¹ Poi Giacobbe si mise in cammino e andò nel paese degli Orientali.

² E guardò, e vide un pozzo in un campo; ed ecco tre greggi di pecore, giacenti lì presso; poiché a quel pozzo si abbeveravano i greggi; e la pietra sulla bocca del pozzo era grande.

³ Quivi s’adunavano tutti i greggi; i pastori rotolavan la pietra di sulla bocca del pozzo, abbeveravano le pecore, poi rimettevano al posto la pietra sulla bocca del pozzo.

⁴ E Giacobbe disse ai pastori: "Fratelli miei, di dove siete?" E quelli risposero: "Siamo di Charan".

⁵ Ed egli disse loro: "Conoscete voi Labano, figliuolo di Nahor?" Ed essi: "Lo conosciamo".

⁶ Ed egli disse loro: "Sta egli bene?" E quelli: "Sta bene; ed ecco Rachele, sua figliuola, che viene con le pecore".

⁷ Ed egli disse: "Ecco, è ancora pieno giorno, e non è tempo di radunare il bestiame; abbeverate le pecore e menatele al pascolo".

⁸ E quelli risposero: "Non possiamo, finché tutti i greggi siano radunati; allora si rotola la pietra di sulla bocca del pozzo, e abbeveriamo le pecore".

⁹ Mentr’egli parlava ancora con loro, giunse Rachele con le pecore di suo padre; poich’ella era pastora.

¹⁰ E quando Giacobbe vide Rachele figliuola di Labano, fratello di sua madre, e le pecore di Labano fratello di sua madre, s’avvicinò, rotolò la pietra di sulla bocca del pozzo, e abbeverò il gregge di Labano fratello di sua madre.

¹¹ E Giacobbe baciò Rachele, alzò la voce, e pianse.

¹² E Giacobbe fe’ sapere a Rachele ch’egli era parente del padre di lei, e ch’era figliuolo di Rebecca. Ed ella corse a dirlo a suo padre.

¹³ E appena Labano ebbe udito le notizie di Giacobbe figliuolo della sua sorella, gli corse incontro, l’abbracciò, lo baciò, e lo menò a casa sua. Giacobbe raccontò a Labano tutte queste cose;

¹⁴ e Labano gli disse: "Tu sei proprio mie ossa e mia carne!" Ed egli dimorò con lui durante un mese.

¹⁵ Poi Labano disse a Giacobbe: "Perché sei mio parente dovrai tu servirmi per nulla? Dimmi quale dev’essere il tuo salario".

¹⁶ Or Labano aveva due figliuole: la maggiore si chiamava Lea, e la minore Rachele.

¹⁷ Lea aveva gli occhi delicati, ma Rachele era avvenente e di bell’aspetto.

¹⁸ E Giacobbe amava Rachele, e disse a Labano: "Io ti servirò sette anni, per Rachele tua figliuola minore".

¹⁹ E Labano rispose: "E’ meglio ch’io la dia a te che ad un altr’uomo; sta’ con me".

²⁰ E Giacobbe servì sette anni per Rachele; e gli parvero pochi giorni, per l’amore che le portava.

²¹ E Giacobbe disse a Labano: "Dammi la mia moglie, poiché il mio tempo è compiuto, ed io andrò da lei".

²² Allora Labano radunò tutta la gente del luogo, e fece un convito.

²³ Ma, la sera, prese Lea, sua figliuola, e la menò da Giacobbe, il quale entrò da lei.

²⁴ E Labano dette la sua serva Zilpa per serva a Lea, sua figliuola.

²⁵ L’indomani mattina, ecco che era Lea. E Giacobbe disse a Labano: "Che m’hai fatto? Non è egli per Rachele ch’io t’ho servito? Perché dunque m’hai ingannato?"

²⁶ E Labano rispose: "Non è usanza da noi di dare la minore prima della maggiore. Finisci la settimana di questa;

²⁷ e ti daremo anche l’altra, per il servizio che presterai da me altri sette anni".

²⁸ Giacobbe fece così, e finì la settimana di quello sposalizio; poi Labano gli dette in moglie Rachele sua figliuola.

²⁹ E Labano dette la sua serva Bilha per serva a Rachele, sua figliuola.

³⁰ E Giacobbe entrò pure da Rachele, ed anche amò Rachele più di Lea, e servì da Labano altri sette anni.

³¹ L’Eterno, vedendo che Lea era odiata, la rese feconda; ma Rachele era sterile.

³² E Lea concepì e partorì un figliuolo, al quale pose nome Ruben; perché disse: "L’Eterno ha veduto la mia afflizione; e ora il mio marito mi amerà".

³³ Poi concepì di nuovo e partorì un figliuolo, e disse: "L’Eterno ha udito ch’io ero odiata, e però m’ha dato anche questo figliuolo". E lo chiamò Simeone.

³⁴ E concepì di nuovo e partorì un figliuolo, e disse: "Questa volta, il mio marito sarà ben unito a me, poiché gli ho partorito tre figliuoli". Per questo fu chiamato Levi.

³⁵ E concepì di nuovo e partorì un figliuolo, e disse: "Questa volta celebrerò l’Eterno". Perciò gli pose nome Giuda. E cessò d’aver figliuoli.

¹ The two angels came to Sodom at evening. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them. He bowed himself with his face to the earth,

² and he said, "See now, my lords, please turn aside into your servant's house, stay all night, wash your feet, and you can rise up early, and go on your way." They said, "No, but we will stay in the street all night."

³ He urged them greatly, and they came in with him, and entered into his house. He made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

⁴ But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter.

⁵ They called to Lot, and said to him, "Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them."

⁶ Lot went out to them to the door, and shut the door after him.

⁷ He said, "Please, my brothers, don't act so wickedly.

⁸ See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only don't do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof."

⁹ They said, "Stand back!" Then they said, "This one fellow came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself a judge. Now will we deal worse with you, than with them!" They pressed hard on the man Lot, and drew near to break the door.

¹⁰ But the men put forth their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door.

¹¹ They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.

¹² The men said to Lot, "Do you have anybody else here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whoever you have in the city, bring them out of the place:

¹³ for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before Yahweh that Yahweh has sent us to destroy it."

¹⁴ Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, "Get up! Get out of this place, for Yahweh will destroy the city." But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking.

¹⁵ When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, "Get up! Take your wife, and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city."

¹⁶ But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife's hand, and his two daughters' hands, Yahweh being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city.

¹⁷ It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, "Escape for your life! Don't look behind you, and don't stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed!"

¹⁸ Lot said to them, "Oh, not so, my lord.

¹⁹ See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can't escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die.

²⁰ See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn't it a little one?), and my soul will live."

²¹ He said to him, "Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.

²² Hurry, escape there, for I can't do anything until you get there." Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

²³ The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

²⁴ Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky.

²⁵ He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.

²⁶ But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

²⁷ Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Yahweh.

²⁸ He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and looked, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.

²⁹ It happened, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.

³⁰ Lot went up out of Zoar, and lived in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his two daughters.

³¹ The firstborn said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in to us in the way of all the earth.

³² Come, let's make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father's seed."

³³ They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father. He didn't know when she lay down, nor when she arose.

³⁴ It came to pass on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, "Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine again, tonight. You go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve our father's seed."

³⁵ They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger went and lay with him. He didn't know when she lay down, nor when she got up.

³⁶ Thus both of Lot's daughters were with child by their father.

³⁷ The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day.

³⁸ The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.