Top of Page
Page Style
two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting at the gates of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them, and he bowed with his face to the ground. 2 “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night. Then you can get up early and go on your way.”
“No,” they said, “we will spend the night in the square.”
3 But he urged them so strongly that they did go with him and went into his house. He prepared a meal and baked some unleavened bread for them, and they ate. 4 But before they lay down for the night, all the men of Sodom, both young and old, came from every part of the city and surrounded the house. 5 They called out to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so we can have sex with them!”
6 Lot went outside to them and shut the door behind him. 7 He said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not do this wicked thing. 8 Look, I have two daughters who have never had sexual relations with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do whatever you want to them. But do not do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”
9 “Get out of our way,” they replied. Then they said, “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and already he wants to play the judge! Now we will treat you worse than we will treat them.” Then they pressed hard against Lot and moved forward to break down the door.
10 But the men inside reached out their hands and pulled Lot back into the house with them, and shut the door. 11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both young and old, so they were unable to find the door.
12 Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here: sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of this here, 13 for we are about to destroy this place. The outcry against its people has become so great before the Lord that He has sent us to destroy it.”
14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were going to marry his daughters. “Get up!” he said. “Flee from this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
15 When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Arise! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.”
16 But he hesitated, so the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters and led them out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to him. 17 As soon as the angels had brought them outside, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere on the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away.”
18 But Lot said to them, “No, my lords, please! 19 Your servant has found favour in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me by saving my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me and I will die. 20 Look, this town is close enough to the flee to, and it is a small place. Let me escape there—it’s only a small place, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”
21 He said to him, “Very well, I will grant you this request also. I will not overthrow the town you speak of. 22 Hurry, flee there quickly, for I cannot do anything until you will arrive there.” (That is why the name of the town is Zoar.)
23 The sun had risen over the land by the time Lot reached Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained down burning sulphur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of the heavens. 25 So He overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all the inhabitants of the cities, and whatever grew on the ground. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
27 Early in the morning Abraham went back to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like the smoke from a furnace.
29 So it was, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham, and He brought Lot out of the midst of the catastrophe when He overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.
30 Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the mountains along with his two daughters, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. Then he and his two daughters lived in a cave. 31 One day the firstborn daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to come in to us, as is the custom over all the earth. 32 Come, let’s get our father to drink wine, and we will lie with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.”
33 So that night they got their father drink wine, and the firstborn daughter went in and lay with her father; but he did not know when she laid down or when she got up.
34 The next day the firstborn daughter said to the younger, “Look, last night I laid with my father. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight so you can go in and lie with him, and we can preserve our family line through our father.” 35 That night they made their father drink wine again also, and the younger daughter laid with him; but he did not know when she lied down or when she got up.
36 So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. 37 The firstborn daughter gave birth to a son, and she named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites of today. 38 The younger daughter also gave birth to a son she named him Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites of today.