: hold, I will bless him, and increase, and multiply him exceedingly he shall beget twelve chiefs, and I will make him a great nation. But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sara shall bring forth to thee at this time in the next year. And when He had left off speaking with him, God went up from Abraham. And Abraham took Ismael his son, and all that were born in his house and all whom he had bought, every male among the men of his house: and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskin forthwith the very same day, as God had commanded him. Abraham was ninety and nine years old when he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin. : Gen. XVIII. 1-19. SECT. IX. ABRAHAM ENTERTAINS ANGELS. THE DESTRUCTION OF SODOM. Promise of a Son to Abraham.-And the Lord appeared to him in the vale of Mambre as he was sitting at the door of his tent, in the very heat of the day. And when he had lifted up his eyes, there appeared to him three men standing near him : and as soon as he saw them he ran to meet them from the door of his tent, and bowed down to the ground. And he said: My Lord, if I have found favour in Thy sight, pass not away from Thy servant but I will fetch a little water, and wash ye your feet, and rest ye under the tree. And I will set a morsel of bread, and strengthen ye your heart, afterwards you shall pass on for therefore are you come aside to your servant. And they said: Do as thou hast spoken. Abraham made haste into the tent to Sara, and said to her: Make haste, temper together three measures of flour, and make cakes upon the hearth. And he himself ran to the herd, and took from thence a calf very tender and very good, and gave it to a young man who made haste and boiled it. He took also butter and milk, and the calf which he had boiled, and set before them but he stood by them under the tree. And when they had eaten, they said to him: Where is Sara thy wife? He answered: Lo, she is in the tent. And He said to him: I will return and come to thee at this time, life continuing, and Sara thy wife shall have a son. Which when Sara heard, she laughed behind the door of the tent. Now they were both old, and far advanced in years, and it had ceased to be with Sara after the manner of women. And she laughed secretly, saying: After I am grown old, and my lord is an old man, shall I give myself to pleasure? And the Lord said to Abraham: Why did Sara laugh, saying, Shall I who am an old woman bear a child indeed? Is there any thing hard to God? according to appointment I will return to thee at this same time, life continuing, and Sara shall have a son. Sara denied, saying: I did not laugh: for she was afraid. But the Lord said: Nay, but thou didst laugh. And when the men rose up from thence, they turned their eyes towards Sodom: and Abraham walked with them, bringing them on the way. And the Lord said: Can I hide from Abraham what I am about to do: seeing he shall become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth shall be blessed? For I know that he will command his children, and his household after him, to keep the way of the Lord, and do judgment and justice that for Abraham's sake the Lord may bring to effect all the things He hath spoken unto him. Destruction of Sodom.-And the Lord said: The cry of Gen. XVIII. Sodom and Gomorrha is multiplied, and their sin is become 20-33. exceedingly grievous. I will go down* and see whether they have done according to the cry that is come to Me: or whether it be not so, that I may know. And they turned themselves from thence, and went their way to Sodom; but Abraham as yet stood before the Lord. And drawing nigh he said: Wilt Thou destroy the just with the wicked? If there be fifty just men in the city, shall they perish withal? and wilt Thou not spare that place for the sake of the fifty just, if they be therein? Far be it from Thee to do this thing, and to slay the just with the wicked, and for the just to be in like case as the wicked, this is not beseeming Thee; Thou who judgest all the earth wilt not make this judgment. And the Lord said to him: If I find in Sodom fifty just within the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake. And Abraham answered, and said: Seeing I have once begun, I will speak to my Lord, whereas I am dust and ashes. What if there be five less than fifty just persons? wilt Thou for five and forty destroy the whole city? And He said: I will not destroy it, if I find five and forty. And again he said to Him: But if forty be found there, what wilt Thou do? He said : I will not destroy it for the sake of forty. Lord, saith he, be not angry, I beseech Thee, if I speak what if thirty shall be found there? He answered: I will not do it, if I find thirty there. *I will go down, &c. The Lord here accommodates His discourse to the way of speaking and acting amongst men: for He knoweth all things, and needeth not to go any where for information. Note here, that two of the three angels went away immediately for Sodom: whilst the third, who represented the Lord, remained with Abraham. DOUAY BIble. Gen. XIX. Seeing, saith he, I have once begun, I will speak to my Lord what if twenty be found there? He said: I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty. I beseech thee, saith he, be not angry, Lord, if I speak yet once more what if ten should be found there? And He said: I will not destroy it for the sake of ten. And the Lord departed, after He had left speaking to Abraham and Abraham returned to his place. Rescue of Lot.-And the two angels came to Sodom in the 1-7. evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of the city. And seeing them, he rose up and went to meet them: and worshipped prostrate to the ground, and said: I beseech you, my lords, turn in to the house of your servant, and lodge there: wash your feet, and in the morning you shall go on your way. And they said: No, but we will abide in the street. He pressed them very much to turn in unto him: and when they were come in to his house, he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. But before they went to bed, the men of the city beset the house, both young and old, all the people together. And they called Lot, and said to him: Where are the men that came in to thee at night? bring them out hither that we may know them. Lot went out to them, and shut the door after him, and said: Do not so, I beseech you, my brethren, do not commit Gen. xIx. this evil. But they said: Get thee back thither. And again: 9-30. Thou camest in, said they, as a stranger; was it to be a judge? therefore we will afflict thee more than them. And they pressed very violently upon Lot: and they were even at the point of breaking open the doors. And behold the men put out their hand, and drew in Lot unto them, and shut the door. And them that were without they struck with blindness from the least to the greatest, so that they could not find the door. And they said to Lot: Hast thou here any of thine? son-in-law, or sons, or daughters, all that are thine bring them out of this city; for we will destroy this place, because their cry is grown loud before the Lord, who hath sent us to destroy them. So Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law that were to have his daughters, and said: Arise : get you out of this place, because the Lord will destroy this city. And he seemed to them to speak as it were in jest. And when it was morning the angels pressed him, saying: Arise, take thy wife, and the two daughters which thou hast, lest thou also perish in the wickedness of the city. And as he lingered, they took his hand, and the hand of his wife, and of his two daughters, because the Lord spared him. And they brought him forth, and set him without the city: and there they spoke to him, saying: Save thy life; look not back, neither stay thou in all the country about: but save thyself in the mountain, lest thou also be consumed. And Lot said to them: I beseech thee, my lord, because thy servant hath found grace before thee, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shown to me, in saving my life, and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil seize me, and I die. There is this city here at hand, to which I may flee; it is a little one, and I shall be saved in it: is it not a little one? and my soul shall live. And he said to him: Behold also in this I have heard thy prayers, not to destroy the city for which thou hast spoken. Make haste and be saved there, because I cannot do any thing till thou go in thither. Therefore the name of that city was called Segor. The sun was risen upon the earth, and Lot entered into Segor. And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And He destroyed these cities, and all the country about, all the inhabitants of the cities, and all things that spring from the earth. And his wife looking behind her was turned into a statue of salt.* And Abraham got up early in the morning, and in the place where he had stood before with the Lord he looked towards Sodom and Gomorrha, and the whole land of that country: and he saw the ashes rise up from the earth as the smoke of a furnace. Now when God destroyed the cities of that country, remembering Abraham, He delivered Lot out of the destruction of the cities wherein he had dwelt. And Lot went up out of Segor, and abode in the mountain, and his two daughters with him (for he was afraid to stay in Segor), and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters with him. SECT. X. ISAAC IS BORN. AGAR AND ISMAEL ARE CAST OUT. Abimelech.-Abraham removed from thence to the south Gen. xx country, and dwelt between Cades and Sur, and sojourned in 1-18. Gerara.† And he said of Sara his wife: She is my sister. So Abimelech the king of Gerara sent, and took her. * Our Lord said to His disciples, Remember Lot's wife: that is, take care not to act as she did, and when God tells you to leave a sinful place or a sinful life to look back upon it with sorrow or regret, lest He should withdraw His grace, and allow you to die in your sins.' TODD'S SACRED HISTORY. + Gerara was the capital of the country of the Philistines in the south of the land of Canaan. Gen. XXI. 1-21. And God came to Abimelech in a dream* by night, and He said to him: Lo thou shalt die for the woman thou hast taken : for she hath a husband. Now Abimelech had not touched her, and he said: Lord, wilt Thou slay a nation that is ignorant and just? Did not he say to me: She is my sister, and she say, He is my brother? In the simplicity of my heart and cleanness of my hands have I done this. And God said to him: And I know that thou didst it with a sincere heart; and therefore I withheld thee from sinning against Me, and I suffered thee not to touch her. Now therefore restore the man his wife, for he is a prophet and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: but if thou wilt not restore her, know that thou shalt surely die, thou and all that are thine. And Abimelech forthwith rising up in the night, called all his servants, and spoke all these words in their hearing; and all the men were exceedingly afraid. And Abimelech called also for Abraham, and said to him: What hast thou done to us? what have we offended thee in, that thou hast brought upon me and upon my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done to us what thou oughtest not to do. And again he expostulated with him, and said: What sawest thou, that thou hast done this? Abraham answered: I thought with myself, saying: Perhaps there is not the fear of God in this place: and they will kill me for the sake of my wife: howbeit, otherwise also she is truly my sister, the daughter of my father, and not the daughter of my mother, and I took her to wife. And after God brought me out of my father's house, I said to her: Thou shalt do me this kindness: In every place to which we shall come thou shalt say that I am thy brother. And Abimelech took sheep and oxen and servants and handmaids, and gave to Abraham: and restored to him Sara, his wife. And said: The land is before you, dwell wheresoever it shall please thee. And to Sara he said: Behold I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver; this shall serve thee for a covering of thy eyes to all that are with thee, and whithersoever thou shalt go and remember thou wast taken. And when Abraham prayed, God healed Abimelech and his wife, and his handmaids, and they bore children for the Lord had closed up every womb of the house of Abimelech on account of Sara, Abraham's wife. Birth of Isaac.-And the Lord visited Sara, as He had *This is the first of many examples of God making known His will to heathens by dreams. To His own people it was more commonly by visions of angels. |