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Giovedi, 28 marzo 2024 - San Castore di Tarso ( Letture di oggi)

Genesis 19


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1When the two angels reached Sodom in the evening, Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. As soon asLot saw them, he stood up to greet them, and bowed to the ground.2'My lords,' he said, 'please come down to your servant's house to stay the night and wash your feet.Then you can make an early start on your journey.' 'No,' they said, 'we shal spend the night in the square.'3But he pressed them so much that they went home with him and entered his house. He prepared ameal for them, baking unleavened bread, and they had supper.4They had not gone to bed when the house was surrounded by the townspeople, the men of Sodomboth young and old, al the people without exception.5Cal ing out to Lot they said, 'Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us sothat we can have intercourse with them.'6Lot came out to them at the door and, having shut the door behind him,7said, 'Please, brothers, do not be wicked.8Look, I have two daughters who are virgins. I am ready to send them out to you, for you to treat asyou please, but do nothing to these men since they are now under the protection of my roof.'9But they retorted, 'Stand back! This fel ow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play thejudge. Now we shal treat you worse than them.' Then they forced Lot back and moved forward to break downthe door.10But the men reached out, pul ed Lot back into the house with them, and shut the door.11And they dazzled those who were at the door of the house, one and al , with a blinding light, so thatthey could not find the doorway.12The men said to Lot, 'Have you anyone else here? Your sons, your daughters and al your people inthe city, take them away,13for we are about to destroy this place, since the outcry to Yahweh against those in it has grown soloud that Yahweh has sent us to destroy it.'14So Lot went off and spoke to his future sons-in-law who were to marry his daughters. 'On your feet!'he said, 'Leave this place, for Yahweh is about to destroy the city.' But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.15When dawn broke the angels urged Lot on, 'To your feet! Take your wife and your two daughterswho are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.'16And as he hesitated, the men seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters --Yahweh being merciful to him -- and led him out and left him outside the city.17When they had brought him outside, he was told, 'Flee for your life. Do not look behind you or stopanywhere on the plain. Flee to the hil s or you wil be swept away.'18'Oh no, my lord!' Lot said to them,19'You have already been very good to your servant and shown me even greater love by saving mylife, but I cannot flee to the hil s, or disaster wil overtake me and I shall die.20That town over there is near enough to flee to, and is small. Let me flee there-after al it is only asmal place -- and so survive.'21He replied, 'I grant you this favour too, and wil not overthrow the town you speak of.22Hurry, flee to that one, for I cannot do anything until you reach it.' That is why the town is namedZoar.23The sun rose over the horizon just as Lot was entering Zoar.24Then Yahweh rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire of his own sending.25He overthrew those cities and the whole plain, with al the people living in the cities and everythingthat grew there.26But Lot's wife looked back, and was turned into a pil ar of salt.27Next morning, Abraham hurried to the place where he had stood before Yahweh,28and looking towards Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole area of the plain, he saw the smoke risingfrom the ground like smoke from a furnace.29Thus it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he did not forget Abraham and herescued Lot from the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities where Lot was living.30After leaving Zoar Lot settled in the hill country with his two daughters, for he dared not stay at Zoar.He lived in a cave, he and his two daughters.31The elder said to the younger, 'Our father is an old man, and there is no one here to marry us in thenormal way of the world.32Come on, let us ply our father with wine and sleep with him. In this way we can preserve the race byour father.'33That night they made their father drunk, and the elder slept with her father though he was unaware ofher coming to bed or of her leaving.34The next day the elder said to the younger, 'Last night, I was the one who slept with our father. Letus make him drunk again tonight, and you go and sleep with him. In this way we can preserve the race by ourfather.'35They made their father drunk that night too, and the younger went and slept with him, though he wasunaware of her coming to bed or of her leaving.36Both Lot's daughters thus became pregnant by their father.37The elder gave birth to a son whom she named Moab; and he is the ancestor of the Moabites of ourown times.38The younger also gave birth to a son whom she named Ben-Ammi; and he is the ancestor of theBene-Ammon of our own times.