¹ Viešpats kalbėjo Jeremijui, kai Nebuzaradanas, sargybos viršininkas, paleido jį amoje. Tas jį išlaisvino iš grandinių, nes Jeremijas buvo vedamas drauge su kitais iš Jeruzalės į Babiloną.

² Sargybos viršininkas įsakė pašaukti Jeremiją ir tarė jam: “Viešpats, tavo Dievas, paskelbė apie ateinančią nelaimę šitai vietai.

³ Dabar Viešpats padarė taip, kaip buvo kalbėjęs, nes jūs nusikaltote Viešpačiui, neklausydami Jo.

⁴ Taigi šiandien aš nuimu grandines nuo tavo rankų. Jei tu nori eiti drauge su manimi į Babiloną, eik, ir aš tavimi pasirūpinsiu. O jei tu nenori eiti į Babiloną, neik! Visas kraštas yra tau prieš akis. Eik ten, kur tau patinka.

⁵ Eik pas Gedoliją, Šafano sūnaus Ahikamo sūnų, kurį Babilono karalius paskyrė Judo valdytoju, gyvenk ten arba pasirink kitą vietą”. Sargybos viršininkas davė jam maisto bei dovanų ir paleido jį.

⁶ Jeremijas nuėjo pas Goedoliją, Ahikamo sūnų, į Micpą ir gyveno tarp žmonių, kurie buvo likę krašte.

⁷ Kai išlikę Judo karo vadai ir jų žmonės išgirdo, jog Babilono karalius paskyrė krašto valdytoju Gedoliją, Ahikamo sūnų, ir pavedė jam likusius krašte beturčius, vyrus, moteris ir vaikus, neištremtus į Babiloną,

⁸ atėjo pas Gedoliją į Micpą Izmaelis, Netanijo sūnus, Johananas ir Jehonatanas, Kareacho sūnūs, Seraja, Tanhumeto sūnus, sūnūs Efajo iš Netofos ir Jezanijas, maako sūnus, su savo žmonėmis.

⁹ Gedolijas, sūnus Ahikamo, sūnaus Šafano, su priesaika sakė jiems: “Nebijokite chaldėjų, likite krašte, tarnaukite Babilono karaliui ir jums bus gerai.

¹⁰ Aš lieku Micpoje ir tarnausiu chaldėjams, kurie čia atvyks. O jūs rinkite vynuogynų, sodų ir alyvmedžių vaisius, kaupkite jų atsargas ir gyvenkite tuose miestuose, kuriuos pasirinkote”.

¹¹ Visi žydai, kurie buvo Moabe, Edome ir kituose kraštuose, išgirdę, kad Babilono karalius paliko krašte likutį ir Gedoliją, Šafano sūnaus Ahikamo sūnų, paskyrė krašto valdytoju,

¹² sugrįžo iš visų vietovių, kuriose jie buvo išblaškyti, į Judo kraštą pas Gedoliją į Micpą. Jie surinko labai daug vynuogių ir sodų vaisių.

¹³ Johananas, Kareacho sūnus, ir kiti karo vadai, kurie buvo krašte, atėjo pas Gedoliją į Micpą.

¹⁴ Jie jam sakė: “Ar žinai, kad Baalis, amonitų karalius, atsiuntė Izmaelį, Netanijo sūnų, tavęs nužudyti?” Bet Gedolijas, Ahikamo sūnus, jais netikėjo.

¹⁵ Johananas, Kareacho sūnus, slaptai pasisiūlė Gedolijui Micpoje: “Leisk man eiti ir nužudyti Izmaelį, Netanijo sūnų. Niekas apie tai nesužinos. Kodėl jis turėtų nužudyti tave? Tuomet Judo žmonės, kurie yra čia susirinkę, būtų išblaškyti ir Judo likutis pražūtų”.

¹⁶ Gedolijas, Ahikamo sūnus, atsakė Johananui, Kareacho sūnui: “Nedaryk taip, nes netiesą sakai apie Izmaelį”.

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.