Genesis 19
1 The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. When he saw them, Lot got up to meet them and bowed with his face to the ground.
2 He said, “My lords, please come to your servant’s house to spend the night and wash your feet. In the morning you can get up early and go on your way.” They replied, “No, we’ll spend the night in the town square.”
3 But he urged them strongly, so they went with him and entered his house. He prepared a feast for them, baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
4 Before they had gone to bed, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, from the youngest to the oldest, all the people from every quarter.
5 They called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to your house tonight? Bring them out to us so we can have sex with them.”
6 Lot went out to them at the entrance and shut the door behind him.
7 He said, “My brothers, please don’t do this wicked thing.
8 Look, I have two daughters who have never had relations with a man. I’ll bring them out to you, and you can do with them whatever seems right to you. But don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the shelter of my roof.”
9 But they said, “Get out of the way!” They added, “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to act as a judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They pressed Lot, the man, hard, and moved forward to break down the door.
10 Then the men reached out, pulled Lot inside the house to them, and shut the door.
11 They struck the men at the entrance of the house with blindness, from the youngest to the oldest, so that they wore themselves out trying to find the entrance.
12 The men said to Lot, “Who else do you have here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and anyone else you have in the city—get them out of this place.
13 For we are going to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it.”
14 Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters. He said, “Get up and leave this place, because the LORD is going to destroy the city.” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
15 At daybreak, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will perish because of the city’s guilt.”
16 When he hesitated, the men took him by the hand, along with his wife and his two daughters, because the LORD had mercy on him. They brought him out and left him outside the city.
17 After they had brought them outside, one of them said, “Run for your life! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain. Run to the hill country, or you will perish.”
18 Lot said to them, “Please, no, my lord!
19 Your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness by sparing my life. But I can’t run to the hill country; disaster may overtake me, and I’ll die.
20 Look, that town is close enough to run to, and it’s small. Let me run there—isn’t it small? Then my life will be spared.”
21 He replied, “All right, I will grant you this request too: I will not destroy the town you have spoken about.
22 Hurry, run there, because I can’t do anything until you get there.” That is why the town was named Zoar.
23 The sun had risen over the land when Lot arrived at Zoar.
24 Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the LORD, out of heaven.
25 He overthrew those cities and the whole plain, along with all the people who lived in the cities and everything growing from the ground.
26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
27 Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the LORD.
28 He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and saw smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.
29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham and brought Lot out of the destruction as he overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.
30 Lot went up from Zoar and lived in the hill country with his two daughters, because he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He lived in a cave, he and his two daughters.
31 The older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man on earth to come in to us as is done everywhere.
32 Come, let’s give our father wine and lie with him, so we can preserve our father’s line.”
33 That night they gave their father wine, and the older daughter went in and lay with him. He did not know when she lay down or when she got up.
34 The next day, the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I lay with my father. Let’s give him wine again tonight. Then you go in and lie with him, so we can preserve our father’s line.”
35 That night too they gave their father wine, and the younger daughter got up and lay with him. He did not know when she lay down or when she got up.
36 So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father.
37 The older daughter gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day.
38 The younger daughter also gave birth to a son and named him Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day.
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