Genesis 19

• 1. That evening the two angels came to the entrance of the city of Sodom, and Lot was sitting there as they arrived. When he saw them, he stood up to meet them. Then he welcomed them and bowed low to the ground.
• 2. "My lords," he said, "come to my home to wash your feet, and be my guests for the night. You may then get up in the morning as early as you like and be on your way again.Oh no," they said, "we'll just spend the night out here in the city square."
• 3. But Lot insisted, so at last they went home with him. He set a great feast before them, complete with fresh bread made without yeast. After the meal,
• 4. as they were preparing to retire for the night, all the men of Sodom, young and old, came from all over the city and surrounded the house.
• 5. They shouted to Lot, "Where are the men who came to spend the night with you? Bring them out so we can have sex with them."
• 6. Lot stepped outside to talk to them, shutting the door behind him.
• 7. "Please, my brothers," he begged, "don't do such a wicked thing.
• 8. Look--I have two virgin daughters. Do with them as you wish, but leave these men alone, for they are under my protection."
• 9. "Stand back!" they shouted. "Who do you think you are? We let you settle among us, and now you are trying to tell us what to do! We'll treat you far worse than those other men!" And they lunged at Lot and began breaking down the door.
• 10. But the two angels reached out and pulled Lot in and bolted the door.
• 11. Then they blinded the men of Sodom so they couldn't find the doorway.
• 12. "Do you have any other relatives here in the city?" the angels asked. "Get them out of this place--sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone else.
• 13. For we will destroy the city completely. The stench of the place has reached the LORD, and he has sent us to destroy it."
• 14. So Lot rushed out to tell his daughters' fiances, "Quick, get out of the city! The LORD is going to destroy it." But the young men thought he was only joking.
• 15. At dawn the next morning the angels became insistent. "Hurry," they said to Lot. "Take your wife and your two daughters who are here. Get out of here right now, or you will be caught in the destruction of the city."
• 16. When Lot still hesitated, the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and rushed them to safety outside the city, for the LORD was merciful.
• 17. "Run for your lives!" the angels warned. "Do not stop anywhere in the valley. And don't look back! Escape to the mountains, or you will die."
• 18. "Oh no, my lords, please," Lot begged.
• 19. "You have been so kind to me and saved my life, and you have granted me such mercy. But I cannot go to the mountains. Disaster would catch up to me there, and I would soon die.
• 20. See, there is a small village nearby. Please let me go there instead; don't you see how small it is? Then my life will be saved."
• 21. "All right," the angel said, "I will grant your request. I will not destroy that little village.
• 22. But hurry! For I can do nothing until you are there." From that time on, that village was known as Zoar.
• 23. The sun was rising as Lot reached the village.
• 24. Then the LORD rained down fire and burning sulfur from the heavens on Sodom and Gomorrah.
• 25. He utterly destroyed them, along with the other cities and villages of the plain, eliminating all life--people, plants, and animals alike.
• 26. But Lot's wife looked back as she was following along behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
• 27. The next morning Abraham was up early and hurried out to the place where he had stood in the LORD's presence.
• 28. He looked out across the plain to Sodom and Gomorrah and saw columns of smoke and fumes, as from a furnace, rising from the cities there.
• 29. But God had listened to Abraham's request and kept Lot safe, removing him from the disaster that engulfed the cities on the plain.
• 30. Afterward Lot left Zoar because he was afraid of the people there, and he went to live in a cave in the mountains with his two daughters.
• 31. One day the older daughter said to her sister, "There isn't a man anywhere in this entire area for us to marry. And our father will soon be too old to have children.
• 32. Come, let's get him drunk with wine, and then we will sleep with him. That way we will preserve our family line through our father."
• 33. So that night they got him drunk, and the older daughter went in and slept with her father. He was unaware of her lying down or getting up again.
• 34. The next morning the older daughter said to her younger sister, "I slept with our father last night. Let's get him drunk with wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him. That way our family line will be preserved."
• 35. So that night they got him drunk again, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. As before, he was unaware of her lying down or getting up again.
• 36. So both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father.
• 37. When the older daughter gave birth to a son, she named him Moab. He became the ancestor of the nation now known as the Moabites.
• 38. When the younger daughter gave birth to a son, she named him Ben-ammi. He became the ancestor of the nation now known as the Ammonites.

Genesis 20

• 1. Now Abraham moved south to the Negev and settled for a while between Kadesh and Shur at a place called Gerar.
• 2. Abraham told people there that his wife, Sarah, was his sister. So King Abimelech sent for her and had her brought to him at his palace.
• 3. But one night God came to Abimelech in a dream and told him, "You are a dead man, for that woman you took is married."
• 4. But Abimelech had not slept with her yet, so he said, "Lord, will you kill an innocent man?
• 5. Abraham told me, `She is my sister,' and she herself said, `Yes, he is my brother.' I acted in complete innocence!"
• 6. "Yes, I know you are innocent," God replied. "That is why I kept you from sinning against me; I did not let you touch her.
• 7. Now return her to her husband, and he will pray for you, for he is a prophet. Then you will live. But if you don't return her to him, you can be sure that you and your entire household will die."
• 8. Abimelech got up early the next morning and hastily called a meeting of all his servants. When he told them what had happened, great fear swept through the crowd.
• 9. Then Abimelech called for Abraham. "What is this you have done to us?" he demanded. "What have I done to you that deserves treatment like this, making me and my kingdom guilty of this great sin? This kind of thing should not be done!
• 10. Why have you done this to us?"
• 11. "Well," Abraham said, "I figured this to be a godless place. I thought, `They will want my wife and will kill me to get her.'
• 12. Besides, she is my sister--we both have the same father, though different mothers--and I married her.
• 13. When God sent me to travel far from my father's home, I told her, `Wherever we go, have the kindness to say that you are my sister.'"
• 14. Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen and servants--both men and women--and gave them to Abraham, and he returned his wife, Sarah, to him.
• 15. "Look over my kingdom, and choose a place where you would like to live," Abimelech told him.
• 16. Then he turned to Sarah. "Look," he said, "I am giving your `brother' a thousand pieces of silver to compensate for any embarrassment I may have caused you. This will settle any claim against me in this matter."
• 17. Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and the other women of the household, so they could have children.
• 18. For the LORD had stricken all the women with infertility as a warning to Abimelech for having taken Abraham's wife.

Genesis 21

• 1. Then the LORD did exactly what he had promised.
• 2. Sarah became pregnant, and she gave a son to Abraham in his old age. It all happened at the time God had said it would.
• 3. And Abraham named his son Isaac.
• 4. Eight days after Isaac was born, Abraham circumcised him as God had commanded.
• 5. Abraham was one hundred years old at the time.
• 6. And Sarah declared, "God has brought me laughter! All who hear about this will laugh with me.
• 7. For who would have dreamed that I would ever have a baby? Yet I have given Abraham a son in his old age!"
• 8. As time went by and Isaac grew and was weaned, Abraham gave a big party to celebrate the happy occasion.
• 9. But Sarah saw Ishmael--the son of Abraham and her Egyptian servant Hagar--making fun of Isaac.
• 10. So she turned to Abraham and demanded, "Get rid of that servant and her son. He is not going to share the family inheritance with my son, Isaac. I won't have it!"
• 11. This upset Abraham very much because Ishmael was his son.
• 12. But God told Abraham, "Do not be upset over the boy and your servant wife. Do just as Sarah says, for Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.
• 13. But I will make a nation of the descendants of Hagar's son because he also is your son."
• 14. So Abraham got up early the next morning, prepared food for the journey, and strapped a container of water to Hagar's shoulders. He sent her away with their son, and she walked out into the wilderness of Beersheba, wandering aimlessly.
• 15. When the water was gone, she left the boy in the shade of a bush.
• 16. Then she went and sat down by herself about a hundred yards away. "I don't want to watch the boy die," she said, as she burst into tears.
• 17. Then God heard the boy's cries, and the angel of God called to Hagar from the sky, "Hagar, what's wrong? Do not be afraid! God has heard the boy's cries from the place where you laid him.
• 18. Go to him and comfort him, for I will make a great nation from his descendants."
• 19. Then God opened Hagar's eyes, and she saw a well. She immediately filled her water container and gave the boy a drink.
• 20. And God was with the boy as he grew up in the wilderness of Paran. He became an expert archer,
• 21. and his mother arranged a marriage for him with a young woman from Egypt.
• 22. About this time, Abimelech came with Phicol, his army commander, to visit Abraham. "It is clear that God helps you in everything you do," Abimelech said.
• 23. "Swear to me in God's name that you won't deceive me, my children, or my grandchildren. I have been loyal to you, so now swear that you will be loyal to me and to this country in which you are living."
• 24. Abraham replied, "All right, I swear to it!"
• 25. Then Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well that Abimelech's servants had taken violently from Abraham's servants.
• 26. "This is the first I've heard of it," Abimelech said. "And I have no idea who is responsible. Why didn't you say something about this before?"
• 27. Then Abraham gave sheep and oxen to Abimelech, and they made a treaty.
• 28. But when Abraham took seven additional ewe lambs and set them off by themselves,
• 29. Abimelech asked, "Why are you doing that?"
• 30. Abraham replied, "They are my gift to you as a public confirmation that I dug this well."
• 31. So ever since, that place has been known as Beersheba--"well of the oath"--because that was where they had sworn an oath.
• 32. After making their covenant, Abimelech left with Phicol, the commander of his army, and they returned home to the land of the Philistines.
• 33. Then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and he worshiped the LORD, the Eternal God, at that place.
• 34. And Abraham lived in Philistine country for a long time.

New Living Translation: 7 of 324 days.