King James Version · The patriarchs
Genesis 19
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And there came two to at even; and sat in the of : and seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with toward the ground; And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I you, into ’s house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will in the street all night. And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake , and they did eat. But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of , compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto , and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. And went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, And said, I you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even , and came near to break the door. 10But the men put forth their hand, and pulled into the house to them, and shut to the door. And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door. And the men said unto , Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place: For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before ; and hath sent us to destroy it. And went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law. And when the morning arose, then the hastened , saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the of the city. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city. And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. And said unto them, Oh, not so, my : Behold now, thy servant hath found in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I : Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and shall live. And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which thou hast spoken. Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called . 23The sun was upon the earth when entered into . Then rained upon and upon brimstone and from out of ; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. And gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before : And he looked toward and , and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. And it came to pass, when destroyed the cities of the plain, that remembered , and sent out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which dwelt. And went up out of , and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to in : and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. And said unto the younger, is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth: Come, let us make drink , and we will lie with him, that we may preserve of . And they made their drink that night: and went in, and lay with her ; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. And it came to pass on the morrow, that said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with : let us make him drink this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve of . And they made their drink that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. Thus were both the daughters of with child by their . And a son, and called his name : the same is of the unto this day. And the younger, she also a son, and called his name Ben–ammi: the same is of unto this day.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The patriarchs, 2000 BC to 1600 BC ›
Abraham's family as herdsmen among settled Canaanite city-states, in a world where Egypt and Mesopotamia are the great powers and Canaan is the corridor between them.
- Mesopotamia
- Abraham's own century is Hammurabi's. The great empire of Ur has already fallen, and Babylon rises under a king who published a law code on a stone pillar for everyone to see. Reading Genesis alongside Hammurabi's laws is illuminating in both directions: some provisions are strikingly similar, and the places where Israel's later law diverges are the places worth stopping at.
- Egypt
- The Middle Kingdom, wealthy, bureaucratic, and organised around the Nile flood. Egyptian tomb paintings from this period show Semitic traders arriving with donkeys and striped cloaks, which is more or less the picture Genesis gives of a family going down to Egypt in a famine. Toward the end of the era the Hyksos, rulers of Semitic origin, take the delta.
- Anatolia and the Aegean
- Assyrian merchants run a long-distance trading colony at Kanesh in Anatolia, leaving thousands of clay letters about copper, tin, and debt. On Crete the Minoan palaces are at their height, with plumbing, frescoes, and a script nobody has yet read.
- Further afield
- The Indus Valley cities are in decline after centuries of grid-planned streets and drains. In China the Erlitou culture is building the first palace complexes. Stonehenge is standing and already old.
All of Genesis