Chronological Plan

¹Now the two 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 he bowed himself with his face toward the ground.

²And he said, “Here now, my lords, please turn in to your servant’s house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.” And they said, “No, but we will spend the night in the open square.”

³But he insisted strongly; so they turned in to him and entered his house. Then he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

⁴Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house.

⁵And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.”

⁶So Lot went out to them through the doorway, shut the door behind him,

⁷and said, “Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly!

⁸See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.”

⁹And they said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one came in to stay here, and he keeps acting as a judge; now we will deal worse with you than with them.” So they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near to break down the door.

¹⁰But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.

¹¹And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door.

¹²Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city— take them out of this place!

¹³For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it.”

¹⁴So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, “Get up, get out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city!” But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.

¹⁵When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, “Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.”

¹⁶And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.

¹⁷So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.”

¹⁸Then Lot said to them, “Please, no, my lords!

¹⁹Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die.

²⁰See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one; please let me escape there (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.”

²¹And he said to him, “See, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken.

²²Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

²³The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar.

²⁴Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens.

²⁵So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

²⁶But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

²⁷And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD.

²⁸Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace.

²⁹And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt.

³⁰Then Lot went up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountains, and his two daughters were with him; for he was afraid to dwell in Zoar. And he and his two daughters dwelt in a cave.

³¹Now the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man on the earth to come in to us as is the custom of all the earth.

³²Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father.”

³³So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.

³⁴It happened on the next day that the firstborn said to the younger, “Indeed I lay with my father last night; let us make him drink wine tonight also, and you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father.”

³⁵Then 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.

³⁶Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father.

³⁷The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day.

³⁸And the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the people of Ammon to this day.

¹And Abraham journeyed from there to the South, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur, and stayed in Gerar.

²Now Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.

³But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, “Indeed you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.”

⁴But Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, “Lord, will You slay a righteous nation also?

⁵Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she, even she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands I have done this.”

⁶And God said to him in a dream, “Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart. For I also withheld you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her.

⁷Now therefore, restore the man’s wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”

⁸So Abimelech rose early in the morning, called all his servants, and told all these things in their hearing; and the men were very much afraid.

⁹And Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? How have I offended you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done deeds to me that ought not to be done.”

¹⁰Then Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you have in view, that you have done this thing?”

¹¹And Abraham said, “Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will kill me on account of my wife.

¹²But indeed she is truly my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.

¹³And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, ‘This is your kindness that you should do for me: in every place, wherever we go, say of me, “He is my brother.” ’ ”

¹⁴Then Abimelech took sheep, oxen, and male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham; and he restored Sarah his wife to him.

¹⁵And Abimelech said, “See, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you.”

¹⁶Then to Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver; indeed this vindicates you before all who are with you and before everybody.” Thus she was rebuked.

¹⁷So Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants. Then they bore children;

¹⁸for the LORD had closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

¹And the LORD visited Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had spoken.

²For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.

³And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him—whom Sarah bore to him— Isaac.

⁴Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.

⁵Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

⁶And Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me.”

⁷She also said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.”

⁸So the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned.

⁹And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, scoffing.

¹⁰Therefore she said to Abraham, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac.”

¹¹And the matter was very displeasing in Abraham’s sight because of his son.

¹²But God said to Abraham, “Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called.

¹³Yet I will also make a nation of the son of the bondwoman, because he is your seed.”

¹⁴So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water; and putting it on her shoulder, he gave it and the boy to Hagar, and sent her away. Then she departed and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba.

¹⁵And the water in the skin was used up, and she placed the boy under one of the shrubs.

¹⁶Then she went and sat down across from him at a distance of about a bowshot; for she said to herself, “Let me not see the death of the boy.” So she sat opposite him, and lifted her voice and wept.

¹⁷And God heard the voice of the lad. Then the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, “What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is.

¹⁸Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation.”

¹⁹Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water, and gave the lad a drink.

²⁰So God was with the lad; and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.

²¹He dwelt in the Wilderness of Paran; and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

²²And it came to pass at that time that Abimelech and Phichol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do.

²³Now therefore, swear to me by God that you will not deal falsely with me, with my offspring, or with my posterity; but that according to the kindness that I have done to you, you will do to me and to the land in which you have dwelt.”

²⁴And Abraham said, “I will swear.”

²⁵Then Abraham rebuked Abimelech because of a well of water which Abimelech’s servants had seized.

²⁶And Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, nor had I heard of it until today.”

²⁷So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant.

²⁸And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.

²⁹Then Abimelech asked Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs which you have set by themselves?”

³⁰And he said, “You will take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, that they may be my witness that I have dug this well.”

³¹Therefore he called that place Beersheba, because the two of them swore an oath there.

³²Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba. So Abimelech rose with Phichol, the commander of his army, and they returned to the land of the Philistines.

³³Then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there called on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God.

³⁴And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines many days.