Genesis 19:1-28 ▼

1 The two angels came to Sodom at evening. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them. He bowed himself with his face to the earth,

2 and he said, |See now, my lords, please turn aside into your servant's house, and stay all night, and wash your feet, then you may rise up early, and go on your way.| They said, |No, but we will stay in the street all night.|

3 But he urged them so strongly that they came in with him, and entered into his house. He made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

4 But before they could lie down to sleep, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter.

5 They called to Lot, and said to him, |Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them.|

6 Lot went out to them at the entrance, and shut the door behind him.

7 He said, |Please, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.

8 Look, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only do not do anything to these men, because they have come under the protection of my roof.|

9 They said, |Stand back.| They said, |This one fellow came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself a judge. Now will we deal worse with you, than with them.| They pressed hard on the man Lot, and drew near to break the door.

10 But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut the door.

11 They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they were unable to find the door.

12 The men said to Lot, |Do you have anybody else here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whoever you have in the city, bring them out of the place:

13 for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before God that he has sent us to destroy it.|

14 Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, |Get up. Get out of this place, for God will destroy the city.| But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking.

15 When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot along, saying, |Get up. Take your wife, and your two daughters who are here, and get out, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.|

16 But he hesitated, so the men grabbed his hand, his wife's hand, and his two daughters' hands, God being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city.

17 It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, |Escape for your life. Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away.|

18 Lot said to them, |Oh, not so, my lord.

19 See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can't escape to the mountain, lest the disaster overtake me, and I die.

20 See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there--isn't it a little one?--and my life will be saved.|

21 He said to him, |Look, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.

22 Hurry, escape there, for I can't do anything until you get there.| Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

24 Then God rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the sky.

25 He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.

26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

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 toward all the land of the plain, and he saw; and look, the smoke was rising from the land like smoke from a furnace.