6:1 “Be ¹  careful not to display your righteousness merely to be seen by people. ²  Otherwise you have no reward with your Father in heaven. 6:2 Thus whenever you do charitable giving, ³  do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in synagogues ⁴  and on streets so that people will praise them. I tell you the truth, ⁵  they have their reward. 6:3 But when you do your giving, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 6:4 so that your gift may be in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. ⁶ 

6:5 “Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray while standing in synagogues ⁷  and on street corners so that people can see them. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. 6:6 But whenever you pray, go into your room, ⁸  close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. ⁹  6:7 When ¹⁰  you pray, do not babble repetitiously like the Gentiles, because they think that by their many words they will be heard. 6:8 Do ¹¹  not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 6:9 So pray this way: ¹² 

Our Father ¹³  in heaven, may your name be honored, ¹⁴ 

6:10 may your kingdom come, ¹⁵ 

may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

6:11 Give us today our daily bread, ¹⁶ 

6:12 and forgive us our debts, as we ourselves ¹⁷  have forgiven our debtors.

6:13 And do not lead us into temptation, ¹⁸  but deliver us from the evil one. ¹⁹ 

6:14 “For if you forgive others ²⁰  their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 6:15 But if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive you your sins.

6:16 “When ²¹  you fast, do not look sullen like the hypocrites, for they make their faces unattractive ²²  so that people will see them fasting. I tell you the truth, ²³  they have their reward. 6:17 When ²⁴  you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 6:18 so that it will not be obvious to others when you are fasting, but only to your Father who is in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.

6:19 “Do not accumulate for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth ²⁵  and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. 6:20 But accumulate for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 6:21 For where your ²⁶  treasure ²⁷  is, there your heart will be also.

6:22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If then your eye is healthy, ²⁸  your whole body will be full of light. 6:23 But if your eye is diseased, ²⁹  your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate ³⁰  the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise ³¹  the other. You cannot serve God and money. ³² 

6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry ³³  about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t there more to life than food and more to the body than clothing? 6:26 Look at the birds in the sky: ³⁴  They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds ³⁵  them. Aren’t you more valuable ³⁶  than they are? 6:27 And which of you by worrying can add even one hour to his life? ³⁷  6:28 Why do you worry about clothing? Think about how the flowers ³⁸  of the field grow; they do not work ³⁹  or spin. 6:29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these! 6:30 And if this is how God clothes the wild grass, ⁴⁰  which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, ⁴¹  won’t he clothe you even more, ⁴²  you people of little faith? 6:31 So then, don’t worry saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 6:32 For the unconverted ⁴³  pursue these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 6:33 But above all pursue his kingdom ⁴⁴  and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 6:34 So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own. ⁴⁵ 

19:1 The two angels came to Sodom in the evening while ¹  Lot was sitting in the city’s gateway. ²  When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face toward the ground.

19:2 He said, “Here, my lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house. Stay the night ³  and wash your feet. Then you can be on your way early in the morning.” ⁴  “No,” they replied, “we’ll spend the night in the town square.” ⁵ 

19:3 But he urged ⁶  them persistently, so they turned aside with him and entered his house. He prepared a feast for them, including bread baked without yeast, and they ate. 19:4 Before they could lie down to sleep, ⁷  all the men – both young and old, from every part of the city of Sodom – surrounded the house. ⁸  19:5 They shouted to Lot, ⁹  “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so we can have sex ¹⁰  with them!”

19:6 Lot went outside to them, shutting the door behind him. 19:7 He said, “No, my brothers! Don’t act so wickedly! ¹¹  19:8 Look, I have two daughters who have never had sexual relations with ¹²  a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do to them whatever you please. ¹³  Only don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection ¹⁴  of my roof.” ¹⁵ 

19:9 “Out of our way!” ¹⁶  they cried, and “This man came to live here as a foreigner, ¹⁷  and now he dares to judge us! ¹⁸  We’ll do more harm ¹⁹  to you than to them!” They kept ²⁰  pressing in on Lot until they were close enough ²¹  to break down the door.

19:10 So the men inside ²²  reached out ²³  and pulled Lot back into the house ²⁴  as they shut the door. 19:11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, from the youngest to the oldest, ²⁵  with blindness. The men outside ²⁶  wore themselves out trying to find the door. 19:12 Then the two visitors ²⁷  said to Lot, “Who else do you have here? ²⁸  Do you have ²⁹  any sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or other relatives in the city? ³⁰  Get them out of this ³¹  place 19:13 because we are about to destroy ³²  it. The outcry against this place ³³  is so great before the Lord that he ³⁴  has sent us to destroy it.”

19:14 Then Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who were going to marry his daughters. ³⁵  He said, “Quick, get out of this place because the Lord is about to destroy ³⁶  the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was ridiculing them. ³⁷ 

19:15 At dawn ³⁸  the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get going! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, ³⁹  or else you will be destroyed when the city is judged!” ⁴⁰  19:16 When Lot ⁴¹  hesitated, the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters because the Lord had compassion on them. ⁴²  They led them away and placed them ⁴³  outside the city. 19:17 When they had brought them outside, they ⁴⁴  said, “Run ⁴⁵  for your lives! Don’t look ⁴⁶  behind you or stop anywhere in the valley! ⁴⁷  Escape to the mountains or you will be destroyed!”

19:18 But Lot said to them, “No, please, Lord! ⁴⁸  19:19 Your ⁴⁹  servant has found favor with you, ⁵⁰  and you have shown me great ⁵¹  kindness ⁵²  by sparing ⁵³  my life. But I am not able to escape to the mountains because ⁵⁴  this disaster will overtake ⁵⁵  me and I’ll die. ⁵⁶  19:20 Look, this town ⁵⁷  over here is close enough to escape to, and it’s just a little one. ⁵⁸  Let me go there. ⁵⁹  It’s just a little place, isn’t it? ⁶⁰  Then I’ll survive.” ⁶¹ 

19:21 “Very well,” he replied, ⁶²  “I will grant this request too ⁶³  and will not overthrow ⁶⁴  the town you mentioned. 19:22 Run there quickly, ⁶⁵  for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” (This incident explains why the town was called Zoar.) ⁶⁶ 

19:23 The sun had just risen ⁶⁷  over the land as Lot reached Zoar. ⁶⁸  19:24 Then the Lord rained down ⁶⁹  sulfur and fire ⁷⁰  on Sodom and Gomorrah. It was sent down from the sky by the Lord. ⁷¹  19:25 So he overthrew those cities and all that region, ⁷²  including all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation that grew ⁷³  from the ground. 19:26 But Lot’s ⁷⁴  wife looked back longingly ⁷⁵  and was turned into a pillar of salt.

19:27 Abraham got up early in the morning and went ⁷⁶  to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 19:28 He looked out toward ⁷⁷  Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of that region. ⁷⁸  As he did so, he saw the smoke rising up from the land like smoke from a furnace. ⁷⁹ 

19:29 So when God destroyed ⁸⁰  the cities of the region, ⁸¹  God honored ⁸²  Abraham’s request. He removed Lot ⁸³  from the midst of the destruction when he destroyed ⁸⁴  the cities Lot had lived in.

19:30 Lot went up from Zoar with his two daughters and settled in the mountains because he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters. 19:31 Later the older daughter said ⁸⁵  to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man anywhere nearby ⁸⁶  to have sexual relations with us, ⁸⁷  according to the way of all the world. 19:32 Come, let’s make our father drunk with wine ⁸⁸  so we can have sexual relations ⁸⁹  with him and preserve ⁹⁰  our family line through our father.” ⁹¹ 

19:33 So that night they made their father drunk with wine, ⁹²  and the older daughter ⁹³  came and had sexual relations with her father. ⁹⁴  But he was not aware that she had sexual relations with him and then got up. ⁹⁵  19:34 So in the morning the older daughter ⁹⁶  said to the younger, “Since I had sexual relations with my father last night, let’s make him drunk again tonight. ⁹⁷  Then you go and have sexual relations with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” ⁹⁸  19:35 So they made their father drunk ⁹⁹  that night as well, and the younger one came and had sexual relations with him. ¹⁰⁰  But he was not aware that she had sexual relations with him and then got up. ¹⁰¹ 

19:36 In this way both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. 19:37 The older daughter ¹⁰²  gave birth to a son and named him Moab. ¹⁰³  He is the ancestor of the Moabites of today. 19:38 The younger daughter also gave birth to a son and named him Ben-Ammi. ¹⁰⁴  He is the ancestor of the Ammonites of today.

20:1 Abraham journeyed from there to the Negev ¹⁰⁵  region and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he lived as a temporary resident ¹⁰⁶  in Gerar, 20:2 Abraham said about his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent for Sarah and took her.

20:3 But God appeared ¹⁰⁷  to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, “You are as good as dead ¹⁰⁸  because of the woman you have taken, for she is someone else’s wife.” ¹⁰⁹ 

20:4 Now Abimelech had not gone near her. He said, “Lord, ¹¹⁰  would you really slaughter an innocent nation? ¹¹¹  20:5 Did Abraham ¹¹²  not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ¹¹³  ‘He is my brother.’ I have done this with a clear conscience ¹¹⁴  and with innocent hands!”

20:6 Then in the dream God replied to him, “Yes, I know that you have done this with a clear conscience. ¹¹⁵  That is why I have kept you ¹¹⁶  from sinning against me and why ¹¹⁷  I did not allow you to touch her. 20:7 But now give back the man’s wife. Indeed ¹¹⁸  he is a prophet ¹¹⁹  and he will pray for you; thus you will live. ¹²⁰  But if you don’t give her back, ¹²¹  know that you will surely die ¹²²  along with all who belong to you.”

20:8 Early in the morning ¹²³  Abimelech summoned ¹²⁴  all his servants. When he told them about all these things, ¹²⁵  they ¹²⁶  were terrified. 20:9 Abimelech summoned Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? What sin did I commit against you that would cause you to bring such great guilt on me and my kingdom? ¹²⁷  You have done things to me that should not be done!” ¹²⁸  20:10 Then Abimelech asked ¹²⁹  Abraham, “What prompted you to do this thing?” ¹³⁰ 

20:11 Abraham replied, “Because I thought, ¹³¹  ‘Surely no one fears God in this place. They will kill me because of ¹³²  my wife.’ 20:12 What’s more, ¹³³  she is indeed my sister, my father’s daughter, but not my mother’s daughter. She became my wife. 20:13 When God made me wander ¹³⁴  from my father’s house, I told her, ‘This is what you can do to show your loyalty to me: ¹³⁵  Every place we go, say about me, “He is my brother.”’”

20:14 So Abimelech gave ¹³⁶  sheep, cattle, and male and female servants to Abraham. He also gave his wife Sarah back to him. 20:15 Then Abimelech said, “Look, my land is before you; live wherever you please.” ¹³⁷ 

20:16 To Sarah he said, “Look, I have given a thousand pieces of silver ¹³⁸  to your ‘brother.’ ¹³⁹  This is compensation for you so that you will stand vindicated before all who are with you.” ¹⁴⁰ 

20:17 Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, as well as his wife and female slaves so that they were able to have children. 20:18 For the Lord ¹⁴¹  had caused infertility to strike every woman ¹⁴²  in the household of Abimelech because he took ¹⁴³  Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

21:1 The Lord visited ¹⁴⁴  Sarah just as he had said he would and did ¹⁴⁵  for Sarah what he had promised. ¹⁴⁶  21:2 So Sarah became pregnant ¹⁴⁷  and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the appointed time that God had told him. 21:3 Abraham named his son – whom Sarah bore to him – Isaac. ¹⁴⁸  21:4 When his son Isaac was eight days old, ¹⁴⁹  Abraham circumcised him just as God had commanded him to do. ¹⁵⁰  21:5 (Now Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.) ¹⁵¹ 

21:6 Sarah said, “God has made me laugh. ¹⁵²  Everyone who hears about this ¹⁵³  will laugh ¹⁵⁴  with me.” 21:7 She went on to say, ¹⁵⁵  “Who would ¹⁵⁶  have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have given birth to a son for him in his old age!”

21:8 The child grew and was weaned. Abraham prepared ¹⁵⁷  a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. ¹⁵⁸  21:9 But Sarah noticed ¹⁵⁹  the son of Hagar the Egyptian – the son whom Hagar had borne to Abraham – mocking. ¹⁶⁰  21:10 So she said to Abraham, “Banish ¹⁶¹  that slave woman and her son, for the son of that slave woman will not be an heir along with my son Isaac!”

21:11 Sarah’s demand displeased Abraham greatly because Ishmael was his son. ¹⁶²  21:12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not be upset ¹⁶³  about the boy or your slave wife. Do ¹⁶⁴  all that Sarah is telling ¹⁶⁵  you because through Isaac your descendants will be counted. ¹⁶⁶  21:13 But I will also make the son of the slave wife into a great nation, for he is your descendant too.”

21:14 Early in the morning Abraham took ¹⁶⁷  some food ¹⁶⁸  and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He put them on her shoulders, gave her the child, ¹⁶⁹  and sent her away. So she went wandering ¹⁷⁰  aimlessly through the wilderness ¹⁷¹  of Beer Sheba. 21:15 When the water in the skin was gone, she shoved ¹⁷²  the child under one of the shrubs. 21:16 Then she went and sat down by herself across from him at quite a distance, about a bowshot ¹⁷³  away; for she thought, ¹⁷⁴  “I refuse to watch the child die.” ¹⁷⁵  So she sat across from him and wept uncontrollably. ¹⁷⁶ 

21:17 But God heard the boy’s voice. ¹⁷⁷  The angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and asked her, “What is the matter, ¹⁷⁸  Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard ¹⁷⁹  the boy’s voice right where he is crying. 21:18 Get up! Help the boy up and hold him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” 21:19 Then God enabled Hagar to see a well of water. ¹⁸⁰  She went over and filled the skin with water, and then gave the boy a drink.

21:20 God was with the boy as he grew. He lived in the wilderness and became an archer. 21:21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran. ¹⁸¹  His mother found a wife for him from the land of Egypt. ¹⁸² 

21:22 At that time Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, “God is with you ¹⁸³  in all that you do. 21:23 Now swear to me right here in God’s name ¹⁸⁴  that you will not deceive me, my children, or my descendants. ¹⁸⁵  Show me, and the land ¹⁸⁶  where you are staying, ¹⁸⁷  the same loyalty ¹⁸⁸  that I have shown you.” ¹⁸⁹ 

21:24 Abraham said, “I swear to do this.” ¹⁹⁰  21:25 But Abraham lodged a complaint ¹⁹¹  against Abimelech concerning a well ¹⁹²  that Abimelech’s servants had seized. ¹⁹³  21:26 “I do not know who has done this thing,” Abimelech replied. “Moreover, ¹⁹⁴  you did not tell me. I did not hear about it until today.”

21:27 Abraham took some sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech. The two of them made a treaty. ¹⁹⁵  21:28 Then Abraham set seven ewe lambs apart from the flock by themselves. 21:29 Abimelech asked Abraham, “What is the meaning of these ¹⁹⁶  seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?” 21:30 He replied, “You must take these seven ewe lambs from my hand as legal proof ¹⁹⁷  that I dug this well.” ¹⁹⁸  21:31 That is why he named that place ¹⁹⁹  Beer Sheba, ²⁰⁰  because the two of them swore ²⁰¹  an oath there.

21:32 So they made a treaty ²⁰²  at Beer Sheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, returned ²⁰³  to the land of the Philistines. ²⁰⁴  21:33 Abraham ²⁰⁵  planted a tamarisk tree ²⁰⁶  in Beer Sheba. There he worshiped the Lord, ²⁰⁷  the eternal God. 21:34 So Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for quite some time. ²⁰⁸