He spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose forty are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it on account of the forty.”

Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak; suppose thirty are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

And he said, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord; suppose twenty are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the twenty.”

Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once; suppose ten are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the ten.”

Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.

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;

Now behold, I have two daughters who have not had relations with man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you like; only do nothing to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the shelter of my roof.”

They struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway.

Then the two men said to Lot, “Whom else have you here? A son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place;

Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, “Up, get out of this place, for the Lord will destroy the city.” But he appeared to his sons-in-law to be jesting.

When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.”

But he hesitated. So the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for the compassion of the Lord was upon him; and they brought him out, and put him outside the city.

He said to him, “Behold, I grant you this request also, not to overthrow the town of which you have spoken.

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

Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven,

and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

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

and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the valley, and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace.

Thus it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.

Then 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 the earth.

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

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

As for the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the sons of Ammon to this day.

Now Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the Negev, and settled between Kadesh and Shur; then he sojourned in Gerar.

Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” So 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 married.”

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.”

Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also kept you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her.

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

Abraham said, “Because I thought, surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.

Besides, she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife;

and it came about, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, ‘This is the kindness which you will show to me: everywhere we go, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”

Abimelech then took sheep and oxen and male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and restored his wife Sarah to him.

To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver; behold, it is your vindication before all who are with you, and before all men you are cleared.”

Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids, so that they bore children.

For the Lord had closed fast all the wombs of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

Then the Lord took note of Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had promised.

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

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

Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking.

Therefore she said to Abraham, “Drive out this maid and her son, for the son of this maid shall not be an heir with my son Isaac.”

The matter distressed Abraham greatly because of his son.

But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named.

And of the son of the maid I will make a nation also, because he is your descendant.”

So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the boy, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba.

When the water in the skin was used up, she left the boy under one of the bushes.

God heard the lad crying; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is.

Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him.”

Then 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.

He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

Now it came about at that time that Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do;

But Abraham complained to Abimelech because of the well of water which the servants of Abimelech had seized.

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

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

Then Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.

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

So they made a covenant at Beersheba; and Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, arose and returned to the land of the Philistines.

Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God.

And Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines for many days.

He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”

So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.

Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.

Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.

But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.

Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the Lord it will be provided.”

Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven,

indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies.

In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

Uz his firstborn and Buz his brother and Kemuel the father of Aram

Bethuel became the father of Rebekah; these eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother.

Now Sarah lived one hundred and twenty-seven years; these were the years of the life of Sarah.

Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan; and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.

Then Abraham rose from before his dead, and spoke to the sons of Heth, saying,

“I am a stranger and a sojourner among you; give me a burial site among you that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”

The sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him,

“Hear us, my lord, you are a mighty prince among us; bury your dead in the choicest of our graves; none of us will refuse you his grave for burying your dead.”

So Abraham rose and bowed to the people of the land, the sons of Heth.

And he spoke with them, saying, “If it is your wish for me to bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and approach Ephron the son of Zohar for me,

that he may give me the cave of Machpelah which he owns, which is at the end of his field; for the full price let him give it to me in your presence for a burial site.”

Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the sons of Heth; even of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying,

“No, my lord, hear me; I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the presence of the sons of my people I give it to you; bury your dead.”

And Abraham bowed before the people of the land.

He spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, “If you will only please listen to me; I will give the price of the field, accept it from me that I may bury my dead there.”

“My lord, listen to me; a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between me and you? So bury your dead.”

Abraham listened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver which he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, commercial standard.

So Ephron’s field, which was in Machpelah, which faced Mamre, the field and cave which was in it, and all the trees which were in the field, that were within all the confines of its border, were deeded over

to Abraham for a possession in the presence of the sons of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city.

After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field at Machpelah facing Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan.

So the field and the cave that is in it, were deeded over to Abraham for a burial site by the sons of Heth.

Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he owned, “Please place your hand under my thigh,

and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live,

but you will go to my country and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac.”

The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, and who spoke to me and who swore to me, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give this land,’ He will send His angel before you, and you will take a wife for my son from there.

But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this my oath; only do not take my son back there.”

So the servant placed his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter.

Then the servant took ten camels from the camels of his master, and set out with a variety of good things of his master’s in his hand; and he arose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor.

He made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at evening time, the time when women go out to draw water.

He said, “O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today, and show lovingkindness to my master Abraham.