15:12 When the sun went down, Abram fell sound asleep, 1 and great terror overwhelmed him. 2 15:13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain 3 that your descendants will be strangers 4 in a foreign country. 5 They will be enslaved and oppressed 6 for four hundred years. 15:14 But I will execute judgment on the nation that they will serve. 7 Afterward they will come out with many possessions. 15:15 But as for you, 8 you will go to your ancestors 9 in peace and be buried at a good old age. 10 15:16 In the fourth generation 11 your descendants 12 will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit.” 13
Abraham Pleads for Sodom
18:16 When the men got up to leave, 1 they looked out over 2 Sodom. (Now 3 Abraham was walking with them to see them on their way.) 4 18:17 Then the Lord said, “Should I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? 5 18:18 After all, Abraham 6 will surely become 7 a great and powerful nation, and all the nations on the earth will pronounce blessings on one another 8 using his name. 18:19 I have chosen him 9 so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep 10 the way of the Lord by doing 11 what is right and just. Then the Lord will give 12 to Abraham what he promised 13 him.”
18:20 So the Lord said, “The outcry against 14 Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so blatant 15 18:21 that I must go down 16 and see if they are as wicked as the outcry suggests. 17 If not, 18 I want to know.”
18:22 The two men turned 19 and headed 20 toward Sodom, but Abraham was still standing before the Lord. 21 18:23 Abraham approached and said, “Will you sweep away the godly along with the wicked? 18:24 What if there are fifty godly people in the city? Will you really wipe it out and not spare 22 the place for the sake of the fifty godly people who are in it? 18:25 Far be it from you to do such a thing – to kill the godly with the wicked, treating the godly and the wicked alike! Far be it from you! Will not the judge 23 of the whole earth do what is right?” 24
18:26 So the Lord replied, “If I find in the city of Sodom fifty godly people, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
18:27 Then Abraham asked, “Since I have undertaken to speak to the Lord 25 (although I am but dust and ashes), 26 18:28 what if there are five less than the fifty godly people? Will you destroy 27 the whole city because five are lacking?” 28 He replied, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”
18:29 Abraham 29 spoke to him again, 30 “What if forty are found there?” He replied, “I will not do it for the sake of the forty.”
18:30 Then Abraham 31 said, “May the Lord not be angry 32 so that I may speak! 33 What if thirty are found there?” He replied, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
18:31 Abraham 34 said, “Since I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty.”
18:32 Finally Abraham 35 said, “May the Lord not be angry so that I may speak just once more. What if ten are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.”
18:33 The Lord went on his way 36 when he had finished speaking 37 to Abraham. Then Abraham returned home. 38
