Abraham: The Covenant

As soon as the men had brought them out, one of them said, “Run for your lives! Do not look back, and do not stop anywhere on the plain! Flee to the mountains, or you will be swept away!”

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.

Look, there is a town nearby where I can flee, and it is a small place. Please let me flee there—is it not a small place? Then my life will be saved.”

“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.

And by the time the sun had risen over the land, Lot had reached 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.

But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

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

He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and he saw the smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace.

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.

Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains—for he was afraid to stay in Zoar—where they lived in a cave.

One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to sleep with us, as is the custom over all the earth.

Come, let us get our father drunk with wine so we can sleep with him and preserve his line.”

So that night they got their father drunk with wine, and the firstborn went in and slept with her father; he was not aware when she lay down or when she got up.

The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Look, I slept with my father last night. Let us get him drunk with wine again tonight so you can go in and sleep with him and we can preserve our father’s line.”

So again that night they got their father drunk with wine, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him; he was not aware when she lay down or when she got up.

Thus both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father.

The older daughter gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites of today.

The younger daughter also gave birth to a son, and she named him Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites of today.

Now Abraham journeyed from there to the region of the Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he was staying in Gerar,

Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech king of Gerar had Sarah brought to him.

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.”