Genesis
Chapter 19
1 Two angels came to Sodom in the evening; Lot was sitting at the entrance of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he got up to greet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.
2 He said, “Please, come to my house and stay the night. Wash your feet, and you can leave early in the morning.” But they answered, “No, we’ll stay outside all night.”
3 He insisted they stay with him, so they did and went into his house. He prepared a meal for them, baked bread without yeast, and they ate.
4 Before they went to bed, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, all men, both old and young, from every part of the city.
5 They called to Lot and asked, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so we can meet them.”
6 Lot went outside to meet them and closed the door behind him.
7 Please, my friends, don’t do this evil.
8 Look, I have two daughters who have never been with a man. Let me bring them to you, and you can do what you think is right to them. But don’t do anything to these men, because they are under the protection of my roof.
9 They said, “Move back.” Then they said, “This man came to stay here and now he wants to judge us. We’ll treat you worse than them.” They pushed hard against the man, Lot, and came close to breaking the door.
10 The men reached out their hand, pulled Lot inside the house with them, and closed the door.
11 They struck the people at the house entrance with blindness, everyone from least to greatest, so they got tired trying to find the door.
12 The men asked Lot, “Do you have anyone else here? Your sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and anyone you have in the city, take them out of this place.”
13 We will destroy this place because their cries have become very loud and God has sent us to destroy it.
14 Lot went out and talked to his sons-in-law, who were married to his daughters, and said, “Get up, leave this place; because God will destroy this city.” But to his sons-in-law, he seemed like he was joking.
15 When morning came, the angels hurried Lot, saying, “Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are with you, or you will be swept away in the city’s sin.”
16 As he hesitated, the men took his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters because God was kind to him; they led him out and placed him outside the city.
17 When they took them outside, he said, “Run for your life; don’t look back or stop anywhere in the valley; go to the mountains or you will be swept away.”
18 And Lot said to them, “Oh, please no, sir.”
19 Look, I have found favor with you, and you have shown me great kindness by saving my life. But I can’t run to the mountain because some harm might catch me, and I would die.
20 Look, this city is close enough to run to, and it’s small. Please let me run there—it’s small, right?—and I will live.
21 He told him, “Look, I have agreed to your request about this matter too, so I will not destroy the city you’ve spoken for.”
22 Hurry, go there; because I can’t do anything until you arrive there. That’s why the city was named Zoar.
23 The sun had risen over the earth when Lot went into Zoar.
24 God made sulfur and fire rain down on Sodom and Gomorrah from the sky.
25 He destroyed those cities, the whole area, everyone living in the cities, and everything growing on the land.
26 His wife looked back and turned into a salt pillar.
27 Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before God.
28 He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, saw smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace.
29 When God destroyed the plain cities, God thought of Abraham and took Lot out of the destruction as he ruined the cities where Lot lived.
30 Lot left Zoar and lived in the mountains with his two daughters because he was afraid to live in Zoar, so they stayed in a cave.
31 The older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there are no men around to be with us in the way that is usual everywhere.
32 Let’s get our father to drink wine and sleep with him to keep our family going.
33 That night they gave their father wine to drink, and the oldest daughter slept with her father without him noticing when she lay down or when she got up.
34 The next day, the older sister told the younger, “Look, I slept with our father last night. Let’s get him drunk with wine again tonight; then you go and sleep with him, so we can have children from our father.”
35 That night they also gave their father wine to drink, and the younger daughter went and slept with him. He didn’t notice when she lay down or when she got up.
36 Both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father.
37 The firstborn had a son and named him Moab; he is the ancestor of the Moabites to this day.
38 The younger daughter also gave birth to a son and named him Benammi. He is the ancestor of the Ammonites.