Genesis 19

¹Then the Lord appeared to Abraham by the Oaks of Mamre in the heat of the day, while he was sitting at the entrance of his tent.

²And Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.

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

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

³²but no stranger had to lodge on the street, for my door has been open to the traveler—

⁴Let a little water be brought, that you may wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree.

²⁸As they approached the village where they were headed, He seemed to be going farther.

²⁹But they pleaded with Him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So He went in to stay with them.

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

¹⁵And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

¹⁷When he looked up and saw the traveler in the city square, the old man asked, “Where are you going, and where have you come from?”

¹⁸The Levite replied, “We are traveling from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote hill country of Ephraim, where I am from. I went to Bethlehem in Judah, and now I am going to the house of the Lord; but no one has taken me into his home,

⁶So Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick! Prepare three seahs of fine flour, knead it, and bake some bread.”

⁷Meanwhile, Abraham ran to the herd, selected a tender and choice calf, and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it.

¹⁹So Gideon went in and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread and an ephah of flour. He placed the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot and brought them out to present to Him under the oak.

²⁴The woman had a fattened calf at her house, and she quickly slaughtered it. She also took flour, kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread.

⁸Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old bread, leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and of truth.

³⁹Since their dough had no leaven, the people baked what they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened loaves. For when they had been driven out of Egypt, they could not delay and had not prepared any provisions for themselves.

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

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

¹⁶For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; they are deprived of slumber until they make someone fall.

²⁰Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great. Because their sin is so grievous,

²You shall not follow the crowd in wrongdoing. When you testify in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd.

³¹The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end?

²And there in the desert the whole congregation of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron.

²²While they were enjoying themselves, suddenly the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they said to the old man who owned the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house, so we can have relations with him!”

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.

⁷In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire.

²²You must not lie with a man as with a woman; that is an abomination.

²⁶For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.

²⁷Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women and burned with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

¹⁰for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave traders and liars and perjurers, and for anyone else who is averse to sound teaching

²³The owner of the house went out and said to them, “No, my brothers, do not do this wicked thing! After all, this man is a guest in my house. Do not commit this outrage.

¹³If a man lies with a man as with a woman, they have both committed an abomination. They must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

²⁴Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another.

⁹Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,

¹⁰nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

¹⁷No daughter or son of Israel is to be a shrine prostitute.

⁷In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire.

²³The owner of the house went out and said to them, “No, my brothers, do not do this wicked thing! After all, this man is a guest in my house. Do not commit this outrage.

²⁴Look, let me bring out my virgin daughter and the man’s concubine, and you can use them and do with them as you wish. But do not do such a vile thing to this man.”

³¹One 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.

³²Come, let us get our father drunk with wine so we can sleep with him and preserve his line.”

⁶For they were all so terrified that Peter did not know what else to say.

⁸Why not say, as some slanderously claim that we say, “Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is deserved!

¹⁵But the thornbush replied, ‘If you really are anointing me as king over you, come and find refuge in my shade. But if not, may fire come out of the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon.’

⁷Isn’t it to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your home, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

¹⁴But the man replied, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “This thing I have done has surely become known.”

¹²Abram lived in the land of Canaan, but Lot settled in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent toward Sodom.

⁷and if He rescued Lot, a righteous man distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless

⁸(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—

¹⁹At this, Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders to heat the furnace seven times hotter than usual,

²⁰and he commanded some mighty men of valor in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the blazing fiery furnace.

³This is an evil in everything that is done under the sun: There is one fate for everyone. Furthermore, the hearts of men are full of evil and madness while they are alive, and afterward they join the dead.

²⁶The next day he came upon two Israelites who were fighting, and he tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you mistreating each other?’

²⁷But the man who was abusing his neighbor pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us?

¹⁸As the Arameans came down against him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Please strike these people with blindness.” So He struck them with blindness, according to the word of Elisha.

¹¹Now look, the hand of the Lord is against you, and for a time you will be blind and unable to see the light of the sun.” Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand.

³⁶How impulsive you are, constantly changing your ways! You will be disappointed by Egypt just as you were by Assyria.

²⁸The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind,

²⁹and at noon you will grope about like a blind man in the darkness. You will not prosper in your ways. Day after day you will be oppressed and plundered, with no one to save you.

¹⁰You are wearied by your many journeys, but you did not say, “There is no hope!” You found renewal of your strength; therefore you did not grow weak.

¹⁵The toil of a fool wearies him, for he does not know the way to the city.

¹Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.

⁷and if He rescued Lot, a righteous man distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless

⁴Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, My people, so that you will not share in her sins or contract any of her plagues.

⁹if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

²⁶And he warned the congregation, “Move away now from the tents of these wicked men. Do not touch anything that belongs to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins.”

²²Meanwhile, Joshua told the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the house of the prostitute and bring out the woman and all who are with her, just as you promised her.”

²³So the young spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother and brothers, and all who belonged to her. They brought out her whole family and settled them outside the camp of Israel.

²⁰Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great. Because their sin is so grievous,

⁴⁹So will it be at the end of the age: The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous

⁵⁰and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

⁷In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire.

¹Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go, pour out on the earth the seven bowls of God’s wrath.”

²So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and loathsome, malignant sores broke out on those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.

²³Immediately, because Herod did not give glory to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

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.

²¹“Separate yourselves from this congregation so that I may consume them in an instant.”

²⁶And he warned the congregation, “Move away now from the tents of these wicked men. Do not touch anything that belongs to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins.”

⁶Flee from Babylon! Escape with your lives! Do not be destroyed in her punishment. For this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance; He will pay her what she deserves.

⁴⁵“Get away from this congregation so that I may consume them in an instant.” And Moses and Aaron fell facedown.

⁴Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, My people, so that you will not share in her sins or contract any of her plagues.

⁵For her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.

¹⁰And the couriers traveled from city to city through the land of Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun, but the people scorned and mocked them.

²⁴“Tell the congregation to move away from the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.”

²⁵So Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him.

²⁴“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able.

²⁵After the master of the house gets up and shuts the door, you will stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ But he will reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’

⁴Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, My people, so that you will not share in her sins or contract any of her plagues.

⁴Allow no sleep to your eyes or slumber to your eyelids.

⁵Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

²²Hurry! Run there quickly, for I cannot do anything until you reach it.” That is why the town was called Zoar.

²For He says: “In the time of favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is the time of favor; now is the day of salvation!

¹⁵For He says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

¹⁶So then, it does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.

⁵He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

¹³As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.

⁴He has caused His wonders to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and compassionate.

⁶Then the Lord passed in front of Moses and called out: “The Lord, the Lord God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness,

⁵For You, O Lord, are kind and forgiving, rich in loving devotion to all who call on You.

¹⁶then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

¹⁷Let no one on the housetop come down to retrieve anything from his house.

⁶²Then Jesus declared, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and then looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

¹³Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,

¹⁴I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.

²⁶But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

²²Hurry! Run there quickly, for I cannot do anything until you reach it.” That is why the town was called Zoar.

⁷But when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his place of baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

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

¹¹Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: “Concerning things to come, do you question Me about My sons, or instruct Me in the work of My hands?

¹³But Ananias answered, “Lord, many people have told me about this man and all the harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem.

¹⁴“No, Lord!” Peter answered. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”

¹¹But Naaman went away angry, saying, “I thought that he would surely come out, stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the spot to cure my leprosy.

¹²Are not the Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not have washed in them and been cleansed?” So he turned and went away in a rage.

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

⁷Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

⁹And others will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—because of this, the Lord has brought all this disaster upon them.’”

²⁵The disciples went and woke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”

²⁶“You of little faith,” Jesus replied, “why are you so afraid?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it was perfectly calm.

¹I love the Lord, for He has heard my voice—my appeal for mercy.

²Because He has inclined His ear to me, I will call on Him as long as I live.

¹Hallelujah! Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.

²Who can describe the mighty acts of the Lord or fully proclaim His praise?

¹⁷On that day My anger will burn against them, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, so that they will be consumed, and many troubles and afflictions will befall them. On that day they will say, ‘Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is no longer with us?’

¹³Please say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake, and on account of you my life will be spared.”

¹⁷⁵Let me live to praise You; may Your judgments sustain me.

⁵Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;

⁶in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

³Incline your ear and come to Me; listen, so that your soul may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant—My loving devotion promised to David.

³⁰Lot 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.

¹³Please say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake, and on account of you my life will be spared.”

⁶If a ram’s horn sounds in a city, do the people not tremble? If calamity comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it?

¹⁹He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them.

¹⁷He will turn toward the prayer of the destitute; He will not despise their prayer.

⁸So now, take seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. Then My servant Job will pray for you, for I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken accurately about Me, as My servant Job has.”

⁹So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord had told them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.

¹⁵The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are inclined to their cry.

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.

²⁴What if there are fifty righteous ones in the city? Will You really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous ones who are there?

¹⁰And Lot looked out and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan, all the way to Zoar, was well watered like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)

²went to war against Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar).

¹⁰Now leave Me alone, so that My anger may burn against them and consume them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

²⁵When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he struck the socket of Jacob’s hip and dislocated it as they wrestled.

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

¹⁴Leave Me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. Then I will make you into a nation mightier and greater than they are.”

⁵So He could not perform any miracles there, except to lay His hands on a few of the sick and heal them.

²³All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His fierce anger.

¹⁹And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.

⁷In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire.

¹¹“Some of you I overthrew as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the Lord.

⁶if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes as an example of what is coming on the ungodly;

⁴⁰As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah along with their neighbors,” declares the Lord, “no one will dwell there; no man will abide there.

³⁴and fruitful land into fields of salt, because of the wickedness of its dwellers.

³The latter five came as allies to the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea).

¹⁰And Lot looked out and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan, all the way to Zoar, was well watered like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)

³¹On that day, let no one on the housetop come down to retrieve his possessions. Likewise, let no one in the field return for anything he has left behind.

³²Remember Lot’s wife!

¹⁷As 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!”

³⁸But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, I will take no pleasure in him.”

¹⁴The backslider in heart receives the fill of his own ways, but a good man is rewarded for his ways.

³⁸As for the censers of those who sinned at the cost of their own lives, hammer them into sheets to overlay the altar, for these were presented before the Lord, and so have become holy. They will serve as a sign to the Israelites.”

¹I will stand at my guard post and station myself on the ramparts. I will watch to see what He will say to me, and how I should answer when corrected.

³In the morning, O Lord, You hear my voice; at daybreak I lay my plea before You and wait in expectation.

¹We must pay closer attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

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

²³Abraham stepped forward and said, “Will You really sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

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.

⁹Then the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her.

²The star opened the pit of the Abyss, and smoke rose out of it like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the pit.

⁷In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire.

⁸But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”

¹⁸and cry out at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her. “What city was ever like this great city?” they will exclaim.

⁷and if He rescued Lot, a righteous man distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless

¹But God remembered Noah and all the animals and livestock that were with him in the ark. And God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters began to subside.

⁵It is not because of your righteousness or uprightness of heart that you are going in to possess their land, but it is because of their wickedness that the Lord your God is driving out these nations before you, to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

⁷Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my rebellious acts; remember me according to Your loving devotion, because of Your goodness, O Lord.

²³Abraham stepped forward and said, “Will You really sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

²⁴What if there are fifty righteous ones in the city? Will You really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous ones who are there?

⁸How could I give you up, O Ephraim? How could I surrender you, O Israel? How could I make you like Admah? How could I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within Me; My compassion is stirred!

⁴Remember me, O Lord, in Your favor to Your people; visit me with Your salvation,

¹⁹Your 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.

¹⁷As 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!”

²²But Abram replied to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the Lord God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth,

⁸He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

³the Negev, and the region from the Valley of Jericho (the City of Palms) all the way to Zoar.

³⁴There is a cry from Heshbon to Elealeh; they raise their voices to Jahaz, from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah; for even the waters of Nimrim have dried up.

⁵When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother is to take her as his wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law for her.

¹In that day seven women will take hold of one man and say, “We will eat our own bread and provide our own clothes. Just let us be called by your name. Take away our disgrace!”

⁴The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and afterward as well—when the sons of God had relations with the daughters of men. And they bore them children who became the mighty men of old, men of renown.

¹And Adam had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man,” she said.

²So Sarai said to Abram, “Look now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Please go to my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

⁴And he slept with Hagar, and she conceived. But when Hagar realized that she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.

⁶None of you are to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the Lord.

⁷You must not expose the nakedness of your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; you must not have sexual relations with her.

³And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” So they used brick instead of stone, and tar instead of mortar.

¹⁹“Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man is to marry his brother’s widow and raise up offspring for him.

²¹But when he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent.

³¹Do not gaze at wine while it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.

³²In the end it bites like a snake and stings like a viper.

¹⁵Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin until they are drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness!

¹⁶You will be filled with shame instead of glory. You too must drink and expose your uncircumcision! The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and utter disgrace will cover your glory.

¹⁵Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin until they are drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness!

¹⁶You will be filled with shame instead of glory. You too must drink and expose your uncircumcision! The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and utter disgrace will cover your glory.

⁶None of you are to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the Lord.

⁷You must not expose the nakedness of your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; you must not have sexual relations with her.

¹Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by them is not wise.

²⁹Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has needless wounds? Who has bloodshot eyes?

³⁰Those who linger over wine, who go to taste mixed drinks.

³Therefore the showers have been withheld, and no spring rains have fallen. Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to be ashamed.

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.

¹⁵Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse,” says the Lord.

³O Lord, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.

¹²Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse, says the Lord.

¹¹Now these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

¹²So the one who thinks he is standing firm should be careful not to fall.

²⁶And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is ensnared.

⁷The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear-minded and sober, so that you can pray.

³⁴But watch yourselves, or your hearts will be weighed down by dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries of life—and that day will spring upon you suddenly like a snare.

⁴what is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You care for him?

¹⁶For though a righteous man may fall seven times, he still gets up; but the wicked stumble in bad times.

¹⁵Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin until they are drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness!

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.”

³³But Samuel declared: “As your sword has made women childless, so your mother will be childless among women.” And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord at Gilgal.

⁶None of you are to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the Lord.

⁷You must not expose the nakedness of your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; you must not have sexual relations with her.

⁷Then Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have gathered the scraps under my table. As I have done to them, so God has repaid me.” And they brought him to Jerusalem, where he died.

²For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

⁹Then the Lord said to me, “Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, because I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as their possession.”

¹Then the Israelites traveled on and camped in the plains of Moab near the Jordan, across from Jericho.

²Now Balak son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites,

¹These are the nations that the Lord left to test all the Israelites who had not known any of the wars in Canaan,

²if only to teach warfare to the subsequent generations of Israel, especially to those who had not known it formerly:

³No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation.

¹⁰Moreover, I have acquired Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, to raise up the name of the deceased through his inheritance, so that his name will not disappear from among his brothers or from the gate of his home. You are witnesses today.”

¹Some time later, David defeated the Philistines, subdued them, and took Metheg-ammah from the hand of the Philistines.

²David also defeated the Moabites, made them lie down on the ground, and measured them off with a cord. He measured off with two lengths those to be put to death, and with one length those to be spared. So the Moabites became subject to David and brought him tribute.

¹⁹But when you get close to the Ammonites, do not harass them or provoke them, for I will not give you any of the land of the Ammonites. I have given it to the descendants of Lot as their possession.”

¹Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and laid siege to Jabesh-gilead. All the men of Jabesh said to him, “Make a treaty with us, and we will serve you.”

²But Nahash the Ammonite replied, “I will make a treaty with you on one condition, that I may put out everyone’s right eye and bring reproach upon all Israel.”

⁶And again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord. They served the Baals, the Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, Sidon, and Moab, and the gods of the Ammonites and Philistines. Thus they forsook the Lord and did not serve Him.

¹⁴They will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines to the west; together they will plunder the sons of the east. They will lay their hands on Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be subject to them.

⁹Therefore, as surely as I live,” declares the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, “surely Moab will be like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah—a place of weeds and salt pits, a perpetual wasteland. The remnant of My people will plunder them; the remainder of My nation will dispossess them.”

⁹Then the Lord said to me, “Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, because I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as their possession.”