God Rescues Lot

1 The ^qtwo 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 bowed himself with his face to the earth 2 and said, “My lords, ^rplease turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night ^sand wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way.” They said, ^t“No; we will spend the night in the town square.” 3 But he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. 5 ^uAnd they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? ^vBring them out to us, that we ^wmay know them.” 6 Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, 7 and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. 8 ^xBehold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.” 9 But they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow ^ycame to sojourn, and ^zhe has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door down. 10 But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door. 11 And they struck with ^ablindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping for the door.

12 Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city, ^bbring them out of the place. 13 For we are about to destroy this place, ^cbecause the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” 14 So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, ^d“Up! Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.

15 As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” 16 But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, ^ethe Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. 17 And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. ^fDo not look back or stop anywhere in the ^gvalley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.” 18 And Lot said to them, “Oh, no, my lords. 19 Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die. 20 Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there—is it not a little one?—and my life will be saved!” 21 He said to him, “Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. 22 Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called ^hZoar.¹

God Destroys Sodom

23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24 Then ⁱthe Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became ^ja pillar of salt.

27 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had ^kstood before the Lord. 28 And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.

29 So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God ^lremembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.

Lot and His Daughters

30 Now Lot went up out of Zoar and ^mlived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters. 31 And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth. 32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” 33 So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose.

34 The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” 35 So 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 became pregnant by their father. 37 The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab.^{2 n}He is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38 The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi.^{3 o}He is the father of the Ammonites to this day.

Abraham and Abimelech

1 From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between ^pKadesh and Shur; and he ^qsojourned in ^rGerar. 2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, ^s“She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 3 ^tBut God came to Abimelech ^uin a dream by 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.” 4 Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, ^v“Lord, will you kill an innocent people? 5 Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” 6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning ^wagainst me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. 7 Now then, return the man’s wife, ^xfor he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you ^yand all who are yours.”

8 So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid. 9 Then 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 my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.” 10 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?” 11 Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ^z‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and ^athey will kill me because of my wife.’ 12 Besides, ^bshe is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. 13 And when ^cGod caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, ^dsay of me, “He is my brother.”’”

14 Then Abimelech ^etook sheep and oxen, and male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him. 15 And Abimelech said, “Behold, ^fmy land is before you; dwell where it pleases you.” 16 To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given ^gyour brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is ^ha sign of your innocence in the eyes of all¹ who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated.” 17 Then ⁱAbraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. 18 For the Lord ^jhad closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

The Angel and the Little Scroll

1 Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with ^ya rainbow over his head, and ^zhis face was like the sun, and ^ahis legs like pillars of fire. 2 ^bHe had a little scroll open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land, 3 and called out with a loud voice, ^clike a lion roaring. When he called out, the seven thunders sounded. 4 And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, ^d“Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.” 5 And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land ^eraised his right hand to heaven 6 and swore by ^fhim who lives forever and ever, ^gwho created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay, 7 but that ^hin the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, ⁱjust as he announced to his servants the prophets.

8 Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” 9 So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, ^j“Take and ^keat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” 10 And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. 11 And I was told, ^l“You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”

Why Do You Hide Yourself?