Genesis 18

¹³Then an escapee came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew. Now Abram was living near the Oaks of Mamre the Amorite, a brother of Eshcol and Aner, all of whom were bound by treaty to Abram.

¹⁸So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the Oaks of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the Lord.

³Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there He blessed me

²And Stephen declared: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

²The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Settle in the land where I tell you.

²²When He had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.

²Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.

²²And the two men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.

¹Now the two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them, bowed facedown,

³The angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “It is true that you are barren and have no children; but you will conceive and give birth to a son.

⁷Then Abraham rose and bowed down before the people of the land, the Hittites.

¹⁴When Judah and his brothers arrived at Joseph’s house, he was still there, and they fell to the ground before him.

²⁴And the steward took the men into Joseph’s house, gave them water to wash their feet, and provided food for their donkeys.

³²So the man came to the house, and the camels were unloaded. Straw and feed were brought to the camels, and water to wash his feet and the feet of his companions.

²and said, “My lords, please turn aside into the house of your servant; wash your feet and spend the night. Then you can rise early and go on your way.” “No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”

⁴⁴And turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give Me water for My feet, but she wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.

⁴¹She arose, bowed facedown, and said, “Here is your servant, ready to serve and to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.”

⁵After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel that was around Him.

⁶He came to Simon Peter, who asked Him, “Lord, are You going to wash my feet?”

¹⁵wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil that makes his face to shine, and bread that sustains his heart.

¹⁸Please do not depart from this place until I return to You. Let me bring my offering and set it before You.” And the Lord said, “I will stay until you return.”

¹⁵“Please stay here,” Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “and we will prepare a young goat for you.”

¹¹Give us this day our daily bread.

⁵On the fourth day, they got up early in the morning and prepared to depart, but the girl’s father said to his son-in-law, “Refresh your heart with a morsel of bread, and then you can go.”

⁸Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them to you, and you can do to them as you please. But do not do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”

³³He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and mixed into three measures of flour, until all of it was leavened.”

¹³For you, brothers, were called to freedom; but do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Rather, serve one another in love.

¹³Share with the saints who are in need. Practice hospitality.

²Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.

³⁸As they traveled along, Jesus entered a village where a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home.

³⁹She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to His message.

⁹Show hospitality to one another without complaining.

¹⁵“Please stay here,” Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “and we will prepare a young goat for you.”

¹⁶And the angel of the Lord replied, “Even if I stay, I will not eat your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the Lord.” For Manoah did not know that it was the angel of the Lord.

⁴Again, he sent other servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

²⁷‘Your brother has returned,’ he said, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has him back safe and sound.’

⁴You lie on beds inlaid with ivory, and lounge upon your couches. You dine on lambs from the flock and calves from the stall.

³⁰But when this son of yours returns from squandering your wealth with prostitutes, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

¹⁴“But cursed is the deceiver who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but sacrifices a defective animal to the Lord. For I am a great King,” says the Lord of Hosts, “and My name is to be feared among the nations.

³But Lot insisted so strongly that they followed him into his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

⁴¹not by all the people, but by the witnesses God had chosen beforehand, by us who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.

¹⁵“Please stay here,” Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “and we will prepare a young goat for you.”

²So they hosted a dinner for Jesus there. Martha served, and Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with Him.

²⁰Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me.

⁴³and He took it and ate it in front of them.

⁵to be self-controlled, pure, managers of their households, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be discredited.

⁶⁷And Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah and took Rebekah as his wife. And Isaac loved her and was comforted after his mother’s death.

⁹And the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I do not know!” he answered. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

³³So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, then Leah’s tent, and then the tents of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent.

²So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised.

²¹But I will establish My covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this time next year.”

⁸So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring.

⁹For this is what the promise stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁹But God replied, “Your wife Sarah will indeed bear you a son, and you are to name him Isaac. I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.

¹⁶And Elisha declared, “At this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms.” “No, my lord,” she said. “Do not lie to your maidservant, O man of God.”

¹⁷But the woman did conceive, and at that time the next year she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.

¹⁶And I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will descend from her.”

¹⁷Abraham fell facedown. Then he laughed and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at the age of ninety?”

¹¹By faith Sarah, even though she was barren and beyond the proper age, was enabled to conceive a child, because she considered Him faithful who had promised.

¹²And so from one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

³⁶Look, even Elizabeth your relative has conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called barren is in her sixth month.

¹⁸Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”

¹⁹Without weakening in his faith, he acknowledged the decrepitness of his body (since he was about a hundred years old) and the lifelessness of Sarah’s womb.

¹⁹When a woman has a discharge consisting of blood from her body, she will be unclean due to her menstruation for seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening.

¹⁹Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and in a sense, he did receive Isaac back from death.

⁶just as Sarah obeyed Abraham and called him lord. And you are her children if you do what is right and refuse to give way to fear.

¹⁷Abraham fell facedown. Then he laughed and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at the age of ninety?”

¹⁸“How can I be sure of this?” Zechariah asked the angel. “I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years.”

¹⁹“I am Gabriel,” replied the angel. “I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.

⁶Then Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears of this will laugh with me.”

⁷She added, “Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

³⁴“How can this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

³⁵The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God.

¹³And the Lord asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Can I really bear a child when I am old?’

²⁵He did not need any testimony about man, for He knew what was in a man.

³⁷For no word from God will ever fail.”

²⁶Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

²⁷Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

²⁷“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too difficult for Me?

²⁰Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us,

²“I know that You can do all things and that no plan of Yours can be thwarted.

¹³He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.

⁸If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

²³to be renewed in the spirit of your minds;

²¹would not God have discovered, since He knows the secrets of the heart?

²⁵Simon Peter was still standing and warming himself. So they asked him, “Aren’t you also one of His disciples?” He denied it and said, “I am not.”

²⁶One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Didn’t I see you with Him in the garden?”

¹⁰“You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept from God only good and not adversity?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

⁵But when our time there had ended, we set out on our journey. All the disciples, with their wives and children, accompanied us out of the city and knelt down on the beach to pray with us.

³Sent on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, recounting the conversion of the Gentiles and bringing great joy to all the brothers.

³⁸They were especially grieved by his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.

⁶They have testified to the church about your love. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.

²⁴I hope to see you on my way to Spain. And after I have enjoyed your company for a while, you can equip me for my journey.

⁷Surely the Lord God does nothing without revealing His plan to His servants the prophets.

¹⁴The Lord confides in those who fear Him, and reveals His covenant to them.

¹⁵No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you.

²⁴Then the Lord rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens.

²³And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called a friend of God.

⁷Our God, did You not drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham Your friend?

⁸The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and foretold the gospel to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”

⁴I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed,

¹⁴He redeemed us in order that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

²I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

³I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”

¹⁷I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies.

¹⁸And through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.

⁴An overseer must manage his own household well and keep his children under control, with complete dignity.

⁵For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how can he care for the church of God?

⁶These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts.

⁷And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

⁹Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen, and so that they do not slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and grandchildren.

¹⁰The day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, “Gather the people before Me to hear My words, so that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach them to their children.”

⁴Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath; instead, bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

¹⁵From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

²⁰My son, keep your father’s commandment, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

²¹Bind them always upon your heart; tie them around your neck.

¹³because 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.”

⁴⁹Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and complacent; they did not help the poor and needy.

⁵⁰Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them, as you have seen.

⁹The expression on their faces testifies against them, and like Sodom they flaunt their sin; they do not conceal it. Woe to them, for they have brought disaster upon themselves.

¹³But the men of Sodom were wicked, sinning greatly against the Lord.

¹⁰“What have you done?” replied the Lord. “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.

⁴Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

⁸I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

⁵Then the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building.

²²“The Lord, the Mighty One, is God! The Lord, the Mighty One, is God! He knows, and may Israel also know. If this was in rebellion or breach of faith against the Lord, do not spare us today.

¹²And at that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men settled in complacency, who say to themselves, ‘The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad.’

²Remember that these forty years the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments.

³you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. For the Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

¹Now the two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them, bowed facedown,

¹First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be offered for everyone—

⁵⁵But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

³⁰I searched for a man among them to repair the wall and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, so that I should not destroy it. But I found no one.

²⁰Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for me. Remember how I stood before You to speak good on their behalf, to turn Your wrath from them.

²³So He said He would destroy them—had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach to divert His wrath from destroying them.

²²But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, when one man sins, will You be angry with the whole congregation?”

¹⁷When David saw the angel striking down the people, he said to the Lord, “Surely I, the shepherd, have sinned and acted wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please, let Your hand fall upon me and my father’s house.”

⁴Now Abimelech had not gone near her, so he replied, “Lord, would You destroy a nation even though it is innocent?

²⁵Far be it from You to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Will not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?”

⁴The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord is on His heavenly throne. His eyes are watching closely; they examine the sons of men.

⁵The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked; His soul hates the lover of violence.

¹⁷Could one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn the just and mighty One,

¹“Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem. Look now and take note; search her squares. If you can find a single person, anyone who acts justly, anyone who seeks the truth, then I will forgive the city.

⁹Unless the Lord of Hosts had left us a few survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah.

¹³Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.

¹⁴But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it.

³²Finally, 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.”

²⁴and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And look, God has granted you the lives of all who sail with you.’

²⁰Behold, God does not reject the blameless, nor will He strengthen the hand of evildoers.

³Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?

¹⁰Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their labor.

¹¹Woe to the wicked; disaster is upon them! For they will be repaid with what their hands have done.

¹¹Then men will say, “There is surely a reward for the righteous! There is surely a God who judges the earth!”

⁴He is the Rock, His work is perfect; all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness without injustice, righteous and upright is He.

⁵But if our unrighteousness highlights the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust to inflict His wrath on us? I am speaking in human terms.

⁶Certainly not! In that case, how could God judge the world?

¹“Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem. Look now and take note; search her squares. If you can find a single person, anyone who acts justly, anyone who seeks the truth, then I will forgive the city.

²²If those days had not been cut short, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.

⁸This is what the Lord says: “As the new wine is found in a cluster of grapes, and men say, ‘Do not destroy it, for it contains a blessing,’ so I will act on behalf of My servants; I will not destroy them all.

³⁰I searched for a man among them to repair the wall and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, so that I should not destroy it. But I found no one.

²²Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overflowing with righteousness.

¹³And though a tenth remains in the land, it will be burned again. As the terebinth and oak leave stumps when felled, so the holy seed will be a stump in the land.”

⁵Then I said: “Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.”

¹⁹By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground—because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

⁸When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees. “Go away from me, Lord,” he said, “for I am a sinful man.”

⁸But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.

¹⁹He throws me into the mud, and I have become like dust and ashes.

⁴⁷The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven.

⁴⁸As was the earthly man, so also are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven.

²⁶So the Lord replied, “If I find fifty righteous ones within the city of Sodom, on their account I will spare the whole place.”

³If only I knew where to find Him, so that I could go to His seat.

⁴I would plead my case before Him and fill my mouth with arguments.

¹⁷So now I pray, may the power of my Lord be magnified, just as You have declared:

¹⁸‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion, forgiving iniquity and transgression. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generation.’

²⁹Once again Abraham spoke to the Lord, “Suppose forty are found there?” He answered, “On account of the forty, I will not do it.”

³²So with sackcloth around their waists and ropes around their heads, they went to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-hadad says, ‘Please spare my life.’” And the king answered, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.”

³³Now the men were looking for a sign of hope, and they quickly grasped at this word and replied, “Yes, your brother Ben-hadad.” “Go and get him!” said the king. Then Ben-hadad came out, and Ahab had him come up into his chariot.

¹⁸Pray in the Spirit at all times, with every kind of prayer and petition. To this end, stay alert with all perseverance in your prayers for all the saints.

¹⁶Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

¹⁷You have heard, O Lord, the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their hearts. You will incline Your ear,

⁴“Behold, I am insignificant. How can I reply to You? I place my hand over my mouth.

⁸“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.

⁹“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.

²⁸Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be filled with gratitude, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.

²⁹“For our God is a consuming fire.”

⁷In the council of the holy ones, God is greatly feared, and awesome above all who surround Him.

¹²For the Avenger of bloodshed remembers; He does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.

⁸I tell you, even though he will not get up to provide for him because of his friendship, yet because of the man’s persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

⁷Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.

²⁰by the new and living way opened for us through the curtain of His body,

²¹and since we have a great priest over the house of God,

¹⁶Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

¹Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray at all times and not lose heart:

¹⁸Pray in the Spirit at all times, with every kind of prayer and petition. To this end, stay alert with all perseverance in your prayers for all the saints.

¹⁵And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. The Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.

¹⁶Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail.

³⁹Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me; let me speak one more time. Please allow me one more test with the fleece. This time let it be dry, and the ground covered with dew.”

⁷Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.

¹⁵And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we already possess what we have asked of Him.

¹⁶If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he should ask God, who will give life to those who commit this kind of sin. There is a sin that leads to death; I am not saying he should ask regarding that sin.

²⁰Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us,

¹⁸Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?

²⁶Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

²²And the two men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.

¹⁶When the men got up to leave, they looked out over Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them off.

⁵⁵Early the next morning, Laban got up and kissed his grandchildren and daughters and blessed them. Then he left to return home.