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Genesis 19

Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.^*

1The two angels reached Sodom in the evening, as Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he got up to greet them; and bowing down with his face to the ground,

2he said, “Please, my lords,^* come aside into your servant’s house for the night, and bathe your feet; you can get up early to continue your journey.” But they replied, “No, we will pass the night in the town square.”^a

3He urged them so strongly, however, that they turned aside to his place and entered his house. He prepared a banquet for them, baking unleavened bread, and they dined.

4^b Before they went to bed, the townsmen of Sodom, both young and old—all the people to the last man—surrounded the house.

5They called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to your house tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have sexual relations with them.”

6Lot went out to meet them at the entrance. When he had shut the door behind him,

7he said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not do this wicked thing!

8I have two daughters who have never had sexual relations with men. Let me bring them out to you,^* and you may do to them as you please. But do not do anything to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.”

9They replied, “Stand back! This man,” they said, “came here as a resident alien, and now he dares to give orders! We will treat you worse than them!” With that, they pressed hard against Lot, moving in closer to break down the door.^c

10But his guests put out their hands, pulled Lot inside with them, and closed the door;

11they struck the men at the entrance of the house, small and great, with such a blinding light^* that they were utterly unable to find the doorway.

12Then the guests said to Lot: “Who else belongs to you here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, all who belong to you in the city—take them away from this place!^d

13We are about to destroy this place, for the outcry reaching the LORD against those here is so great that the LORD has sent us to destroy it.”^e

14So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had contracted marriage with his daughters.^* “Come on, leave this place,” he told them; “the LORD is about to destroy the city.” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

15As dawn was breaking, the angels urged Lot on, saying, “Come on! Take your wife with you and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.”

16When he hesitated, the men, because of the LORD’s compassion for him, seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters and led them to safety outside the city.

17As soon as they had brought them outside, they said: “Flee for your life! Do not look back or stop anywhere on the Plain. Flee to the hills at once, or you will be swept away.”^f

18“Oh, no, my lords!” Lot replied to them.

19“You have already shown favor to your servant, doing me the great kindness of saving my life. But I cannot flee to the hills, or the disaster will overtake and kill me.

20Look, this town ahead is near enough to escape to. It is only a small place.^* Let me flee there—is it not a small place?—to save my life.”

21“Well, then,” he replied, “I grant you this favor too. I will not overthrow the town you have mentioned.

22Hurry, escape there! I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” That is why the town is called Zoar.^g

23The sun had risen over the earth when Lot arrived in Zoar,

24and the LORD rained down sulfur upon Sodom and Gomorrah, fire from the LORD out of heaven.^h

25He overthrew^* those cities and the whole Plain, together with the inhabitants of the cities and the produce of the soil.ⁱ

26But Lot’s wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.^j

27The next morning Abraham hurried to the place where he had stood before the LORD.

28As he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole region of the Plain,^* he saw smoke over the land rising like the smoke from a kiln.^k

29When God destroyed the cities of the Plain, he remembered Abraham and sent Lot away from the upheaval that occurred when God overthrew the cities where Lot had been living.

Moabites and Ammonites.^*

30Since Lot was afraid to stay in Zoar, he and his two daughters went up from Zoar and settled in the hill country, where he lived with his two daughters in a cave.

31The firstborn said to the younger: “Our father is getting old, and there is not a man in the land to have intercourse with us as is the custom everywhere.

32Come, let us ply our father with wine and then lie with him, that we may ensure posterity by our father.”

33So that night they plied their father with wine, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father; but he was not aware of her lying down or getting up.

34The next day the firstborn said to the younger: “Last night I lay with my father. Let us ply him with wine again tonight, and then you go in and lie with him, that we may ensure posterity by our father.”

35So that night, too, they plied their father with wine, and then the younger one went in and lay with him; but he was not aware of her lying down or getting up.

36Thus the two daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father.

37The firstborn gave birth to a son whom she named Moab, saying, “From my father.”^* He is the ancestor of the Moabites of today.^l

38The younger one, too, gave birth to a son, and she named him Ammon, saying, “The son of my kin.”^* He is the ancestor of the Ammonites of today.^m

* [19:1–29] The story takes place in one day (counting a day from the previous evening): evening (v. 1), dawn (v. 15), and sunrise (v. 23). The passage resembles Jgs 19:15–25, which suggests dependence of one story on the other.

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Genesis 20

Abraham at Gerar.^*

1From there Abraham journeyed on to the region of the Negeb, where he settled between Kadesh and Shur.^* While he resided in Gerar as an alien,

2Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah.

3But God came to Abimelech in a dream one night and said to him: You are about to die because of the woman you have taken, for she has a husband.

4Abimelech, who had not approached her, said: “O Lord, would you kill an innocent man?

5Was he not the one who told me, ‘She is my sister’? She herself also stated, ‘He is my brother.’ I acted with pure heart and with clean hands.”

6^* God answered him in the dream: Yes, I know you did it with a pure heart. In fact, it was I who kept you from sinning against me; that is why I did not let you touch her.

7So now, return the man’s wife so that he may intercede for you, since he is a prophet,^* that you may live. If you do not return her, you can be sure that you and all who are yours will die.

8Early the next morning Abimelech called all his servants and informed them of everything that had happened, and the men were filled with fear.

9Then Abimelech summoned Abraham and said to him: “What have you done to us! What wrong did I do to you that you would have brought such great guilt on me and my kingdom? You have treated me in an intolerable way.

10What did you have in mind,” Abimelech asked him, “that you would do such a thing?”

11Abraham answered, “I thought there would be no fear of God^* in this place, and so they would kill me on account of my wife.

12Besides, she really is my sister,^* but only my father’s daughter, not my mother’s; and so she became my wife.

13When God sent me wandering from my father’s house, I asked her: ‘Would you do me this favor? In whatever place we come to, say: He is my brother.’”^a

14Then Abimelech took flocks and herds and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham; and he restored his wife Sarah to him.

15Then Abimelech said, “Here, my land is at your disposal; settle wherever you please.”

16To Sarah he said: “I hereby give your brother a thousand shekels of silver. This will preserve your honor before all who are with you and will exonerate you before everyone.”

17Abraham then interceded with God, and God restored health to Abimelech, to his wife, and his maidservants, so that they bore children;

18for the LORD had closed every womb in Abimelech’s household on account of Abraham’s wife Sarah.

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Mark 3:13-35

The Mission of the Twelve.

13^f He went up the mountain^* and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him.

14^g He appointed twelve [whom he also named apostles] that they might be with him^* and he might send them forth to preach

15and to have authority to drive out demons:

16^* [he appointed the twelve:] Simon, whom he named Peter;

17James, son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, whom he named Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder;^h

18Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus; Thaddeus, Simon the Cananean,

19and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.

Blasphemy of the Scribes.

20^* He came home.^* Again [the] crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat.ⁱ

21When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”^j

22The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,”^* and “By the prince of demons he drives out demons.”^k

Jesus and Beelzebul.

23Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables, “How can Satan drive out Satan?

24If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

25And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.

26And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him.

27But no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house.

28Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them.^l

29But whoever blasphemes against the holy Spirit^* will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.”

30For they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Jesus and His Family.

31^m His mother and his brothers arrived. Standing outside they sent word to him and called him.

32A crowd seated around him told him, “Your mother and your brothers^* [and your sisters] are outside asking for you.”

33But he said to them in reply, “Who are my mother and [my] brothers?”

34And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers.

35[For] whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

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