find twenty.”

³²Abraham said, “Please don't be angry, Lord, and I will speak only once more. What if only ten are found?” He said, “I will not destroy it if there are ten.”

³³After he had finished speaking with Abraham, the Lord went away, and Abraham returned home.

The Sinfulness of Sodom

¹When the two angels came to Sodom that evening, Lot was sitting at the city gate. As soon as he saw them, he got up and went to meet them. He bowed down before them

²and said, “Sirs, I am here to serve you. Please come to my house. You can wash your feet and spend the night. In the morning you can get up early and go on your way.” But they answered, “No, we will spend the night here in the city square.”

³He kept on urging them, and finally they went with him to his house. Lot ordered his servants to bake some bread and prepare a fine meal for the guests. When it was ready, they ate it.

⁴Before the guests went to bed, the men of Sodom surrounded the house. All the men of the city, both young and old, were there.

⁵They called out to Lot and asked, “Where are the men who came to stay with you tonight? Bring them out to us!” The men of Sodom wanted to have sex with them.

⁶Lot went outside and closed the door behind him.

⁷He said to them, “Friends, I beg you, don't do such a wicked thing!

⁸Look, I have two daughters who are still virgins. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do whatever you want with them. But don't do anything to these men; they are guests in my house, and I must protect them.”

⁹But they said, “Get out of our way, you foreigner! Who are you to tell us what to do? Out of our way, or we will treat you worse than them.” They pushed Lot back and moved up to break down the door.

¹⁰But the two men inside reached out, pulled Lot back into the house, and shut the door.

¹¹Then they struck all the men outside with blindness, so that they couldn't find the door.

Lot Leaves Sodom

¹²The two men said to Lot, “If you have anyone else here—sons, daughters, sons-in-law, or any other relatives living in the city—get them out of here,

¹³because we are going to destroy this place. The Lord has heard the terrible accusations against these people and has sent us to destroy Sodom.”

¹⁴Then Lot went to the men that his daughters were going to marry, and said, “Hurry up and get out of here; the Lord is going to destroy this place.” But they thought he was joking.

¹⁵At dawn the angels tried to make Lot hurry. “Quick!” they said. “Take your wife and your two daughters and get out, so that you will not lose your lives when the city is destroyed.”

¹⁶Lot hesitated. The Lord, however, had pity on him; so the men took him, his wife, and his two daughters by the hand and led them out of the city.

¹⁷Then one of the angels said, “Run for your lives! Don't look back and don't stop in the valley. Run to the hills, so that you won't be killed.”

¹⁸But Lot answered, “No, please don't make us do that, sir.

¹⁹You have done me a great favor and saved my life. But the hills are too far away; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die before I get there.

²⁰Do you see that little town? It is near enough. Let me go over there—you can see it is just a small place—and I will be safe.”

²¹He answered, “All right, I agree. I won't destroy that town.

²²Hurry! Run! I can't do anything until you get there.” Because Lot called it small, the town was named Zoar.

The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

²³The sun was rising when Lot reached Zoar.

²⁴Suddenly the Lord rained burning sulfur on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah

²⁵and destroyed them and the whole valley, along with all the people there and everything that grew on the land.

²⁶But Lot's wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt.

²⁷Early the next morning Abraham hurried to the place where he had stood in the presence of the Lord.

²⁸He looked down at Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole valley and saw smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a huge furnace.

²⁹But when God destroyed the cities of the valley where Lot was living, he kept Abraham in mind and allowed Lot to escape to safety.

The Origin of the Moabites and Ammonites

³⁰Because Lot was afraid to stay in Zoar, he and his two daughters moved up into the hills and lived in a cave.

³¹The older daughter said to her sister, “Our father is getting old, and there are no men in the whole world to marry us so that we can have children.

³²Come on, let's get our father drunk, so that we can sleep with him and have children by him.”

³³That night they gave him wine to drink, and the older daughter had intercourse with him. But he was so drunk that he didn't know it.

³⁴The next day the older daughter said to her sister, “I slept with him last night; now let's get him drunk again tonight, and you sleep with him. Then each of us will have a child by our father.”

³⁵So that night they got him drunk, and the younger daughter had intercourse with him. Again he was so drunk that he didn't know it.

³⁶In this way both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their own father.

³⁷The older daughter had a son, whom she named Moab. He was the ancestor of the present-day Moabites.

³⁸The younger daughter also had a son, whom she named Benammi. He was the ancestor of the present-day Ammonites.

¹Human life is like forced army service, like a life of hard manual labor,

²like a slave longing for cool shade; like a worker waiting to be paid.

³Month after month I have nothing to live for; night after night brings me grief.

⁴When I lie down to sleep, the hours drag; I toss all night and long for dawn.

⁵My body is full of worms; it is covered with scabs; pus runs out of my sores.

⁶My days pass by without hope, pass faster than a weaver's shuttle.

⁷Remember, O God, my life is only a breath; my happiness has already ended.

⁸You see me now, but never again. If you look for me, I'll be gone.

^9-10Like a cloud that fades and is gone, we humans die and never return; we are forgotten by all who knew us.

¹¹No! I can't be quiet! I am angry and bitter. I have to speak.

¹²Why do you keep me under guard? Do you think I am a sea monster?

¹³I lie down and try to rest; I look for relief from my pain.

¹⁴But you—you terrify me with dreams; you send me visions and nightmares

¹⁵until I would rather be strangled than live in this miserable body.

¹⁶I give up; I am tired of living. Leave me alone. My life makes no sense.

¹⁷Why are people so important to you? Why pay attention to what they do?

¹⁸You inspect them every morning and test them every minute.

¹⁹Won't you look away long enough for me to swallow my spit?

²⁰Are you harmed by my sin, you jailer? Why use me for your target practice? Am I so great a burden to you?

²¹Can't you ever forgive my sin? Can't you pardon the wrong I do? Soon I will be in my grave, and I'll be gone when you look for me.

^1-2Are you finally through with your windy speech?

³God never twists justice; he never fails to do what is right.

⁴Your children must have sinned against God, and so he punished them as they deserved.

⁵But turn now and plead with Almighty God;

⁶if you are so honest and pure, then God will come and help you and restore your household as your reward.

⁷All the wealth you lost will be nothing compared with what God will give you then.

⁸Look for a moment at ancient wisdom; consider the truths our ancestors learned.

⁹Our life is short, we know nothing at all; we pass like shadows across the earth.

¹⁰But let the ancient wise people teach you; listen to what they had to say:

¹¹“Reeds can't grow where there is no water; they are never found outside a swamp.

¹²If the water dries up, they are the first to wither, while still too small to be cut and used.

¹³Godless people are like those reeds; their hope is gone, once God is forgotten.

¹⁴They trust a thread—a spider's web.

¹⁵If they lean on a web, will it hold them up? If they grab for a thread, will it help them stand?”

¹⁶Evil people sprout like weeds in the sun, like weeds that spread all through the garden.

¹⁷Their roots wrap around the stones and hold fast to every rock.

¹⁸But then pull them up— no one will ever know they were there.

¹⁹Yes, that's all the joy evil people have; others now come and take their places.

²⁰But God will never abandon the faithful or ever give help to evil people.

²¹He will let you laugh and shout again,

²²but he will bring disgrace on those who hate you, and the homes of the wicked will vanish.

The Rewards of Wisdom

¹My child, learn what I teach you and never forget what I tell you to do.

²Listen to what is wise and try to understand it.

³Yes, beg for knowledge; plead for insight.

⁴Look for it as hard as you would for silver or some hidden treasure.

⁵If you do, you will know what it means to fear the Lord and you will succeed in learning about God.