Lot Welcomes the Angels
1. Now the two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them, bowed facedown,
2. and said, “My lords, please turn aside into your servant’s house to wash your feet and spend the night, and then you can rise early and go on your way.”
“No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”
3. But Lot insisted so strongly that they followed him into his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
4. Before they had gone to bed, the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house.
5. They called out to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have relations with them!”
6. Lot went outside to meet them, shutting the door behind him.
7. “Please, my brothers,” he begged, “do not act wickedly!
8. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do with them as you please. 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. “This man came here as a foreigner, and now he dares to judge us! We’ll do more harm to you than to them.” And they pressed in on Lot and came near to break down the door.
10. But the men inside reached out their hands, brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.
11. And they struck the men at the entrance with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the door.
Lot Flees to Zoar
12. Then the two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here,
13. because we are about to destroy this place. For the outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that He has sent us to destroy it.”
14. So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged in marriage to his daughters. “Get up,” he said. “Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
15. At first light, the angels urged Lot on, saying, “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.”
16. But when Lot hesitated, the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters. And they led them safely out of the city, because of the LORD’s compassion for them.
17. As soon as the men had brought them out, one of them said, “Run for your lives! Do not look back, and do not 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 indeed found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness by sparing my life. But I cannot run to the mountains; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die.
20. Look, this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Let me escape to it—is it not small?—so that my life will be saved.”
21. And he replied, “Behold, I grant you this request as well, and I will not overthrow the town you mentioned.
22. Hurry, escape there quickly, for I cannot do anything until you reach it.” That is why the town was called Zoar.
23. By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land.
The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
24. Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens.
25. Thus He overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all the inhabitants of the cities and everything that grew on the ground.
26. But Lot’s wife looked back and became a pillar of salt.
27. Early the next morning, Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD.
28. He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw the smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace.
29. So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham, and He brought Lot out of the catastrophe that destroyed the cities where he had lived.
Lot and His Daughters
30. Lot went up from Zoar to the mountains and settled in the cave, along with his two daughters, because he was afraid to stay in Zoar. So he and his two daughters lived in a cave.
31. Then the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around to lie with us, as is the custom over all the earth.
32. Come, let us get our father drunk with wine, so we can lie with him and preserve his line.”
33. So they got their father drunk with wine that night, and the older daughter went in and lay with him. He was not aware of her lying down or getting up.
34. The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Look, I lay with our father last night. Let us get him drunk with wine again tonight so you can go in and lie with him, and we can preserve his line.”
35 So they got their father drunk with wine again that night, and the younger daughter went in and lay with him. And once again, he was not aware of her lying down or getting up.
36 Thus both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father.
37 The older 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, and she named him Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites of today.