Vayeira - And He Appeared

18:1 Yahuwah appeared to Avraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day.
2 Avraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.
3 He said, "If I have found favor in your eyes, my Yahuwah, do not pass your servant by.
4 Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree.
5 Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way-- now that you have come to your servant." "Very well," they answered, "do as you say."
6 So Avraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. "Quick," he said, "get three seahs of fine flour and knead it and bake some bread."
7 Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it.
8 He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.
9 "Where is your wife Sarah?" they asked him. "There, in the tent," he said.
10 Then Yahuwah said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son." Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him.
11 Avraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing.
12 So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, "After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?"
13 Then Yahuwah said to Avraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Will I really have a child, now that I am old?'
14 Is anything too hard for Yahuwah? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son."
15 Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, "I did not laugh." But he said, "Yes, you did laugh."

Judgment on Sodom Pronounced

16 When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Avraham walked along with them to see them on their way.
17 Then Yahuwah said, "Shall I hide from Avraham what I am about to do?
18 Avraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.
19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of Yahuwah by doing what is right and just, so that Yahuwah will bring about for Avraham what he has promised him."
20 Then Yahuwah said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous
21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."
22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Avraham remained standing before Yahuwah.
23 Then Avraham approached him and said: "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?
25 Far be it from you to do such a thing-- to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
26 Yahuwah said, "If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake."
27 Then Avraham spoke up again: "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to Yahuwah, though I am nothing but dust and ashes,
28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?" "If I find forty-five there," he said, "I will not destroy it."
29 Once again he spoke to him, "What if only forty are found there?" He said, "For the sake of forty, I will not do it."
30 Then he said, "May Yahuwah not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?" He answered, "I will not do it if I find thirty there."
31 Avraham said, "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to Yahuwah, what if only twenty can be found there?" He said, "For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it."
32 Then he said, "May Yahuwah not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?" He answered, "For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it."
33 When Yahuwah had finished speaking with Avraham, he left, and Avraham returned home.

The Messengers Visit Sodom

19:1 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.
2 "My Lords," he said, "please turn aside to your servant's house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning." "No," they answered, "we will spend the night in the square."
3 But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate.
4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom-- both young and old-- surrounded the house.
5 They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."
6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him
7 and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing.
8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don't do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof."
9 "Get out of our way," they replied. And they said, "This fellow came here as an alien, and now he wants to play the judge! We'll treat you worse than them." They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.
10 But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door.
11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.

The Judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah

12 The two men said to Lot, "Do you have anyone else here-- sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here,
13 because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to Yahuwah against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it."
14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, "Hurry and get out of this place, because Yahuwah is about to destroy the city!" But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
15 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished."
16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for Yahuwah was merciful to them.
17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, "Flee for your lives! Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!"
18 But Lot said to them, "No, my Yahuwahs, please!
19 Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can't flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I'll die.
20 Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it-- it is very small, isn't it? Then my life will be spared."
21 He said to him, "Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of.
22 But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it." (That is why the town was called Zoar.)
23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land.
24 Then Yahuwah rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah-- from Yahuwah out of the heavens.
25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities-- and also the vegetation in the land.
26 But Lot's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
27 Early the next morning Avraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before Yahuwah.
28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.
29 So when Elohim destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Avraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.

Lot and His Daughters

30 Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave.
31 One day the older daughter said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is no man around here to lie with us, as is the custom all over the earth.
32 Let's get our father to drink wine and then lie with him and preserve our family line through our father."
33 That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and lay with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
34 The next day the older daughter said to the younger, "Last night I lay with my father. Let's get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and lie with him so we can preserve our family line through our father."
35 So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went and lay with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
36 So both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father.
37 The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today.
38 The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites of today.

Abraham and Abimelech

20:1 Now Avraham moved on from there into the region of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed in Gerar,
2 and there Avraham said of his wife Sarah, "She is my sister." Then Abimelech king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her.
3 But Elohim came to Abimelech in a dream one night and said to him, "You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman."
4 Now Abimelech had not gone near her, so he said, "Yahuwah, will you destroy an innocent nation?
5 Did he not say to me, 'She is my sister,' and didn't she also say, 'He is my brother'? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands."
6 Then Elohim said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her.
7 Now return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all yours will die."
8 Early the next morning Abimelech summoned all his officials, and when he told them all that had happened, they were very much afraid.
9 Then Abimelech called Avraham in and said, "What have you done to us? How have I wronged you that you have brought such great guilt upon me and my kingdom? You have done things to me that should not be done."
10 And Abimelech asked Avraham, "What was your reason for doing this?"
11 Avraham replied, "I said to myself, 'There is surely no fear of Elohim in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.'
12 Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother; and she became my wife.
13 And when Elohim had me wander from my father's household, I said to her, 'This is how you can show your love to me: Everywhere we go, say of me, "He is my brother." '"
14 Then Abimelech brought sheep and cattle and male and female slaves and gave them to Avraham, and he returned Sarah his wife to him.
15 And Abimelech said, "My land is before you; live wherever you like."
16 To Sarah he said, "I am giving your brother a thousand shekels of silver. This is to cover the offense against you before all who are with you; you are completely vindicated."
17 Then Avraham prayed to Elohim, and Elohim healed Abimelech, his wife and his slave girls so they could have children again,
18 for Yahuwah had closed up every womb in Abimelech's household because of Avraham's wife Sarah.

The Birth of Yitzchak

21:1 Now Yahuwah was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and Yahuwah did for Sarah what he had promised.
2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Avraham in his old age, at the very time Elohim had promised him.
3 Avraham gave the name Yitzchak to the son Sarah bore him.
4 When his son Yitzchak was eight days old, Avraham circumcised him, as Elohim commanded him.
5 Avraham was a hundred years old when his son Yitzchak was born to him.
6 Sarah said, "Elohim has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me."
7 And she added, "Who would have said to Avraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age."
8 The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Yitzchak was weaned Avraham held a great feast.

Hagar and Yishmael Sent Away

8 The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Yitzchak was weaned Avraham held a great feast.
9 But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Mitzrayim had borne to Avraham was mocking,
10 and she said to Avraham, "Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Yitzchak."
11 The matter distressed Avraham greatly because it concerned his son.
12 But Elohim said to him, "Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Yitzchak that your offspring will be reckoned.
13 I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring."
14 Early the next morning Avraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the desert of Beersheba.
15 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes.
16 Then she went off and sat down nearby, about a bowshot away, for she thought, "I cannot watch the boy die." And as she sat there nearby, she began to sob.
17 Elohim heard the boy crying, and the angel of Elohim called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; Elohim has heard the boy crying as he lies there.
18 Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation."
19 Then Elohim opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
20 Elohim was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer.
21 While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Mitzrayim.

Avraham and Avimalech Make a Covenant

22 At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his forces said to Avraham, "Elohim is with you in everything you do.
23 Now swear to me here before Elohim that you will not deal falsely with me or my children or my descendants. Show to me and the country where you are living as an alien the same kindness I have shown to you."
24 Avraham said, "I swear it."
25 Then Avraham complained to Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech's servants had seized.
26 But Abimelech said, "I don't know who has done this. You did not tell me, and I heard about it only today."
27 So Avraham brought sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a treaty.
28 Avraham set apart seven ewe lambs from the flock,
29 and Abimelech asked Avraham, "What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs you have set apart by themselves?"
30 He replied, "Accept these seven lambs from my hand as a witness that I dug this well."
31 So that place was called Beersheba, because the two men swore an oath there.
32 After the treaty had been made at Beersheba, Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his forces returned to the land of the Philistines.
33 Avraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called upon the name of Yahuwah, the Eternal Elohim.
34 And Avraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for a long time.

The Akeidah - Binding of Yitzchak

22:1 Some time later Elohim tested Avraham. He said to him, "Avraham!" "Here I am," he replied.
2 Then Elohim said, "Take your son, your only son, Yitzchak, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."
3 Early the next morning Avraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Yitzchak. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place Elohim had told him about.
4 On the third day Avraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
5 He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you."
6 Avraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Yitzchak, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together,
7 Yitzchak spoke up and said to his father Avraham, "Father?" "Yes, my son?" Avraham replied. "The fire and wood are here," Yitzchak said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"
8 Avraham answered, "Elohim himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together.
9 When they reached the place Elohim had told him about, Avraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Yitzchak and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.
10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
11 But the angel of Yahuwah called out to him from heaven, "Avraham! Avraham!" "Here I am," he replied.
12 "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear Elohim, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."
13 Avraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
14 So Avraham called that place Yahuwah Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of Yahuwah it will be provided."
15 The angel of Yahuwah called to Avraham from heaven a second time
16 and said, "I swear by myself, declares Yahuwah, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,
17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,
18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."
19 Then Avraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Avraham stayed in Beersheba.

Haftarah: 2 Kings 4:1-37

Nahor's Family

20 Some time later Avraham was told, "Milcah is also a mother; she has borne sons to your brother Nahor:
21 Uz the firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel (the father of Aram),
22 Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph and Bethuel."
23 Bethuel became the father of Rivkah. Milcah bore these eight sons to Avraham's brother Nahor.
24 His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also had sons: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash and Maacah.

Messiah in the Torah Parashah

Prophetic End Time Shadows in the Torah Parashah