8:1 For the music director, according to the gittith style; ²  a psalm of David.

O Lord, our Lord, ³ 

how magnificent ⁴  is your reputation ⁵  throughout the earth!

You reveal your majesty in the heavens above! ⁶ 

8:2 From the mouths of children and nursing babies

you have ordained praise on account of your adversaries, ⁷ 

so that you might put an end to the vindictive enemy. ⁸ 

8:3 When I look up at the heavens, which your fingers made,

and see the moon and the stars, which you set in place, ⁹ 

8:4 Of what importance is the human race, ¹⁰  that you should notice ¹¹  them?

Of what importance is mankind, ¹²  that you should pay attention to them, ¹³ 

8:5 and make them a little less than the heavenly beings? ¹⁴ 

You grant mankind ¹⁵  honor and majesty; ¹⁶ 

8:6 you appoint them to rule over your creation; ¹⁷ 

you have placed ¹⁸  everything under their authority, ¹⁹ 

8:7 including all the sheep and cattle,

as well as the wild animals, ²⁰ 

8:8 the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea

and everything that moves through the currents ²¹  of the seas.

8:9 O Lord, our Lord, ²² 

how magnificent ²³  is your reputation ²⁴  throughout the earth! ²⁵ 

18:9 Then they asked him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” He replied, “There, ⁶  in the tent.” 18:10 One of them ⁷  said, “I will surely return ⁸  to you when the season comes round again, ⁹  and your wife Sarah will have a son!” ¹⁰  (Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, not far behind him. ¹¹  18:11 Abraham and Sarah were old and advancing in years; ¹²  Sarah had long since passed menopause.) ¹³  18:12 So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, ¹⁴  “After I am worn out will I have pleasure, ¹⁵  especially when my husband is old too?” ¹⁶ 

18:13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why ¹⁷  did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really ¹⁸  have a child when I am old?’ 18:14 Is anything impossible ¹⁹  for the Lord? I will return to you when the season comes round again and Sarah will have a son.” ²⁰  18:15 Then Sarah lied, saying, “I did not laugh,” because she was afraid. But the Lord said, “No! You did laugh.” ²¹ 

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.

24:1 Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years, ¹  and the Lord had blessed him ²  in everything. 24:2 Abraham said to his servant, the senior one ³  in his household who was in charge of everything he had, “Put your hand under my thigh ⁴ 

33:8 Esau ²  then asked, “What did you intend ³  by sending all these herds to meet me?” ⁴  Jacob ⁵  replied, “To find favor in your sight, my lord.” 33:9 But Esau said, “I have plenty, my brother. Keep what belongs to you.”

50:1 Then Joseph hugged his father’s face. ¹  He wept over him and kissed him. 50:2 Joseph instructed the physicians in his service ²  to embalm his father, so the physicians embalmed Israel. 50:3 They took forty days, for that is the full time needed for embalming. ³  The Egyptians mourned ⁴  for him seventy days. ⁵ 

50:4 When the days of mourning ⁶  had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s royal court, ⁷  “If I have found favor in your sight, please say to Pharaoh, ⁸  50:5 ‘My father made me swear an oath. He said, ⁹  “I am about to die. Bury me ¹⁰  in my tomb that I dug for myself there in the land of Canaan.” Now let me go and bury my father; then I will return.’” 50:6 So Pharaoh said, “Go and bury your father, just as he made you swear to do.” ¹¹ 

1:9 God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place ¹  and let dry ground appear.” ²  It was so. 1:10 God called the dry ground “land” ³  and the gathered waters he called “seas.” God saw that it was good.

1:11 God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: ⁴  plants yielding seeds according to their kinds, ⁵  and ⁶  trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.” It was so. 1:12 The land produced vegetation – plants yielding seeds according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. God saw that it was good. 1:13 There was evening, and there was morning, a third day.

1:6 God said, “Let there be an expanse ¹⁰  in the midst of the waters and let it separate water ¹¹  from water. 1:7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. ¹²  It was so. ¹³ 

1:9 God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place ⁴  and let dry ground appear.” ⁵  It was so. 1:10 God called the dry ground “land” ⁶  and the gathered waters he called “seas.” God saw that it was good.