God

Finally, Abraham said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak once more. Suppose ten are found there?” And He answered, “On account of the ten, I will not destroy it.”

When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, He departed, and Abraham returned home.

because we are about to destroy this place. For the outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that He has sent us to destroy it.”

So Lot went out and spoke to the sons-in-law who were pledged in marriage to his daughters. “Get up,” he said. “Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

But when Lot hesitated, the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters. And they led them safely out of the city, because of the LORD’s compassion for them.

But Lot replied, “No, my lords, please!

Your servant has indeed found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness by sparing my life. But I cannot run to the mountains; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die.

“Very well,” he answered, “I will grant this request as well, and will not demolish the town you indicate.

Hurry! Run there quickly, for I cannot do anything until you reach it.” That is why the town was called Zoar.

Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens.

Thus He destroyed these cities and the entire plain, including all the inhabitants of the cities and everything that grew on the ground.

Early the next morning, Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD.

So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham, and He brought Lot out of the catastrophe that destroyed the cities where he had lived.

One night, however, God came to Abimelech in a dream and told him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman.”

Now Abimelech had not gone near her, so he replied, “Lord, would You destroy a nation even though it is innocent?

Then God said to Abimelech in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against Me. That is why I did not let you touch her.

Abraham replied, “I thought to myself, ‘Surely there is no fear of God in this place. They will kill me on account of my wife.’

So when God had me journey from my father’s house, I said to Sarah, ‘This is how you can show your loyalty to me: Wherever we go, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”

Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maidservants, so that they could again bear children—

for on account of Abraham’s wife Sarah, the LORD had completely closed all the wombs in Abimelech’s household.

Now the LORD attended to Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what He had promised.

So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised.

When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him.

Then Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears of this will laugh with me.”

But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to everything that Sarah tells you, for through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.