Study Desk

However, Lot strongly urged them, so they turned aside and entered his house; and he prepared a feast for them [with wine], and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

"See here, I have two daughters who have not known a man [intimately]; please let me bring them out to you [instead], and you can do as you please with them; only do nothing to these men, because they have in fact come under the shelter of my roof [for protection]."

for we are destroying this place, because the outcry [for judgment] against them has grown so great before the LORD that the LORD has sent us to destroy and ruin it."

So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were [betrothed, and legally promised] to marry his daughters, and said, "Get up, get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy this city!" But to his sons-in-law he appeared to be joking.

But Lot hesitated and lingered. The men took hold of his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, because the LORD was merciful to him [for Abraham's sake]; and they brought him out, and left him outside the city [with his family].

When they had brought them outside, one [of the angels] said, "Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, or stop anywhere in the entire valley; escape to the mountains [of Moab], or you will be consumed and swept away."

"Now look, this town [in the distance] is near enough for us to flee to, and it is small [with only a few people]. Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) so that my life will be saved."

"Hurry and take refuge there, for I cannot do anything [to punish Sodom] until you arrive there." For this reason the town was named Zoar (few, small).

Now when God ravaged and destroyed the cities of the plain [of Siddim], He remembered Abraham [and for that reason], and He sent [Abraham's nephew] Lot out of the midst of the destruction, when He destroyed the cities in which Lot had lived.

Now Lot went up from Zoar, and lived in the mountain together with his two daughters, for he was afraid to stay [any longer] in Zoar; and he lived in a cave with his two daughters.

But God came to Abimelech in a dream during the night, and said, "Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken [as your wife], for she is another man's wife."

Then God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know you did this in the integrity of your heart, for it was I who kept you back and spared you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not give you an opportunity to touch her.

"So now return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her [to him], know that you shall die, you and all who are yours (your household)."

Then to Sarah he said, "Look, I have given this brother of yours a thousand pieces of silver; it is to compensate you [for all that has happened] and to vindicate your honor before all who are with you; before all men you are cleared and compensated."

for the LORD had securely closed the wombs of all [the women] in Abimelech's household because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

The LORD graciously remembered and visited Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for her as He had promised.

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

And she said, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have given birth to a son by him in his old age."

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."

God said to Abraham, "Do not let it distress you because of Ishmael and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her and do what she asks, for your descendants will be named through Isaac.