Genesis 19
19
The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
1The two angels entered Sodom # Gn 18:2,22 in the evening as Lot was sitting at Sodom’s gate. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them. He bowed with his face to the ground 2and said, “My lords, turn aside to your servant’s house, wash your feet, and spend the night. Then you can get up early and go on your way.”
“No,” they said. “We would rather spend the night in the square.” 3But he urged them so strongly that they followed him and went into his house. He prepared a feast and baked unleavened bread for them, and they ate.
4Before they went to bed, the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, the whole population, surrounded the house. 5They called out to Lot and said, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have sex with them! ” # Lv 18:22; Jdg 19:22
6Lot went out to them at the entrance and shut the door behind him. 7He said, “Don’t do this evil, my brothers. 8Look, I’ve got two daughters who haven’t had sexual relations with a man. # Jdg 19:24 I’ll bring them out to you, and you can do whatever you want # Lit do what is good in your eyes to them. However, don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the protection of my roof.”
9“Get out of the way! ” they said, adding, “This one came here as a foreigner, but he’s acting like a judge! # Ex 2:14 Now we’ll do more harm to you than to them.” They put pressure on Lot and came up to break down the door. 10But the angels # Lit men reached out, brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. 11They struck the men who were at the entrance of the house, both young and old, with a blinding light so that they were unable to find the entrance. # Dt 28:28-29; 2Kg 6:18; Ac 13:11
12Then the angels # Lit men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here: a son-in-law, your sons and daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of this place, 13for we are about to destroy this place because the outcry against its people is so great before the Lord, that the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” # Gn 18:20-21; Ex 3:7; 22:23; 1Sm 9:16; Jb 27:9
14So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were going to marry # Lit take his daughters. “Get up,” he said. “Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city! ” # Nm 16:21,26,45; Jr 51:6; Rv 18:4 But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
15At daybreak the angels urged Lot on: “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment # Or iniquity, or guilt of the city.” 16But he hesitated. Because of the Lord’s compassion for him, the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters. Then they brought him out and left him outside the city.
17As soon as the angels got them outside, one of them # LXX, Syr, Vg read outside, they said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look back and don’t stop anywhere on the plain! Run to the mountains, or you will be swept away! ”
18But Lot said to them, “No, my lords # Or My Lord, or My lords — please. 19Your servant has indeed found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness by saving my life. But I can’t run to the mountains; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die. 20Look, this town is close enough for me to run to. It is a small place. Please let me go there — it’s only a small place, isn’t it? — so that I can survive.”
21And he said to him, “All right, # Or Look! I’ll grant your request # Lit I will lift up your face about this matter too and will not demolish the town you mentioned. 22Hurry up! Run there, for I cannot do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city is Zoar. # In Hb, the name Zoar is related to the phrase “small place” in v. 20; its original name was Bela; Gn 14:2. # Gn 14:2
23The sun had risen over the land when Lot reached Zoar. 24Then out of the sky the Lord rained burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord. # Dt 29:23; Ps 11:6; Is 13:19; Jr 20:16; Ezk 16:49-50; Lk 17:28-29; 2Pt 2:6-8; Jd 7 25He demolished these cities, the entire plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and whatever grew on the ground. 26But his wife looked back and became a pillar of salt. # Lk 17:32
27Early in the morning Abraham went to the place where he had stood before the Lord. # Gn 18:22 28He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and he saw that smoke was going up from the land like the smoke of a furnace. 29So it was, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham and brought Lot out of the middle of the upheaval when He demolished the cities where Lot had lived.
The Origin of Moab and Ammon
30Lot departed from Zoar and lived in the mountains along with his two daughters, because he was afraid to live in Zoar. Instead, he and his two daughters lived in a cave. 31Then the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to sleep with us as is the custom of all the land. 32Come, let’s get our father to drink wine so that we can sleep with him and preserve our father’s line.” 33So they got their father to drink wine that night, and the firstborn came and slept with her father; he did not know when she lay down or when she got up.
34The next day the firstborn said to the younger, “Look, I slept with my father last night. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight so you can go sleep with him and we can preserve our father’s line.” 35That night they again got their father to drink wine, and the younger went and slept with him; he did not know when she lay down or when she got up.
36So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. 37The firstborn gave birth to a son and named him Moab. # = From My Father He is the father of the Moabites of today. # Dt 2:9 38The younger also gave birth to a son, and she named him Ben-ammi. # = Son of My People He is the father of the Ammonites of today. # Dt 2:19
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Genesis 19
19
1-2The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening. Lot was sitting at the city gate. He saw them and got up to welcome them, bowing before them and said, “Please, my friends, come to my house and stay the night. Wash up. You can rise early and be on your way refreshed.”
They said, “No, we’ll sleep in the street.”
3But he insisted, wouldn’t take no for an answer; and they relented and went home with him. Lot fixed a hot meal for them and they ate.
4-5Before they went to bed, men from all over the city of Sodom, young and old, descended on the house from all sides and boxed them in. They yelled to Lot, “Where are the men who are staying with you for the night? Bring them out so we can have our sport with them!”
6-8Lot went out, barring the door behind him, and said, “Brothers, please, don’t be vile! Look, I have two daughters, virgins; let me bring them out; you can take your pleasure with them, but don’t touch these men—they’re my guests.”
9They said, “Get lost! You drop in from nowhere and now you’re going to tell us how to run our lives. We’ll treat you worse than them!” And they charged past Lot to break down the door.
10-11But the two men reached out and pulled Lot inside the house, locking the door. Then they struck blind the men who were trying to break down the door, both leaders and followers, leaving them groping in the dark.
12-13The two men said to Lot, “Do you have any other family here? Sons, daughters—anybody in the city? Get them out of here, and now! We’re going to destroy this place. The outcries of victims here to God are deafening; we’ve been sent to blast this place into oblivion.”
14Lot went out and warned the fiancés of his daughters, “Evacuate this place; God is about to destroy this city!” But his daughters’ would-be husbands treated it as a joke.
15At break of day, the angels pushed Lot to get going, “Hurry. Get your wife and two daughters out of here before it’s too late and you’re caught in the punishment of the city.”
16-17Lot was dragging his feet. The men grabbed Lot’s arm, and the arms of his wife and daughters—God was so merciful to them!—and dragged them to safety outside the city. When they had them outside, Lot was told, “Now run for your life! Don’t look back! Don’t stop anywhere on the plain—run for the hills or you’ll be swept away.”
18-20But Lot protested, “No, masters, you can’t mean it! I know that you’ve taken a liking to me and have done me an immense favor in saving my life, but I can’t run for the mountains—who knows what terrible thing might happen to me in the mountains and leave me for dead. Look over there—that town is close enough to get to. It’s a small town, hardly anything to it. Let me escape there and save my life—it’s a mere wide place in the road.”
21-22“All right, Lot. If you insist. I’ll let you have your way. And I won’t stamp out the town you’ve spotted. But hurry up. Run for it! I can’t do anything until you get there.” That’s why the town was called Zoar, that is, Smalltown.
23The sun was high in the sky when Lot arrived at Zoar.
24-25Then God rained brimstone and fire down on Sodom and Gomorrah—a river of lava from God out of the sky!—and destroyed these cities and the entire plain and everyone who lived in the cities and everything that grew from the ground.
26But Lot’s wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt.
27-28Abraham got up early the next morning and went to the place he had so recently stood with God. He looked out over Sodom and Gomorrah, surveying the whole plain. All he could see was smoke belching from the Earth, like smoke from a furnace.
29And that’s the story: When God destroyed the Cities of the Plain, he was mindful of Abraham and first got Lot out of there before he blasted those cities off the face of the Earth.
30Lot left Zoar and went into the mountains to live with his two daughters; he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his daughters.
31-32One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is getting old and there’s not a man left in the country by whom we can get pregnant. Let’s get our father drunk with wine and lie with him. We’ll get children through our father—it’s our only chance to keep our family alive.”
33-35They got their father drunk with wine that very night. The older daughter went and lay with him. He was oblivious, knowing nothing of what she did. The next morning the older said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Tonight, it’s your turn. We’ll get him drunk again and then you sleep with him. We’ll both get a child through our father and keep our family alive.” So that night they got their father drunk again and the younger went in and slept with him. Again he was oblivious, knowing nothing of what she did.
36-38Both daughters became pregnant by their father, Lot. The older daughter had a son and named him Moab, the ancestor of the present-day Moabites. The younger daughter had a son and named him Ben-Ammi, the ancestor of the present-day Ammonites.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.