Genesis 19
19
Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed
1#Ge 18:22; 18:1–5Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them he rose up to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. 2#Ge 18:4; Heb 13:2Then he said, “Here, my lords, please turn in to your servant’s house and spend the night and wash your feet; and then you may rise early and go on your way.”
They said, “No, we will stay in the open square all night.”
3#Ge 18:6–8But he strongly insisted, so they turned aside with him and entered his house. Then he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. 4#Ge 13:13; 18:20Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. 5#Jdg 19:22; Isa 3:9They then called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may have relations with them.”
6#Jdg 19:23So Lot went out through the door to them and shut the door behind him. 7Then he said, “Please, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. 8#Jdg 19:24Look, I have two daughters who have not been with a man. Please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.”
9#Ex 2:14; Ge 13:12But they replied, “Stand back!” Also, they said, “This man came here as an alien, and he keeps acting like a judge. We will deal worse with you than with them.” So they pressed hard against Lot, and came close to breaking down the door.
10But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them and shut the door. 11#2Ki 6:18; Ac 13:11Then they struck the men that were at the door of the house, both small and great, with blindness so that they wore themselves out groping for the door.
12#Ge 7:1; 2Pe 2:7Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city, take them out of this place! 13#Ge 18:20For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has grown great before the presence of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”
14#Nu 16:21; 16:45So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, “Get up, get out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city!” But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.
15#Rev 18:4When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here. Otherwise you will be consumed in the punishment of the city.”
16And while he lingered, the men took hold of his and his wife’s hands, along with the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him, and brought him out and set him outside the city. 17#Ge 19:26; Mt 24:16–18When they had brought them out, one of them said to them, “Escape for your lives! Do not look behind you or stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountain, lest you be destroyed.”
18Then Lot said to them, “Please, no, my lords! 19Your servant has found grace in your eyes, and you have shown your mercy, which you have shown to me by saving my life. However, I cannot escape to the mountain. Otherwise some evil will overtake me, and I will die. 20Look, this city is close enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Please, let me escape there (is it not a little one?), and my life will be saved.”
21He said to him, “I have granted your request in this matter also. I will not overthrow this city of which you have spoken. 22#Ge 14:2; 13:10Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
23The sun had risen over the land when Lot entered Zoar. 24#Dt 29:23; Isa 13:19Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah. It was from the Lord out of heaven. 25#Ps 107:34So He overthrew those cities, all the valley, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26#Ge 19:17But his wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
27Now Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he stood before the Lord. 28#Rev 18:9Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the valley, and he saw the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of a furnace.
29#Ge 8:1; Dt 9:5So it was that when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the destruction, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.
Lot and His Daughters
30#Ge 19:19Then Lot left Zoar, and lived in the mountains, along with his two daughters who were with him, for he was afraid to dwell in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. 31#Ge 16:2; 16:4And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man on the earth to have relations with us after the manner of all the earth. 32Let us make our father drink wine and let us lie with him, so that we may preserve the lineage of our father.”
33So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and had relations with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
34On the next day the firstborn said to the younger, “Indeed, last night I had relations with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also, so that you may go in and have relations with him, so that we may preserve the lineage of our father.” 35So they made their father drink wine that night also. Then the younger arose and lay down with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
36Therefore both the daughters of Lot were pregnant by their father. 37#Dt 2:9The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38#Dt 2:19The younger also gave birth to a son and called his name Ben-Ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day.
Military Bible Association
Genesis 19
19
Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed
1That evening the two angels came to the entrance of the city of Sodom. Lot was sitting there, and when he saw them, he stood up to meet them. Then he welcomed them and bowed with his face to the ground. 2“My lords,” he said, “come to my home to wash your feet, and be my guests for the night. You may then get up early in the morning and be on your way again.”
“Oh no,” they replied. “We’ll just spend the night out here in the city square.”
3But Lot insisted, so at last they went home with him. Lot prepared a feast for them, complete with fresh bread made without yeast, and they ate. 4But before they retired for the night, all the men of Sodom, young and old, came from all over the city and surrounded the house. 5They shouted to Lot, “Where are the men who came to spend the night with you? Bring them out to us so we can have sex with them!”
6So Lot stepped outside to talk to them, shutting the door behind him. 7“Please, my brothers,” he begged, “don’t do such a wicked thing. 8Look, I have two virgin daughters. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do with them as you wish. But please, leave these men alone, for they are my guests and are under my protection.”
9“Stand back!” they shouted. “This fellow came to town as an outsider, and now he’s acting like our judge! We’ll treat you far worse than those other men!” And they lunged toward Lot to break down the door.
10But the two angels#19:10 Hebrew men; also in 19:12, 16. reached out, pulled Lot into the house, and bolted the door. 11Then they blinded all the men, young and old, who were at the door of the house, so they gave up trying to get inside.
12Meanwhile, the angels questioned Lot. “Do you have any other relatives here in the city?” they asked. “Get them out of this place—your sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone else. 13For we are about to destroy this city completely. The outcry against this place is so great it has reached the Lord, and he has sent us to destroy it.”
14So Lot rushed out to tell his daughters’ fiancés, “Quick, get out of the city! The Lord is about to destroy it.” But the young men thought he was only joking.
15At dawn the next morning the angels became insistent. “Hurry,” they said to Lot. “Take your wife and your two daughters who are here. Get out right now, or you will be swept away in the destruction of the city!”
16When Lot still hesitated, the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and rushed them to safety outside the city, for the Lord was merciful. 17When they were safely out of the city, one of the angels ordered, “Run for your lives! And don’t look back or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away!”
18“Oh no, my lord!” Lot begged. 19“You have been so gracious to me and saved my life, and you have shown such great kindness. But I cannot go to the mountains. Disaster would catch up to me there, and I would soon die. 20See, there is a small village nearby. Please let me go there instead; don’t you see how small it is? Then my life will be saved.”
21“All right,” the angel said, “I will grant your request. I will not destroy the little village. 22But hurry! Escape to it, for I can do nothing until you arrive there.” (This explains why that village was known as Zoar, which means “little place.”)
23Lot reached the village just as the sun was rising over the horizon. 24Then the Lord rained down fire and burning sulfur from the sky on Sodom and Gomorrah. 25He utterly destroyed them, along with the other cities and villages of the plain, wiping out all the people and every bit of vegetation. 26But Lot’s wife looked back as she was following behind him, and she turned into a pillar of salt.
27Abraham got up early that morning and hurried out to the place where he had stood in the Lord’s presence. 28He looked out across the plain toward Sodom and Gomorrah and watched as columns of smoke rose from the cities like smoke from a furnace.
29But God had listened to Abraham’s request and kept Lot safe, removing him from the disaster that engulfed the cities on the plain.
Lot and His Daughters
30Afterward Lot left Zoar because he was afraid of the people there, and he went to live in a cave in the mountains with his two daughters. 31One day the older daughter said to her sister, “There are no men left anywhere in this entire area, so we can’t get married like everyone else. And our father will soon be too old to have children. 32Come, let’s get him drunk with wine, and then we will have sex with him. That way we will preserve our family line through our father.”
33So that night they got him drunk with wine, and the older daughter went in and had intercourse with her father. He was unaware of her lying down or getting up again.
34The next morning the older daughter said to her younger sister, “I had sex with our father last night. Let’s get him drunk with wine again tonight, and you go in and have sex with him. That way we will preserve our family line through our father.” 35So that night they got him drunk with wine again, and the younger daughter went in and had intercourse with him. As before, he was unaware of her lying down or getting up again.
36As a result, both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their own father. 37When the older daughter gave birth to a son, she named him Moab.#19:37 Moab sounds like a Hebrew term that means “from father.” He became the ancestor of the nation now known as the Moabites. 38When the younger daughter gave birth to a son, she named him Ben-ammi.#19:38 Ben-ammi means “son of my kinsman.” He became the ancestor of the nation now known as the Ammonites.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
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