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thestreamofconsciousness777 · 1 month

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He was called God’s friend: And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise…

“When A’bram got to be ninety-nine years old, then Jehovah appeared to A’bram and said to him: “I am God Almighty. Walk before me and prove yourself faultless. And I will give my covenant between me and you, that I may multiply you very, very much.”

At this A’bram fell upon his face, and God continued to speak with him, saying: “As for me, look! my covenant is with you, and you will certainly become a father of a crowd of nations. And your name will not be called A’bram anymore, and your name must become Abraham, because a father of a crowd of nations I will make you. And I will make you very, very fruitful and will make you become nations, and kings will come out of you.

“And I will carry out my covenant between me and you and your seed after you according to their generations for a covenant to time indefinite, to prove myself God to you and to your seed after you. And I will give to you and to your seed after you the land of your alien residences, even the entire land of Ca’naan, for a possession to time indefinite; and I will prove myself God to them.”

And God said further to Abraham: “As for you, you are to keep my covenant, you and your seed after you according to their generations. This is my covenant that YOU men will keep, between me and YOU men, even your seed after you: Every male of YOURS must get circumcised. And YOU must get circumcised in the flesh of YOUR foreskins, and it must serve as a sign of the covenant between me and YOU. And every male of YOURS eight days old must be circumcised, according to your generations, anyone born in the house and anyone purchased with money from any foreigner who is not from your seed. Every man born in your house and every man purchased with money of yours must without fail get circumcised; and my covenant in the flesh of YOU men must serve as a covenant to time indefinite. And an uncircumcised male who will not get the flesh of his foreskin circumcised, even that soul must be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant.”

And God went on to say to Abraham: “As for Sar’ai your wife, you must not call her name Sar’ai, because Sarah is her name. And I will bless her and also give you a son from her; and I will bless her and she shall become nations; kings of peoples will come from her.” At this Abraham fell upon his face and began to laugh and to say in his heart: “Will a man a hundred years old have a child born, and will Sarah, yes, will a woman ninety years old give birth?”

After that Abraham said to the [true] God: “O that Ish’ma·el might live before you!” To this God said: “Sarah your wife is indeed bearing you a son, and you must call his name Isaac. And I will establish my covenant with him for a covenant to time indefinite to his seed after him. But as regards Ish’ma·el I have heard you. Look! I will bless him and will make him fruitful and will multiply him very, very much. He will certainly produce twelve chieftains, and I will make him become a great nation. However, my covenant I shall establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this appointed time next year.”

With that God finished speaking with him and went up from Abraham. Abraham then proceeded to take Ish’ma·el his son and all the men born in his house and everyone purchased with money of his, every male among the men of the household of Abraham, and he went to circumcising the flesh of their foreskins in this very day, just as God had spoken with him. And Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he had the flesh of his foreskin circumcised. And Ish’ma·el his son was thirteen years old when he had the flesh of his foreskin circumcised. In this very day Abraham got circumcised, and also Ish’ma·el his son. And all the men of his household, anyone born in the house and anyone purchased with money from a foreigner, got circumcised with him.

Afterward Jehovah appeared to him among the big trees of Mam’re, while he was sitting at the entrance of the tent about the heat of the day. When he raised his eyes, then he looked and there three men were standing some distance from him. When he caught sight of them he began running to meet them from the entrance of the tent and proceeded to bow down to the earth. Then he said: “Jehovah, if, now, I have found favor in your eyes, please do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be taken, please, and YOU must have YOUR feet washed. Then recline under the tree. And let me get a piece of bread, and refresh YOUR hearts. Following that, YOU can pass on, because that is why YOU have passed this way to YOUR servant.” At this they said: “All right. You may do just as you have spoken.”

So Abraham went hurrying to the tent to Sarah and said: “Hurry! Get three seah measures of fine flour, knead the dough and make round cakes.” Next Abraham ran to the herd and proceeded to get a tender and good young bull and to give it to the attendant, and he went hurrying to get it ready. He then took butter and milk and the young bull that he had got ready and set it before them. Then he himself kept standing by them under the tree as they were eating.

They now said to him: “Where is Sarah your wife?” To this he said: “Here in the tent!” So he continued: “I am surely going to return to you next year at this time, and, look! Sarah your wife will have a son.” Now Sarah was listening at the tent entrance, and it was behind the man. And Abraham and Sarah were old, being advanced in years. Sarah had stopped having menstruation. Hence Sarah began to laugh inside herself, saying: “After I am worn out, shall I really have pleasure, my lord being old besides?” Then Jehovah said to Abraham: “Why was it that Sarah laughed, saying, ‘Shall I really and truly give birth although I have become old?’ Is anything too extraordinary for Jehovah? At the appointed time I shall return to you, next year at this time, and Sarah will have a son.” But Sarah began to deny it, saying: “I did not laugh!” For she was afraid. At this he said: “No! but you did laugh.”

Later the men got up from there and looked down toward Sod’om, and Abraham was walking with them to escort them. And Jehovah said: “Am I keeping covered from Abraham what I am doing? Why, Abraham is surely going to become a nation great and mighty, and all the nations of the earth must bless themselves by means of him. For I have become acquainted with him in order that he may command his sons and his household after him so that they shall keep Jehovah’s way to do righteousness and judgment; in order that Jehovah may certainly bring upon Abraham what he has spoken about him.”

Consequently Jehovah said: “The cry of complaint about Sod’om and Go·mor’rah, yes, it is loud, and their sin, yes, it is very heavy. I am quite determined to go down that I may see whether they act altogether according to the outcry over it that has come to me, and, if not, I can get to know it.”

At this point the men turned from there and got on their way to Sod’om; but as for Jehovah, he was still standing before Abraham. Then Abraham approached and began to say: “Will you really sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous men in the midst of the city. Will you, then, sweep them away and not pardon the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are inside it? It is unthinkable of you that you are acting in this manner to put to death the righteous man with the wicked one so that it has to occur with the righteous man as it does with the wicked! It is unthinkable of you. Is the Judge of all the earth not going to do what is right?” Then Jehovah said: “If I shall find in Sod’om fifty righteous men in the midst of the city I will pardon the whole place on their account.” But Abraham went on to answer and say: “Please, here I have taken upon myself to speak to Jehovah, whereas I am dust and ashes. Suppose the fifty righteous should be lacking five. Will you for the five bring the whole city to ruin?” To this he said: “I shall not bring it to ruin if I find there forty-five.”

But yet again he spoke further to him and said: “Suppose forty are found there.” In turn he said: “I shall not do it on account of the forty.” But he continued: “May Jehovah, please, not grow hot with anger, but let me go on speaking: Suppose thirty are found there.” In turn he said: “I shall not do it if I find thirty there.” But he continued on: “Please, here I have taken upon myself to speak to Jehovah: Suppose twenty are found there.” In turn he said: “I shall not bring it to ruin on account of the twenty.” Finally he said: “May Jehovah, please, not grow hot with anger, but let me speak just this once: Suppose ten are found there.” In turn he said: “I shall not bring it to ruin on account of the ten.” Then Jehovah went his way when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

Now the two angels arrived at Sod’om by evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sod’om. When Lot caught sight of them, then he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the earth. And he proceeded to say: “Please, now, my lords, turn aside, please, into the house of YOUR servant and stay overnight and have YOUR feet washed. Then YOU must get up early and travel on YOUR way.” To this they said: “No, but in the public square is where we shall stay overnight.” But he was very insistent with them, so that they turned aside to him and came into his house. Then he made a feast for them, and he baked unfermented cakes, and they went to eating.

Before they could lie down, the men of the city, the men of Sod’om, surrounded the house, from boy to old man, all the people in one mob. And they kept calling out to Lot and saying to him: “Where are the men who came in to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have intercourse with them.”

Finally Lot went out to them to the entrance, but he shut the door behind him. Then he said: “Please, my brothers, do not act badly. Please, here I have two daughters who have never had intercourse with a man. Please, let me bring them out to YOU. Then do to them as is good in YOUR eyes. Only to these men do not do a thing, because that is why they have come under the shadow of my roof.” At this they said: “Stand back there!” And they added: “This lone man came here to reside as an alien and yet he would actually play the judge. Now we are going to do worse to you than to them.” And they came pressing heavily in on the man, on Lot, and were getting near to break in the door. So the men thrust out their hands and brought Lot in to them, into the house, and they shut the door. But they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, from the least to the greatest, so that they were wearing themselves out trying to find the entrance.

Then the men said to Lot: “Do you have anyone else here? Son-in-law and your sons and your daughters and all who are yours in the city, bring out of the place! For we are bringing this place to ruin, because the outcry against them has grown loud before Jehovah, so that Jehovah sent us to bring the city to ruin.” Hence Lot went on out and began to speak to his sons-in-law who were to take his daughters, and he kept on saying: “Get up! Get out of this place, because Jehovah is bringing the city to ruin!” But in the eyes of his sons-in-law he seemed like a man who was joking.

However, when the dawn ascended, then the angels became urgent with Lot, saying: “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are found here, for fear you may be swept away in the error of the city!” When he kept lingering, then in the compassion of Jehovah upon him, the men seized hold of his hand and of the hand of his wife and of the hands of his two daughters and they proceeded to bring him out and to station him outside the city. And it came about that, as soon as they had brought them forth to the outskirts, he began to say: “Escape for your soul! Do not look behind you and do not stand still in all the District! Escape to the mountainous region for fear you may be swept away!”

Then Lot said to them: “Not that, please, Jehovah! Please, now, your servant has found favor in your eyes so that you are magnifying your loving-kindness, which you have exercised with me to preserve my soul alive, but I—I am not able to escape to the mountainous region for fear calamity may keep close to me and I certainly die. Please, now, this city is nearby to flee there and it is a small thing. May I, please, escape there—is it not a small thing?—and my soul will live on.” So he said to him: “Here I do show you consideration to this extent also, by my not overthrowing the city of which you have spoken. Hurry! Escape there, because I am not able to do a thing until your arriving there!” That is why he called the name of the city Zo’ar.

The sun had gone forth over the land when Lot arrived at Zo’ar. Then Jehovah made it rain sulphur and fire from Jehovah, from the heavens, upon Sod’om and upon Go·mor’rah. So he went ahead overthrowing these cities, even the entire District and all the inhabitants of the cities and the plants of the ground. And his wife began to look around from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

Now Abraham made his way early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Jehovah. Then he looked down toward Sod’om and Go·mor’rah and toward all the land of the District and saw a sight. Why, here thick smoke ascended from the land like the thick smoke of a kiln! And it came about that when God brought the cities of the District to ruin God kept Abraham in mind in that he took steps to send Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when overthrowing the cities among which Lot had been dwelling.

Later Lot went up from Zo’ar and began dwelling in the mountainous region, and his two daughters along with him, because he got afraid of dwelling in Zo’ar. So he began dwelling in a cave, he and his two daughters. And the firstborn proceeded to say to the younger woman: “Our father is old and there is not a man in the land to have relations with us according to the way of the whole earth. Come, let us give our father wine to drink and let us lie down with him and preserve offspring from our father.”

So they kept giving their father wine to drink during that night; then the firstborn went in and lay down with her father, but he did not know when she lay down and when she got up. And it came about on the next day that the firstborn then said to the younger: “Here I lay down with my father last night. Let us give him wine to drink tonight also. Then you go in, lie down with him, and let us preserve offspring from our father.” So they repeatedly gave their father wine to drink during that night also; then the younger got up and lay down with him, but he did not know when she lay down and when she got up. And both the daughters of Lot became pregnant from their father. In time the firstborn became mother to a son and called his name Mo’ab. He is the father of Mo’ab, to this day. As for the younger, she too gave birth to a son and then called his name Ben-am’mi. He is the father of the sons of Am’mon, to this day.

Now Abraham moved camp from there to the land of the Neg’eb and took up dwelling between Ka’desh and Shur and residing as an alien at Ge’rar. And Abraham repeated concerning Sarah his wife: “She is my sister.” With that A·bim’e·lech king of Ge’rar sent and took Sarah. Afterward God came to A·bim’e·lech in a dream by night and said to him: “Here you are as good as dead because of the woman whom you have taken, since she is owned by another owner as his wife.” However, A·bim’e·lech had not gone near her. Hence he said: “Jehovah, will you kill a nation that is really righteous? Did not he say to me, ‘She is my sister’? and she—did not she too say, ‘He is my brother’? In the honesty of my heart and with innocency of my hands I have done this.” At that the [true] God said to him in the dream: “I too have known that in the honesty of your heart you have done this, and I was also holding you back from sinning against me. That is why I did not allow you to touch her. But now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will make supplication for you. So keep living. But if you are not returning her, know that you will positively die, you and all who are yours.”

So A·bim’e·lech got up early in the morning and proceeded to call all his servants and to speak of all these things in their ears. And the men got very much afraid. Then A·bim’e·lech called Abraham and said to him: “What have you done to us, and what sin have I committed against you, in that you have brought upon me and my kingdom a great sin? Deeds that should not have been done you have done in connection with me.” And A·bim’e·lech went on to say to Abraham: “What did you have in view in that you have done this thing?” To this Abraham said: “It was because I said to myself, ‘Doubtless there is no fear of God in this place, and they will certainly kill me because of my wife.’ And, besides, she is truly my sister, the daughter of my father, only not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. And it came about that, when God caused me to wander from the house of my father, then I said to her, ‘This is your loving-kindness which you may exercise toward me: At every place where we shall come say of me: “He is my brother.”’”

Following that A·bim’e·lech took sheep and cattle and menservants and maidservants and gave them to Abraham and returned to him Sarah his wife. Further A·bim’e·lech said: “Here my land is available to you. Dwell where it is good in your eyes.” And to Sarah he said: “Here I do give a thousand silver pieces of money to your brother. Here it is for you a covering of the eyes to all who are with you, and before everybody, and you are cleared of reproach.” And Abraham began to make supplication to the [true] God; and God proceeded to heal A·bim’e·lech and his wife and his slave girls, and they began bearing children. For Jehovah had tightly shut up every womb of the house of A·bim’e·lech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

And Jehovah turned his attention to Sarah just as he had said, and Jehovah now did to Sarah just as he had spoken. And Sarah became pregnant and then bore a son to Abraham in his old age at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him. Accordingly Abraham called the name of his son who had been born to him, whom Sarah had borne to him, Isaac. And Abraham proceeded to circumcise Isaac his son when eight days old, just as God had commanded him. And Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac his son was born to him. Then Sarah said: “God has prepared laughter for me: everybody hearing of it will laugh at me.” And she added: “Who would have uttered to Abraham, ‘Sarah will certainly suckle children,’ whereas I have given birth to a son in his old age?”

Now the child kept growing and came to be weaned; and Abraham then prepared a big feast on the day of Isaac’s being weaned. And Sarah kept noticing the son of Ha’gar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, poking fun. So she began to say to Abraham: “Drive out this slave girl and her son, for the son of this slave girl is not going to be an heir with my son, with Isaac!” But the thing proved to be very displeasing to Abraham as regards his son. Then God said to Abraham: “Do not let anything that Sarah keeps saying to you be displeasing to you about the boy and about your slave girl. Listen to her voice, because it is by means of Isaac that what will be called your seed will be. And as for the son of the slave girl, I shall also constitute him a nation, because he is your offspring.”

So Abraham got up early in the morning and took bread and a skin water bottle and gave it to Ha’gar, setting it upon her shoulder, and the child, and then dismissed her. And she went her way and wandered about in the wilderness of Beʹer-sheʹba. Finally the water became exhausted in the skin bottle and she threw the child under one of the bushes. Then she went on and sat down by herself, about the distance of a bowshot away, because she said: “Let me not see it when the child dies.” So she sat down at a distance and began to raise her voice and weep.

At that God heard the voice of the boy, and God’s angel called to Ha’gar out of the heavens and said to her: “What is the matter with you, Ha’gar? Do not be afraid, because God has listened to the voice of the boy there where he is. Get up, lift up the boy and take hold of him with your hand, because I shall constitute him a great nation.” Then God opened her eyes so that she caught sight of a well of water; and she went and began to fill the skin bottle with water and to give the boy a drink. And God continued to be with the boy, and he kept growing and dwelling in the wilderness; and he became an archer. And he took up dwelling in the wilderness of Pa’ran, and his mother proceeded to take a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

Now it came about at that time that A·bim’e·lech together with Phi’col the chief of his army said to Abraham: “God is with you in everything you are doing. So now swear to me here by God that you will not prove false to me and to my offspring and to my posterity; that, according to the loyal love with which I have dealt with you, you will deal with me and with the land in which you have been residing as an alien.” So Abraham said: “I shall swear.”

When Abraham criticized A·bim’e·lech severely as regards the well of water that the servants of A·bim’e·lech had seized by violence, then A·bim’e·lech said: “I do not know who did this thing, neither did you yourself tell it to me, and I myself have also not heard of it except today.” With that Abraham took sheep and cattle and gave them to A·bim’e·lech, and both of them proceeded to conclude a covenant. When Abraham set seven female lambs of the flock by themselves, A·bim’e·lech went on to say to Abraham: “What is the meaning here of these seven female lambs that you have set by themselves?” Then he said: “You are to accept the seven female lambs at my hand, that it may serve as a witness for me that I have dug this well.” That is why he called that place Be’er-she’ba, because there both of them had taken an oath. So they concluded a covenant at Be’er-she’ba, after which A·bim’e·lech got up together with Phi’col the chief of his army and they returned to the land of the Phi·lis’tines. After that he planted a tamarisk tree at Be’er-she’ba and called there upon the name of Jehovah the indefinitely lasting God. And Abraham extended his residence as an alien in the land of the Phi·lis’tines many days.

-Genesis 17-21, NWT

The Cry Of Complaint About Sod’om and Go·mor’rah, Yes, It Is Loud, And Their Sin, Yes, It Is Very Heavy

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