“As for me, behold, my covenant is with you. You will be the father of a multitude of nations.
Neither will your name any more be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you. Kings will come out of you.
I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your seed after you.
I will give to you, and to your seed after you, the land where you are traveling, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. I will be their God.”
God said to Abraham, “As for you, you will keep my covenant, you and your seed after you throughout their generations.
This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your seed after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised.
You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin. It will be a token of the covenant between me and you.
He who is eight days old will be circumcised among you, every male throughout your generations, he who is born in the house, or bought with money from any foreigner who is not of your seed.
He who is born in your house, and he who is bought with your money, must be circumcised. My covenant will be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
The uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant.”
God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but her name will be Sarah.
I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. Yes, I will bless her, and she will be a mother of nations. Kings of peoples will come from her.”
Then Abraham fell on his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, “Will a child be born to him who is one hundred years old? Will Sarah, who is ninety years old, give birth?”
God said, “No, but Sarah, your wife, will bear you a son. You shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his seed after him.
As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He will become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.
But my covenant I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time next year.”
Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house, and all who were bought with his money; every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the same day, as God had said to him.
Abraham was ninety-nine years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
Ishmael, his son, was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
All the men of his house, those born in the house, and those bought with money of a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day.
He lifted up his eyes and looked, and saw that three men stood opposite him. When he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth,
and said, “My lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, please don’t go away from your servant.
I will get a morsel of bread so you can refresh your heart. After that you may go your way, now that you have come to your servant.” They said, “Very well, do as you have said.”
Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quickly prepare three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes.”
Abraham ran to the herd, and fetched a tender and good calf, and gave it to the servant. He hurried to dress it.
He took butter, milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them. He stood by them under the tree, and they ate.
He said, “I will certainly return to you when the season comes round. Behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.” Sarah heard in the tent door, which was behind him.
Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.
Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old will I have pleasure, my lord being old also?”
Yahweh said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Will I really bear a child, yet I am old?’
Is anything too hard for Yahweh? At the set time I will return to you, when the season comes round, and Sarah will have a son.”
Then Sarah denied, saying, “I didn’t laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”
The men rose up from there, and looked toward Sodom. Abraham went with them to see them on their way.
since Abraham has surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him?
For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of Yahweh, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that Yahweh may bring on Abraham that which he has spoken of him.”
Yahweh said, “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous,
I will go down now, and see whether their deeds are as bad as the reports which have come to me. If not, I will know.”
The men turned from there, and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before Yahweh.
What if there are fifty righteous within the city? Will you consume and not spare the place for the fifty righteous who are in it?
Be it far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?”
Yahweh said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sake.”
Abraham answered, “See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord, who am but dust and ashes.
What if there will lack five of the fifty righteous? Will you destroy all the city for lack of five?” He said, “I will not destroy it, if I find forty-five there.”
He spoke to him yet again, and said, “What if there are forty found there?” He said, “I will not do it for the forty’s sake.”
He said, “Oh don’t let the Lord be angry, and I will speak. What if there are thirty found there?” He said, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.”
He said, “See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord. What if there are twenty found there?” He said, “I will not destroy it for the twenty’s sake.”
He said, “Oh don’t let the Lord be angry, and I will speak just once more. What if ten are found there?” He said, “I will not destroy it for the ten’s sake.”
Yahweh went his way, as soon as he had finished communing with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.
The two angels came to Sodom at evening. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them. He bowed himself with his face to the earth,
and he said, “See now, my lords, please turn aside into your servant’s house, stay all night, wash your feet, and you can rise up early, and go on your way.” They said, “No, but we will stay in the street all night.”
He urged them greatly, and they came in with him, and entered into his house. He made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter.
They called to Lot, and said to him, “Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them.”
See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof.”
They said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one fellow came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself a judge. Now will we deal worse with you, than with them!” They pressed hard on the man Lot, and drew near to break the door.
But the men put forth their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door.
They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.
The men said to Lot, “Do you have anybody else here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whoever you have in the city, bring them out of the place:
for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before Yahweh that Yahweh has sent us to destroy it.”
Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up! Get out of this place, for Yahweh will destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking.
When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, “Get up! Take your wife, and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city.”
But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and his two daughters’ hands, Yahweh being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city.
It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, “Escape for your life! Don’t look behind you, and don’t stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed!”
See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can’t escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die.
See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn’t it a little one?), and my soul will live.”
He said to him, “Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.
Hurry, escape there, for I can’t do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky.
He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.
He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and looked, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.
It happened, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.
Lot went up out of Zoar, and lived in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his two daughters.
The firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in to us in the way of all the earth.
Come, let’s make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s seed.”
They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she arose.
It came to pass on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine again, tonight. You go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s seed.”
They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger went and lay with him. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she got up.
The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day.
The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.
Abraham traveled from there toward the land of the South, and lived between Kadesh and Shur. He lived as a foreigner in Gerar.
Abraham said about Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.
But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the 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.”
Now Abimelech had not come near her. He said, “Lord, will you kill even a righteous nation?
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