20 S Genesis 19:18
“Flee for your l ives! D
on’t look back, and d
on’t stop anywhere in the p
lain!
Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”
18 But Lot said to them, “No, my l ords, a please! 19 Your b servant has f ound
favor in your b eyes, and you b have s hown great kindness to me in sparing my
life. But I c an’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll
die. 20 Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee
to it — it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”
21 He said to him, “Very well, I will g
rant this request too; I will not over
throw the town you s peak of. 22 But flee t here quickly, because I cannot do
anything until you r each it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar. c )
23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. 24 Then the
Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah — from the Lord
out of the heavens. 25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, de
stroying all t hose living in the cities — and also the vegetation in the land.
26 But Lot’s wife l ooked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
27 Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where
he had s tood before the Lord. 28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomor
rah, toward all the land of the p
lain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the
land, like smoke from a furnace.
29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham,
and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where
Lot had lived.
Lot and His Daughters
30 Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he
was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. 31 One day
the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man
around here to give us children — as is the custom all over the earth. 32 Let’s
get our father to drink wine and then s leep with him and preserve our family
line through our father.”
33 That night they got t heir father to d
rink wine, and the older daughter
went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or
when she got up.
34 The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I s lept
with my father. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and
sleep with him so we can preserve our fami l y line t hrough our father.” 35 So
they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter
went in and s lept with him. Again he was not a
ware of it when she lay down
or when she got up.
36 So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. 37 The older
daughter had a son, and she named him Moab d ; he is the father of the Mo
abites of today. 38 The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him
Ben-Ammi e ; he is the father of the Ammonites f of today.
Abraham and Abimelek
20
Now Abraham moved on from there into the region of the Negev and
lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed in Gerar, 2 and
there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” Then Abimelek king
of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her.
3 But God came to Abimelek in a dream one night and said to him, “You are as
good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.”
4 Now Abime l ek had not gone near her, so he said, “Lord, will you destroy an
innocent nation? 5 Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister,’ and d
idn’t she also say,
‘He is my brother’? I have done this with a c lear conscience and clean hands.”
6 Then God said to him in the d
ream, “Yes, I know you did this with a c lear
conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning a
gainst me. That is why I did
not let you t ouch her. 7 Now return the m
an’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he
a 18 Or
No, Lord ; or No, my lord b 19 The Hebrew is singular. c 22 Zoar means small.
Moab sounds like the Hebrew for from father. e 38 Ben-Ammi means son of my
father’s people. f 38 Hebrew Bene-Ammon
d 37