The Book of Genesis, chapters 12 - 19
12 THE LORD SAID TO ABRAM, "Leave your own country, your kinsmen,
and your father's house, and go into the country that I will show you. I
will make you into a great nation, I will bless you and make your name so
great that it shall be used in blessings:
Those who bless you I will bless,
those that curse you, I will execrate.
All the families on earth
will pray to be blessed as you are blessed.'
And so Abram set out as the LORD had bidden him, and Lot went with him.
Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Harran. He took his wife
Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the property they had collected, and all the
dependants thy had acquired in Harran, and they started on their journey
to Canaan. When they arrived, Abram passed through the country to the
sanctuary at Shechem, the terebinth-tree of Moreh. At that time the
Canaanites lived in this land. There the LORD appeared to Abram and said,
'I give this land to your descendants.' So Abram built an altar there to the
LORD who had appeared to him. Thence he went on to the hill-country
east of Bethel and pitched his tent between Bethel on the west and Ai on the
east. There he built an altar to the LORD and invoked the LORD by name.
Thus Abram journeyed by stages towards the Negeb.
There came a famine in the land, so severe that Abram went down to
Egypt to live there for a while. When he was approaching Egypt, he said
to his wife Sarai, 'I know very well that you are a beautiful woman, and
that when the Egyptians see you, they will say, "She is his wife"; then
they will kill me but let you live. Tell them that you are my sister, so that
all may go well with me because of you and my life may be spared on your
account.' When Abram arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians saw that she was
indeed very beautiful. Pharaoh's courtiers saw her and praised her to
Pharaoh, and she was taken into Pharaoh's household. He treated Abram
well because of her, and Abram came to possess sheep and cattle and asses,
male and female slaves, she-asses, and camels. But the LORD struck
Pharaoh and his household with grave diseases on account of Abram's wife
Sarai. Pharaoh summoned Abram and said to him, 'Why have you treated
me like this? Why did you not tell me that she is your wife? Why did you
say she was your sister, so that I took her as a wife? Here she is: take
her and be gone.' Then Pharaoh gave his men orders, and they sent Abram
away with his wife and all that he had.
13 Abram went up from Egypt into the Negeb, he and his wife and all that
he had, and Lot went with him. Abram was now very rich in cattle and in
silver and gold. From the Negeb he journeyed by stages to Bethel, to the
place between Bethel and Ai where he had pitched his tent in the beginning,
where he had set up an altar on the first occasion and had invoked the LORD
by name. Now Lot was travelling with Abram, and he too possessed sheep
and cattle and tents. The land could not support them both together;for
their livestock were so numerous that they could not settle in the same
district, and there were quarrels between Abram's herdsmen and Lot's.
The Canaanites and the Perizzites were then living in the land. So Abram
said to Lot, 'Let there be no quarrelling between us, between my herdsmen
and yours; for we are close kinsmen. The whole country is there in front
of you; let us part company. If you go left, I will go right; if you go right,
I will go left.' Lot looked up and saw how well-watered the whole Plain of
the Jordan was; all the way to Zoar it was like the Garden of the LORD, like
the land of Egypt. This was before the LORD had destroyed Sodom and
Gomorrah. So Lot chose all the Plain of the Jordan and took the road on
the east side. Thus they parted company. Abram settled in the land of
Canaan; but Lot settled among the cities of the Plain and pitched his tents
near Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against
the LORD.
After Lot and Abram had parted, the LORD said to Abram, 'Raise your
eyes and look into the distance from the place where you are, north and
south, east and west. All the land you can see I will give to you and your
descendants for ever. I will make your descendants countless as the dust
of the earth; if anyone could count the dust upon the ground, then he
could count your descendants. Now go through the length and breadth
of the land, for I give it to you.' So Abram moved his tent and settled
by the terebinths of Mamre at Hebron; and there he built an altar to the
LORD.
14 IT WAS IN THE TIME OF AMRAPHEL king of Shinar, Arioch king of
Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king Goyim. They went
to war against Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king
of Admah, Shemeber king odf Zeboyim, and the king of Bela, that is Zoar.
These kings joined forces in the valley of Siddim, which is now the Dead
Sea. They had been subject to Kedorlaomer for twelve years, but in the
thirteenth year they rebelled. Then in the fourteenth year Kedorlaomer
and his confederate kings came and defeated the Rephaim in Ashteroth-
karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim, and the
Horites in the hill-country from Seir as far as El-paran on the edge of the
wilderness. On their way back they came to En-mishpar, which is now
Kadesh, laid waste all the country of the Amalekites and also that of
the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-tamar. Then the kings of Sodom,
Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboyim, and Bela, which is now Zoar, marched out
and drew up their forces against them in the valley of Siddim, against
Kedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goyim, Amraphel king of Shinar,
and Arioch king of Ellasar, four kings against five. Now the valley of Sid-
dim was full of bitumen pits; and when the kings of Sodom and Gamorrah
fled, they fell into them, but the rest escaped to the hill-country. The four
kings captured all the flocks and herds of Sodom and Gamorrah and all
their provsions and went away. They also carried off Lot, Abram's
nephew who was living in Sodom, and with him his flocks and herds. But
a fugitive came and told Abram the Hebrew, who at that time was dwelling
by the terbinths of Mamre the Amorite. This Mamre was the brother of
Eschol and Aner, who were allies of Abram. When Abram heard that his
kinsmen had been taken prisoner, he mustered his retainers, men born in
his household, three hundred and eighteen of them, and pursued as far as
Dan. Abram and his followers surrounded the enemy by night, attacked
them and pursued them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus; he then
brought back all the flocks and herds and also his kinsman Lot with his
flocks and herds, together with the women and the other captives. On his
return from this defeat of Kedorlaomer and his confederate kings, the king
of Sodom came out to meet him in the valley of Shaveh, which is now the
King's Valley.
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought food and wine. He was priest
of God Most High, and he pronounced this blessing on Abram:
'Blessed be Abram
by God Most High,
creator of heaven and earth.
And blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies into your power.'
Abram gave him a tithe of all the booty.
The king of Sodom said to Abram, 'Give me the people, and you can
take the property'; but Abram said to the king of Sodom, 'I lift my hand
and swear by the LORD, God Most High, creator of heaven and earth: not
a thread or a shoe-string will I accept of anything that is yours. You shall
never say, "I made Abram rich." I will accept nothing but what the young
men have eaten and the share of the men who went with me. Aner, Eschol,
and Mamre shall have their share.'
15 AFTER THIS the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision. He said,
'Do not be afraid, Abram, I am giving you a very great reward.' Abram
replied, 'Lord God, what canst thou give me? I have no standing among
men, for the heir to my household is Eliezer of Damascus.' Abram con-
tinued, 'Thou hast given me no children, and so my heir must be a slave
born in my house.' Then came the word of the LORD to him: 'This man
shall not be your heir; your heir shall be a child of your own body.' He took
Abram outside and said, 'Look up into the sky, and count the stars if you
can. So many', he said, 'shall your descendants be.'
Abram put his faith in the LORD, and the LORD counted that faith to him
as righteousness; he said to him, 'I am the LORD who brought you out from
Ur of the Chaldees to give you this land to occupy.' Abram said, 'O Lord
God, how can I be sure that I shall copy it?' The LORD answered, 'Bring
me a heifer three years old, a she-goat three years old, a ram three years old,
a turtle dove, and a fledgling.' He brought him all these, halved the animals
down the middle and placed each piece opposite its corresponding piece,
but he did not halve the birds. When the birds of prey swooped down on
the carcasses, Abram scared them away. Then, as the sun was going down,
a trance came over Abram and great fear came upon him. The LORD said
to Abram, 'Know this for certain, that your descendants will be aliens
living in a land that is not theirs; they will be slaves, and will be held in
oppression there for four hundred years. But I will punish that nation
whose slaves they are, and after that they shall come out with great posses-
sions. You yourself shall join your fathers in peace and be buried in a good
old age; and the fourth generation shall return here, for the Amorites will
not be ripe for punishment till then.' The sun went down and it was dusk,
and there appeared a smoking brazier and a flaming torch passing between
the divided pieces. That very day the LORD made a covenant with Abram,
and said, 'To your descendants I give this land from the River of Egypt
to the Great River, the river Euphrates, the territory of the Kenites,
Kenizzites, Kdmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, Amorites, Canaan-
ites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites.'
16 Abram's wife Sarai had borne him no children. Now she had an Egyptian
slave-girl whose name was Hagar, and she said to Abram, 'You see that
the LORD has not allowed me to bear a child. Take my slave-girl; perhaps
I shall found a family through her.' Abram agreed to what his wife said;
so Sarai, Abram's wife, brought her slave-girl, Hagar the Egyptian,
and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. When this happened
Abram had been in Canaan for ten years. He lay with Hagar and she
conceived; and when she knew that she was with child, she despised her
mistress. Sarai said to Abram, 'I have been wronged and you must answer
for it. It was I who gave my slave-girl into your arms, but since she has
known that she is with child, she has despised me. May the LORD see justice
done between you and me.' Abram replied to Sarai, 'Your slave-girl is in
your hands; deal with her as you will.' So Sarai ill-treated her and she ran
away.
The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness
on the way to Shur, and he said, 'Hagar, Sarai's slave-girl, where have you
come from and where are you going?' She answered, 'I am running away
from Sarai my mistress.' The angel of the LORD said to her, 'Go back to
your mistress and submit to her ill-treatment.' The angel also said, 'I will
make your descendants too many to be counted.' And the angel of the LORD
said to her:
'You are with child and will bear a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
because the LORD has heard of your ill-treatment.
He shall be a man like the wild ass,
his hand against every man
and every man's hand against him;
and he shall live at odds with all his kinsmen.'
She called the LORD who was speaking to her by the name El-Roi, for
she said, 'Have I indeed seen God and still live after that vision?' That is
why men call the well Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.
Hagar bore Abram a son, and he named the child she bore him Ishmael.
Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael.
17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and
said, 'I am God Almighty. Live always in my presence and be perfect, so
that I may set my covenant between myself and you and multiply your
descendants.' Abram threw himself down on his face, and God spoke with
him and said, 'I make this covenant, and I make it with you:you shall be
the father of a host of nations. Your name shall no longer be Abram, your
name shall be Abraham, for I make you father of a host of nations. I will
make you exceedingly fruitful; I will make nations out of you, and kings
shall spring from you. I will fulfil my covenant between myself and you
and your descendants after you, generation after generation, and everlasting
covenant to be your God, yours and your descendants' after you. As an
everlasting possession I will give you and your descendants after you the
land in which you now are aliens, all the land of Canaan, and I will be God
to your descendants.'
God said to Abraham, 'For your part, you must keep my covenant, you
and your descendants after you, generation by generation. This is how
you shall keep my covenant between myself and you and your descend-
ants after you: circumcise yourselves, every male among you. You shall
circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant
between us. Every male among you in every generation shall be circum-
cised on the eighth day, both those born in your house and any foreigner,
not of your blood but bought with your money. Circumcise both those
born in your house and those bought with your money; thus shall my
covenant be marked in your flesh as an everlasting covenant. Every
uncircumcised male, everyone who has not had the flesh of his foreskin
circumcised, shall be cut off from the kin of his father. He has broken
my covenant.'
God said to Abraham, 'As for Sarai your wife; you shall call her not
Sarai, but Sarah. I will bless her and give you a son by her. I will bless
her and she shall be the mother of nations; the kings of many people shall
spring from her.' Abraham threw himself down on his face; he laughed
and said to himself, 'Can a son be born to a man who is a hundred years
old? Can Sarah bear a son when she is ninety?' He said to God, 'If only
Ishmael might live under thy special care!' But God replied, 'No. Your
wife Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall call him Isaac. With him I
will fulfill my covenant, an everlasting covenant with his descendants after
him. I have heard your prayer for Ishmael. I have blessed him and will
make him fruitful. I will multiply his descendants; he shall be father of
twelve princes, and I will raise a great nation from him. But my covenant
I will fulfill with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year.'
When he had finished talking with Abraham, God ascended and left him.
Then Abraham took Ishmael his son, everyone who had been born in
his household and everyone bought with money, every male in his house-
hold, and he circumcised them that very same day in the flesh of their fore-
skins as God had told him to do. Abraham was ninety-nine years old when
he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin. Ishmael was thirteen years old
when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. Both Abraham and
Ishmael were circumcised on the same day, and all the men of his house-
hold, born in the house or bought with money from foreigners, were
circumcised with him.
18 THE LORD APPEARED TO ABRAHAM by the terebinths of Mamre. As
Abraham was sitting at the opening of his tent in the heat of the day, he
looked up and saw three men standing in front of him. When he saw them,
he ran from the opening of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the
ground. 'Sirs,' he said, 'if I have deserved your favour, do not pass by my
humble self without a visit. Let me send for some water so that you may
wash your feet and rest under a tree; and let me fetch a little food so that
you may refresh yourselves. Afterwards you may continue the journey
which has brought you my way.' They said, 'Do by all means as you say.'
So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, 'Take three measures
of flour quickly, knead it and make some cakes.' Then Abraham ran to the
cattle, chose a fine tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurriedly pre-
pared it. He took curds and milk and the calf he had prepared, set it before
them, and waited on them himself under the tree while they ate. They
asked him where Sarah his wife was, and he said, 'There, in the tent.' The
stranger said, 'About this time next year I will be sure to come back to you,
and Sarah your wife shall have a son.' Now Sarah was listening at the open-
ing of the tent, and he was close beside it. Both Abraham and Sarah had
grown very old, and Sarah was past the age of child-bearing. So Sarah
laughed at herself and said, 'I am past bearing children now that I am out
of my time, and my husband is old.' The LORD said to Abraham, 'Why
did Sarah laugh and say, "Shall I indeed bear a child when I am old?" Is
anything possible for the LORD? In due season I will come back to you,
about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.' Sarah lied because
she was frightened, and denied that she had laughed; but he said, 'Yes,
you did laugh.'
The men set out and looked down towards Sodom, and Abraham went
with them to start them on their way. The LORD thought to himself, 'Shall
I conceal from Abraham what I intend to do? He will become a great and
powerful nation, and all nations on earth will pray to be blessed as he is
blessed. I have taken care of him on purpose that he may charge his sons
and family after him to conform to the way of the LORD and do what is
right and just; thus I shall fulfill all that I have promised for him.' So the
LORD said, 'There is a great outcry over Sodom and Gomorrah; their sin
is very grave. I must go down and see whether their deeds warrant the out-
cry which has reached me. I am resolved to know the truth.' When the
men turned and went towards Sodom, Abraham remained standing before
the LORD. Abraham drew near to him and said, 'Wilt thou really sweep away
good and bad together? Suppose there are fifty good men in the city; wilt thou
really sweep it away, and not pardon the place because of the fifty
good men? Far be it from thee to do this — to kill good and bad together;
for then the good would suffer with the bad. Far be it from thee. Shall not
the judge of all the earth do what is just?' The LORD said, 'If I find in the
city of Sodom fifty good men, I will pardon the whole place for their sake.'
Abraham replied, 'May I presume to speak to the Lord, dust and ashes
that I am: suppose there are five short of the fifty good men?' Wilt thou
destroy the whole city for a mere five men?' He said, 'If I find forty-five
there I will not destroy it.' Abraham spoke again, 'Suppose forty can be
found there?'; and he said, 'For the sake of the forty I will not do it.' Then
Abraham said, 'Please do not be angry, O Lord, if I speak again: suppose
thirty can be found there?' He answered, 'If I find thirty there I will not
do it.' Abraham continued, 'May I presume to speak to the Lord: suppose
twenty can be found there?' He replied, 'For the sake of the twenty I will
not destroy it.' Abraham said, 'I pray thee not to be angry, O Lord, if I
speak just once more: suppose ten can be found there?' He said, 'For the
sake of the ten I will not destroy it.' When the LORD had finished talking
with Abraham, he left him, and Abraham returned home.
19 The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in
the gateway of the city. When he saw them he rose to meet them and bowed
low with is face to the ground. He said, 'I pray you, sirs, turn aside to my
humble home, spend the night there and wash your feet; you can rise early
and continue your journey.' 'No,' they answered, 'we will spend the night
in the street.' But Lot was so insistent that they did turn aside and enter
his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking unleavened cakes, and they
ate them. Before they lay down to sleep, the men of Sodom, both young
ad old, surrounded the house — everyone without exception. They called
to Lot and asked him where the men were who had entered his house that
night. 'Bring them out', they shouted, 'so that we can have intercourse with
them.'
Lot went out into the doorway to them, closed the door behind him and
said, 'No, my friends, do not be so wicked. Look, I have two daughters,
both virgins; let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like
with them; but do not touch these men, because they have come under the
shelter of my roof.' They said, 'Out of the way! This man has come and
settled here as an alien, and does he now take it upon himself to judge us?
We will treat you worse than them.' They crowded in on the man Lot and
pressed close to smash in the door. But the two men inside reached out,
pulled Lot in, and closed the door. Then they struck the men in the door-
way with blindness, both small and great, so that they could not find the
door.
The two men said to Lot, 'Have you anyone else here, sons-in-law, sons,
or daughters, or any who belong to you in the city? Get them out of this
place, because we are going to destroy it.' So Lot went out and spoke
to his intended sons-in-law. He said, 'Be quick and leave this place; the
LORD is going to destroy the city.' But they did not take him seriously.
As soon as it was dawn, the angels urged Lot to go, saying, 'Be quick,
take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept
away when the city is punished.' When he lingered, they took him by the
hand, with his wife and his daughters, and, because the LORD had spared
him, led him on until he was outside the city. When they had brought them
out, they said, 'Flee for your lives; do not look back and do not stop any-
where in the Plain. Flee to the hills or you will be swept away.' Lot replied,
'No, sirs. You have shown your servant favour and you have added to your
unfailing care for me by saving my life, but I cannot escape to the hills; I
shall be overtaken by the disaster, and die. Look, here is a town, only a
small place, near enough for me to reach quickly. Let me escape to it — it
is very small — and save my life.' He said to him, 'I grant your request: I
will not over throw this town you speak of. But flee there quickly, because
I can do nothing until you are there.' That is why the place was called
Zoar. The sun had risen over the land as Lot entered Zoar; and then the
LORD rained down fire and brimstone from the skies on Sodom and Gamor-
rah. He overthrew those cities and destroyed all the Plain, with everyone
living there and everything growing in the ground. But Lot's wife, behind
him, looked back, and she turned to a pillar of salt.
Next morning Abraham rose early and went to the place where he had
stood in the presence of the LORD. He looked down towards Sodom and
Gomorrah and all the wide extent of the Plain, and there he saw thick smoke
rising high from the earth like the smoke of a lime-kiln. Thus, when God
destroyed the cities of the Plain, he thought of Abraham and rescued Lot
from the disaster, and overthrow of the cities where he had been living.
Lot went up to Zoar and settled in the hill-country with his two
daughters, because he was afraid to stay in Zoar; he lived with his two
daughters in a cave. The elder daughter said to the younger, 'Our father is
old and there is not a man in the country to come to us in the usual way.
Come now, let us make our father drink wine and then lie with him and in
this way keep the family alive through our father.' So that night they gave
him wine to drink, and the elder daughter came and lay with him and he
did not know when she lay down and when she got up. Next day the elder
said to the younger, 'Last night I lay with my father. Let us give him wine
to drink again tonight; then you go in and lie with him. So we shall keep
the family alive through our father.' So they gave their father wine to drink
again that night, and the younger daughter went and lay with him, and he
did not know when she lay down and when she got up. In this way both
Lot's daughters came to be with child by their father. The elder daughter
bore a son and called him Moab; he was the ancestor of the present Moab-
ites. The younger also bore a son, whom she called Ben-ammi; he was the
ancestor of the present Ammonites.
The New English Bible (with Apocrypha)
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970
Posted Aug 22, 2018, 4:35 PM UTC · edited
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