See, I have two unmarried daughters; let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you desire; only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shadow of my roof.' But they replied, 'Stand back.' And they added, "This one came in as a foreigner to live here, but now he would set himself up as a judge! We will treat you worse than them.' And they pressed hard against Lot and advanced to break the door. But the men reached out and drew Lot to them into the house and shut the door. Then they smote the men who were at the door of the house, both small and great, with blindness, so that they grew tired of searching for the door.

Then the men said to Lot, 'Have you any one else here? Bring your sons-in-law, your sons and daughters, and whoever you have in the city out of this place, for we are about to destroy it, because great complaint concerning them has come to Jehovah and he has sent us to destroy it.' So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, 'Up, get out of this place, for Jehovah will destroy the city.' But his sons-in-law thought he was jesting.

When the dawn appeared, the angels urged Lot, saying, 'Get up, take your wife and your two daughters that you may not be swept away in the punishment of the city.' When he hesitated, the men took him by the hand and led him and his wife and his two daughters outside the city, for Jehovah was merciful to him.

When they had brought them outside, they said, 'Fly for your life; do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the heights, that you may not be swept away!' But Lot said to them, 'Oh, sirs, not so! See, your servant has found favor with you, and you have shown great mercy to me in

saving my life. I cannot escape to the heights, lest some calamity overtake me, and I die. See now, this village is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Oh, let me escape there (is it not small?), and my life will be saved.' Jehovah said to him, 'I have also granted you this favor, in that I will not overthrow the village of which you have spoken. Make haste, escape to it, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.' Therefore the village was called Zoar [Little].

Then

The sun had risen when Lot came to Zoar. Jehovah caused brimstone and fire from heaven to rain upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and he destroyed those cities and all the plain, with all their inhabitants and all the vegetation. But Lot's wife, who was following him, looked back; and she became a pillar of salt.

Early in the morning Abraham rose and went to the place where he had stood before Jehovah; and he looked toward. Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the plain; and as he looked, the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a smelting-furnace.

Then Lot went up from Zoar with his two daughters and lived in a cave on the heights, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. His oldest daughter bore a son, and named him Moab. He is the father of the present Moabites. The younger also bore a son and named him Ben-ammi. That one is the father of the present Ammonites.

11. JEHOVAH'S SYMPATHY FOR OUTCASTS

Jehovah remembered what he had told Sarah, and he did to her as he had promised. So Sarah bore a son to Abraham in his old age at the fixed time of which God had told him. And Abraham named him Isaac [Laughter]. And Sarah said, 'God has made

laughter for me; every one who hears will laugh with me.'

When the child grew up, Abraham made a great feast on the day that he was weaned. But Sarah saw the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. Therefore she said to Abraham, 'Drive out this slave girl and her son, for the son of this slave girl shall not be heir with my son Isaac.' This request was exceedingly displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. But Jehovah said to Abraham, 'Do not be displeased because of the lad and because of your slave girl. Listen to all that Sarah says to you, for only through the line of Isaac shall your name be perpetuated. But I will also cause the son of the slave girl to become a great nation, because he is your son.'

Then Abraham got up early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, and he put the boy upon her shoulder and sent her away. So she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she left the child under one of the desert shrubs and went a short distance away and sat down opposite him, for she said, 'Let me not see the death of the child.' So she sat there while the boy began to cry.

Then Jehovah heard the cry of the boy, and the angel of Jehovah called to Hagar from heaven and said, 'What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for Jehovah has heard the cry of the boy even there where he lies. Rise, lift him up, and hold him fast by the hand, for I will make him a great nation.' And Jehovah opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. Then she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

Ishmael

And Jehovah was with the boy, and he grew up, and lived in the wilderness of Paran, and became a bowman. And his mother secured a wife for him from Egypt.

12. ABRAHAM'S LOYALTY TO HIS DIVINE FRIEND

After these events Jehovah tested Abraham, saying to him, 'Abraham'; and he said, 'Here am I.' And he said, 'Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt-offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.'

So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his ass, and took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had split the wood for the burnt-offering, he set out for the place of which God had told him. On the third day, when Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance, he said to his servants, 'Stay here with the ass, while I and the lad go over there; and when we have worshipped, we will come back to you.'

Then Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took in his hand the fire and the knife, and they both went on together. And Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, 'My father!' and he replied, 'Yes, my son.' And he said, 'Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?' And Abraham answered, 'My son, God will himself provide a lamb for a burntoffering.' So the two went on together. When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand, and took the knife to kill his son.

But the angel of Jehovah called to him from heaven, 'Abraham, Abraham!' and he said, 'Here am I.' And he said, 'Do not put your hand upon the lad, nor do anything to him, because now I know that you revere God, for you have not held back your son, your only son, from me.'

Then Abraham looked up, and there he saw a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. So Abraham took the ram and offered him up as a burnt-offering instead of his son; and he named the place 'Jehovah will Provide,' so that we now have the saying: 'In the mountain of Jehovah provision will be made.'

The angel of Jehovah called to Abraham again from heaven and said, 'Jehováh declares, "By myself I swear: Because you have done this thing and have not kept back your son, your only son, I will surely bless you; and I will make your descendants as many as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the sea shore, so that they shall take possession of the gates of their enemies, and all the nations of the earth shall ask for themselves a blessing like theirs, because you have obeyed my command."

So Abraham returned to his servants, and they set out for Beersheba; and he made his home in Beersheba.

13. THE MISSION OF ABRAHAM'S DEVOTED SERVANT

When Abraham was very old and Jehovah had blessed him in every way, Abraham said to the eldest of his household servants, who had charge of all his affairs, 'Put your hand under my thigh, while I make you swear by Jehovah, the God of heaven and earth, that you will not let my son marry one of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live, but that you