So it was, as God destroyed the cities of the surrounding area, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the upheaval, when He demolished the cities where Lot had dwelt.
So they will not be like their fathers— a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not prepare its heart, whose spirit was not loyal to God.
When Adonai brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you are to observe this service during this month.
“Go now, gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them: ‘Adonai, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—has appeared to me, saying, I have been paying close attention to you and have seen what is done to you in Egypt.
Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your offspring, and they will inherit it forever.’”
In those days and in that time” —it is a declaration of Adonai— “Israel’s guilt will be sought, but there will be none, also for the sins of Judah, but they will not be found. For I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.
But for their sake I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am Adonai.”
I prayed to Adonai and said, ‘O Lord, Adonai, do not destroy Your people—Your inheritance that You have redeemed through Your greatness and brought out from Egypt with a mighty hand.
Otherwise the land from which You brought us out may say, “Because Adonai was not able to bring them into the land that He spoke of to them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.”
Please my lord, pay no attention to this worthless fellow, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he—Nabal is his name and disgraceful folly is with him. But I, your maidservant, did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.