Genesis 19

19 ¹The two angels came to Sodom that evening; Lot sat at Sodom's gate. Seeing them, he rose to meet them and bowed, face to the ground. ^a a v1 Only two of the three figures who appeared to Abraham at Mamre traveled on to Sodom — our Father stayed and walked with Abraham; these two angels carried the judgment forward. ²"Please, my lords," he said, "stop at your servant's house, spend the night, wash your feet; rise early and go your way." "No," they said, "we'll spend the night in the square."

³He pressed them hard, so they turned aside to him, entered his house. He made them a feast, baked bread without yeast, and they ate. ⁴Before they lay down, the men of the city—Sodom's men—young and old, all the people, without exception, surrounded the house. ⁵They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out—let us have sex with them."

⁶Lot went out to them at the entrance, shutting the door behind him, ⁷and said, "Please, my brothers, don't do evil. ⁸I have two daughters who've never been with a man. I'll bring them out to you—do to them as you please. But do nothing to these men; they've come under my roof's protection."

⁹They said, "Get back!" Then, "This outsider came to stay, and now he judges us? We'll treat you worse than them." They pressed hard against Lot and moved in to break down the door. ¹⁰But the men reached out, pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. ¹¹They struck the men at the house door blind, small to great, till they wore themselves out searching for the door.

¹²The men said to Lot, "Who else do you have here—son-in-law, sons, daughters, anyone in the city who's yours? Bring them out of this place. ¹³We're about to destroy this place - the outcry against its people has grown great before our Father, and our Father sent us to destroy it."

¹⁴Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, betrothed to his daughters: "Get up, leave this place—our Father is about to destroy the city!" Yet his sons-in-law took it as a joke.

¹⁵At dawn the angels urged Lot: "Get up, take your wife and two daughters here, or you'll be consumed in the city's punishment." ¹⁶He hesitated, so the men grabbed his hand, his wife's, and two daughters', our Father pitying him, and they brought him out and left him outside the city. ¹⁷When they were brought outside, one of them said, "Run for your life! Don't look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Flee to the hills, or you'll be swept away."

¹⁸But Lot said to them, "No, please, my Sovereign Father. ¹⁹Your servant has found favor with you; you've shown great kindness saving my life. But I can't flee to the hills—disaster will catch me and I'll die. ²⁰Please—that town is near, small enough to run to. Let me escape there—isn't it small?—so I may live."

²¹He said to him, "I grant this favor too: I won't overthrow the town you mentioned. ²²Hurry, flee there—I can do nothing until you arrive." That's why the town is named Zoar. ^b b v22 Zoar means "little" — Lot named the town after his own plea that it was "only a little one."

²³The sun had risen over the land when Lot reached Zoar. ²⁴Then our Father rained sulfur and fire out of heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah. ^c c v24 Some Christian readers have heard two Persons of the Trinity in this verse's doubled naming, but FHB hears one — our Father, whose judgment comes from his own throne. ²⁵He destroyed those cities, the whole plain, all the cities' residents, and everything growing on the ground. ²⁶But Lot's wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

²⁷Early the next morning Abraham went to the place where he had stood before our Father. ²⁸He looked toward Sodom, Gomorrah, and the whole plain, and saw smoke rising from the land like smoke from a kiln.

²⁹When our Father destroyed the plain's cities, our Father remembered Abraham and brought Lot out of the overthrow of the cities where Lot lived.

Lot in the Cave

³⁰Lot went up from Zoar to live in the mountains with his two daughters, afraid to stay in Zoar; he and his two daughters lived in a cave. ³¹The firstborn told the younger, "Our father is old; no man remains in the land to sleep with us, as is customary everywhere. ³²Come, let's give our father wine, then sleep with him, and keep offspring alive through our father." ³³That night they gave their father wine; the firstborn went in and lay with him. He never knew when she lay down or rose. ³⁴Next day the firstborn said to the younger, "I slept with my father last night. Let's give him wine again tonight—go sleep with him, so we preserve offspring from our father." ³⁵That night too they had their father drink wine; the younger got up and slept with him, and 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 bore a son, named him Moab—father of the Moabites to this day. ³⁸The younger also had a son and named him Ben-Ammi—father of the Ammonites to this day.