Today's Reading

¹The two angels came to Sodom at evening. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them. He bowed himself with his face to the earth,

²and he said, "See now, my lords, please turn aside into your servant's house, stay all night, wash your feet, and you will rise up early, and go on your way." They said, "No, but we will stay in the street all night."

³He urged them greatly, and they came in with him, and entered into his house. He made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

⁴But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter.

⁵They called to Lot, and said to him, "Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them."

⁶Lot went out to them to the door, and shut the door after him.

⁷He said, "Please, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.

⁸See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only do not do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof."

⁹They said, "Stand back!" They said, "This one fellow came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself a judge. Now will we deal worse with you, than with them!" They pressed hard on the man Lot, and drew near to break the door.

¹⁰But the men put forth their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door.

¹¹They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.

¹²The men said to Lot, "Do you have anybody else here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whoever you have in the city, bring them out of the place:

¹³for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the Lord that the Lord has sent us to destroy it."

¹⁴Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, "Get up! Get out of this place, for the Lord will destroy the city." But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking.

¹⁵When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, "Get up! Take your wife, and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city."

¹⁶But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife's hand, and his two daughters' hands, the Lord being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city.

¹⁷It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, "Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed!"

¹⁸Lot said to them, "Oh, not so, my lord.

¹⁹See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can't escape to the mountain, lest the disaster overtake me, and I die.

²⁰See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn't it a little one?), and my soul will live."

²¹He said to him, "Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.

²²Hurry, escape there, for I can't do anything until you get there." Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

²³The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

²⁴Then the Lord rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of the sky.

²⁵He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.

²⁶But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

²⁷Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord.

²⁸He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and looked, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.

²⁹It happened, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.

³⁰Lot went up out of Zoar, and lived in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his two daughters.

³¹The firstborn said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth.

³²Come, let's make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father's seed."

³³They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down, nor when she arose.

³⁴It came to pass on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, "Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine again, tonight. You go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve our father's seed."

³⁵They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger went and lay with him. He did not know when she lay down, nor when she got up.

³⁶Thus both of Lot's daughters were with child by their father.

³⁷The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day.

³⁸The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.

¹Abraham traveled from there toward the land of the Negev, and lived between Kadesh and Shur. He lived as a foreigner in Gerar.

²Abraham said about Sarah his wife, "She is my sister." Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.

³But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, "Behold, you are a dead man, because of the woman whom you have taken. For she is a man's wife."

⁴Now Abimelech had not come near her. He said, "Lord, will you kill even a righteous nation?

⁵Did not he tell me, 'She is my sister?' She, even she herself, said, 'He is my brother.' In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands have I done this."

⁶God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also withheld you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not allow you to touch her.

⁷Now therefore, restore the man's wife. For he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. If you do not restore her, know for sure that you will die, you, and all who are yours."

⁸Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ear. The men were very scared.

⁹Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said to him, "What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done deeds to me that ought not to be done!"

¹⁰Abimelech said to Abraham, "What did you see, that you have done this thing?"

¹¹Abraham said, "Because I thought, 'Surely the fear of God is not in this place. They will kill me for my wife's sake.'

¹²Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.

¹³It happened, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said to her, 'This is your kindness which you shall show to me. Everywhere that we go, say of me, "He is my brother."'"

¹⁴Abimelech took sheep and cattle, male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and restored Sarah, his wife, to him.

¹⁵Abimelech said, "Behold, my land is before you. Dwell where it pleases you."

¹⁶To Sarah he said, "Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. Behold, it is for you a covering of the eyes to all that are with you. In front of all you are vindicated."

¹⁷Abraham prayed to God. God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his female servants, and they bore children.

¹⁸For the Lord had closed up tight all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

¹The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had spoken.

²Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.

³Abraham called his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac.

⁴Abraham circumcised his son, Isaac, when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.

⁵Abraham was one hundred years old when his son, Isaac, was born to him.

⁶Sarah said, "God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh with me."

⁷She said, "Who would have said to Abraham, that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age."

⁸The child grew, and was weaned. Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

⁹Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking.

¹⁰Therefore she said to Abraham, "Cast out this handmaid and her son! For the son of this handmaid will not be heir with my son, Isaac."

¹¹The thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight on account of his son.

¹²God said to Abraham, "Do not let it be grievous in your sight because of the boy, and because of your handmaid. In all that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice. For from Isaac will your seed be called.

¹³I will also make a nation of the son of the handmaid, because he is your seed."

¹⁴Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread and a bottle of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder; and gave her the child, and sent her away. She departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

¹⁵The water in the bottle was spent, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.

¹⁶She went and sat down opposite him, a good way off, about a bow shot away. For she said, "Do not let me see the death of the child." She sat over against him, and lifted up her voice, and wept.

¹⁷God heard the voice of the boy. The angel of God called to Hagar out of the sky, and said to her, "What ails you, Hagar? Do not be afraid. For God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.

¹⁸Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him in your hand. For I will make him a great nation."

¹⁹God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, filled the bottle with water, and gave the boy drink.

²⁰God was with the boy, and he grew. He lived in the wilderness, and became, as he grew up, an archer.

²¹He lived in the wilderness of Paran. His mother took a wife for him out of the land of Egypt.

²²It happened at that time, that Abimelech and Phicol the captain of his army spoke to Abraham, saying, "God is with you in all that you do.

²³Now, therefore, swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son. But according to the kindness that I have done to you, you shall do to me, and to the land in which you have lived as a foreigner."

²⁴Abraham said, "I will swear."

²⁵Abraham complained to Abimelech because of a water well, which Abimelech's servants had violently taken away.

²⁶Abimelech said, "I do not know who has done this thing. Neither did you tell me, neither did I hear of it, until today."

²⁷Abraham took sheep and cattle, and gave them to Abimelech. Those two made a covenant.

²⁸Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.

²⁹Abimelech said to Abraham, "What do these seven ewe lambs which you have set by themselves mean?"

³⁰He said, "You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, that it may be a witness to me, that I have dug this well."

³¹Therefore he called that place Beersheba, because they both swore there.

³²So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Abimelech rose up with Phicol, the captain of his army, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.

³³Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God.

³⁴Abraham lived as a foreigner in the land of the Philistines many days.

¹"Do not judge, so that you won't be judged.

²For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you.

³And why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not consider the log that is in your own eye?

⁴Or how will you tell your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye;' and behold, the log is in your own eye?

⁵You hypocrite! First remove the log out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye.

⁶"Do not give that which is holy to the dogs, neither throw your pearls before the pigs, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

⁷"Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you.

⁸For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened.

⁹Or who is there among you, who, if his son will ask him for bread, will give him a stone?

¹⁰Or if he will ask for a fish, who will give him a serpent?

¹¹If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

¹²Therefore whatever you desire for men to do to you, you shall also do to them; for this is the Law and the Prophets.

¹³"Enter in by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter in by it.

¹⁴How narrow is the gate, and difficult is the way that leads to life! Few are those who find it.

¹⁵"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.

¹⁶By their fruits you will know them. Do you gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?

¹⁷Even so, every good tree produces good fruit; but the corrupt tree produces evil fruit.

¹⁸A good tree cannot produce evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree produce good fruit.

¹⁹Every tree that does not grow good fruit is cut down, and thrown into the fire.

²⁰Therefore, by their fruits you will know them.

²¹Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

²²Many will tell me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, did not we prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?'

²³And then I will tell them, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.'

²⁴"Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine, and does them, will be compared to a wise man, who built his house on a rock.

²⁵And the rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

²⁶And everyone who hears these words of mine, and does not do them will be like a foolish man, who built his house on the sand.

²⁷And the rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it fell-and great was its fall."

²⁸And it happened, when Jesus had finished saying these things, that the multitudes were astonished at his teaching,

²⁹for he taught them with authority, and not like their scribes.

¹ Lord, my God, I take refuge in you. Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me,

²lest they tear apart my soul like a lion, ripping it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.

³Lord, my God, if I have done this, if there is iniquity in my hands,

⁴if I have rewarded evil to him who was at peace with me (yes, if I have delivered him who without cause was my adversary),

⁵let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it; yes, let him tread my life down to the earth, and lay my glory in the dust. Selah.

⁶Arise, Lord, in your anger. Lift up yourself against the rage of my adversaries. Awake for me. You have commanded judgment.

⁷Let the congregation of the peoples surround you. Rule over them on high.

⁸The Lord administers judgment to the peoples. Judge me, Lord, according to my righteousness, and to my integrity that is in me.

⁹Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; their minds and hearts are searched by the righteous God.

¹⁰My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.

¹¹God is a righteous judge, yes, a God who has indignation every day.

¹²If a man doesn't relent, he will sharpen his sword; he has bent and strung his bow.

¹³He has also prepared for himself the instruments of death. He makes ready his flaming arrows.

¹⁴Behold, he travails with iniquity. Yes, he has conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.

¹⁵He has dug a hole, and has fallen into the pit which he made.

¹⁶The trouble he causes shall return to his own head. His violence shall come down on the crown of his own head.

¹⁷I will give thanks to the Lord according to his righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.

¹My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments within you.

²Keep my commandments and live! Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye.

³Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Tell wisdom, "You are my sister." Call understanding your relative,

⁵that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words.

⁶For at the window of my house, I looked out through my lattice.

⁷I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding,

⁸passing through the street near her corner, he went the way to her house,

⁹in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night and in the darkness.

¹⁰Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, and with crafty intent.

¹¹She is loud and defiant. Her feet do not stay in her house.

¹²Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, and lurking at every corner.

¹³So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him:

¹⁴"Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me. This day I have paid my vows.

¹⁵Therefore I came out to meet you, to diligently seek your face, and I have found you.

¹⁶I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.

¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let's take our fill of loving until the morning. Let's solace ourselves with loving.

¹⁹For my husband isn't at home. He has gone on a long journey.

²⁰He has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon."

²¹With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.

²²He followed her immediately, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a fool stepping into a noose.

²³Until an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hurries to the snare, and doesn't know that it will cost his life.

²⁴Now therefore, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words of my mouth.

²⁵Do not let your heart turn to her ways. Do not go astray in her paths,

²⁶for she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a mighty army.

²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.