Genesis 19
19
The Evil City of Sodom
1That evening, while Lot was sitting near the city gate,#19.1 near the city gate: In a large area where the people would gather for community business and for meeting with friends. the two angels#19.1 two angels: The two men of 18.22. arrived in Sodom. When Lot saw them, he got up, bowed down low, 2and said, “Gentlemen, I am your servant. Please come to my home. You can wash your feet, spend the night, and be on your way in the morning.”
They told him, “No, we'll spend the night in the city square.” 3But Lot kept insisting, until they finally agreed and went home with him. He quickly baked some bread,#19.3 bread: The Hebrew text has “bread without yeast,” which could be made quickly when guests came without warning. cooked a meal, and they ate.
4Before Lot and his guests could go to bed, every man in Sodom, young and old, came and stood outside his house 5#Jg 19.22-24. and started shouting, “Where are your visitors? Send them out, so we can have sex with them!”
6Lot went outside and shut the door behind him. 7Then he said, “Friends, please don't do such a terrible thing! 8I have two daughters who have never had sex. I'll bring them out, and you can do what you want with them. But don't harm these men. They are guests in my home.”
9“Don't get in our way,” the crowd answered. “You're a foreigner. What right do you have to order us around? We'll do worse things to you than we're going to do to them.”
The crowd kept arguing with Lot. Finally, they rushed toward the door to break it down. 10But the two angels in the house reached out and pulled Lot safely inside. 11#2 K 6.18. Then they struck blind everyone in the crowd, and none of them could even find the door.
12-13The two angels said to Lot, “The Lord has heard many terrible things about the people of Sodom, and he has sent us here to destroy the city. Take your family and leave. Take every relative you have in the city, as well as the men your daughters are going to marry.”
14Lot went to the men who were engaged to his daughters and said, “Hurry up and get out of here! The Lord is going to destroy this city.” But they thought he was joking, and they laughed at him.
15Early the next morning the two angels tried to make Lot hurry and leave. They said, “Take your wife and your two daughters and get away from here as fast as you can! If you don't, every one of you will be killed when the Lord destroys the city.” 16#2 P 2.7,8. At first, Lot just stood there. But the Lord wanted to save him. So the angels took Lot, his wife, and his two daughters by the hand and led them out of the city. 17When they were outside, one of the angels said, “Run for your lives! Don't even look back. And don't stop in the valley. Run to the hills, where you'll be safe.”
18-19Lot answered, “You have done us a great favor, sir. You have saved our lives, but please don't make us go to the hills. That's too far away. The city will be destroyed before we can get there, and we will be killed when it happens. 20There's a town near here. It's only a small place, but my family and I will be safe, if you let us go there.”
21“All right, go there,” he answered. “I won't destroy that town. 22Hurry! Run! I can't do anything until you are safely there.”
The town was later called Zoar#19.22 Zoar: In Hebrew “Zoar” sounds like “small.” because Lot had said it was small.
Sodom and Gomorrah Are Destroyed
23The sun was coming up as Lot reached the town of Zoar, 24#3 Macc 2.5; Mt 10.15; 11.23,24; Lk 10.12; 17.29; 2 P 2.6; Jd 7. and the Lord sent burning sulfur down like rain on Sodom and Gomorrah. 25He destroyed those cities and everyone who lived in them, as well as their land and the trees and grass that grew there.
26 #
Ws 10.7; Lk 17.32. On the way, Lot's wife looked back and was turned into a block of salt.
27That same morning Abraham got up and went to the place where he had stood and spoken with the Lord. 28He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and saw smoke rising from all over the land—it was like a flaming furnace.
29When God destroyed the cities of the valley where Lot lived, he remembered his promise to Abraham and saved Lot from the terrible destruction.
Moab and Ammon
30Lot was afraid to stay on in Zoar. So he took his two daughters and moved to a cave in the hill country. 31One day his older daughter said to her sister, “Our father is old, and there are no men anywhere for us to marry. 32Let's get our father drunk! Then we can sleep with him and have children.” 33That night they got their father drunk, and the older daughter got in bed with him, but he was too drunk even to know she was there.
34The next day the older daughter said to her sister, “I slept with my father last night. We'll get him drunk again tonight, so you can sleep with him, and we can each have a child.” 35That night they got their father drunk, and this time the younger sister slept with him. But once again he was too drunk even to know she was there.
36That's how Lot's two daughters had children. 37The older daughter named her son Moab,#19.37 Moab: In Hebrew “Moab” sounds like “from (my) father.” and he is the ancestor of the Moabites. 38The younger daughter named her son Benammi,#19.38 Benammi: In Hebrew “Benammi” means “son of my relative.” and he is the ancestor of the Ammonites.
Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Genesis 19
19
1And the two angels came to Sodom at even. And Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. And Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them; and he bowed down, the face toward the ground, 2and he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and lodge, and wash your feet; and ye shall rise up early, and go on your way. And they said, No; but we will pass the night in the open place. 3And he urged them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house. And he made them a repast, and baked unleavened cakes; and they ate.
4Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, from the youngest to the oldest — all the people from every quarter. 5And they called to Lot, and said to him, Where are the men that have come in to thee to-night? bring them out to us that we may know them. 6And Lot went out to them to the entrance, and shut the door after him, 7and said, I pray you, my brethren, do not wickedly! 8Behold now, I have two daughters who have not known a man: let me now bring them out to you; and do to them as is good in your sight: only, to these men do nothing; for therefore have they come under the shadow of my roof. 9And they said, Back there! And they said again, This one came to sojourn, and he must be a judge? Now we will deal worse with thee than with them. And they pressed hard on the man — on Lot; and drew near to break the door. 10And the men stretched out their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door. 11And they smote the men that were at the entrance of the house with blindness, from the smallest to the greatest; and they wearied themselves to find the entrance.
12And the men said to Lot, Whom hast thou here besides? a son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and all whom thou hast in the city — bring them out of the place. 13For we are going to destroy this place, because the cry of them is great before Jehovah, and Jehovah has sent us to destroy it. 14And Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, Up, go out of this place, for Jehovah will destroy the city. But he was as if he jested, in the sight of his sons-in-law.
15And as the dawn arose, the angels urged Lot, saying, Up, take thy wife and thy two daughters who are present, lest thou perish in the iniquity of the city. 16And as he lingered, the men laid hold on his hand, and on the hand of his wife, and on the hand of his two daughters, Jehovah being merciful to him; and they led him out, and set him without the city. 17And it came to pass when they had brought them outside, that he said, Escape for thy life: look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain: escape to the mountain, lest thou perish. 18And Lot said to them, Not so, I pray thee, Lord; 19behold now, thy servant has found favour in thine eyes, and thou hast magnified thy goodness, which thou hast shewn to me in preserving my soul alive; but I cannot escape to the mountain, lest calamity lay hold on me, that I die. 20Behold now, this city is near to flee to, and it is small: I pray thee, let me escape thither — is it not small? — and my soul shall live. 21And he said to him, Behold, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which thou hast spoken. 22Haste, escape thither; for I cannot do anything until thou art come there. Therefore the name of the city is called Zoar. 23The sun rose upon the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
24And Jehovah rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Jehovah out of heaven, 25and overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew upon the ground.
26And his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
27And Abraham rose early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before Jehovah; 28and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and lo, a smoke went up from the land as the smoke of a furnace. 29And it came to pass when God#GodHebrew: Elohim destroyed the cities of the plain, that God#GodHebrew: Elohim remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt.
30And Lot went up from Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar. And he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. 31And the first-born said to the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the land to come in to us after the manner of all the earth: 32come, let us give our father wine to drink, and let us lie with him, that we may preserve seed alive of our father. 33And they gave their father wine to drink that night. And the first-born went in, and lay with her father, and he did not know of her lying down, nor of her rising. 34And it came to pass on the next day that the first-born said to the younger, Lo, I lay last night with my father: let us give him wine to drink to-night also, and go thou in, lie with him, that we may preserve seed alive of our father. 35And they gave their father wine to drink that night also. And the younger arose, and lay with him; and he did not know of her lying down, nor of her rising. 36And both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. 37And the first-born bore a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38And the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; the same is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.
First published in 1890. This edition is maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.