Chapter 19
1Now 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
2and said, “My lords, please turn aside into the house of your servant, wash your feet and spend the night. Then you can rise early and go on your way.” “No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”
3But [Lot] insisted so strongly that they followed him into his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread and they ate.
4Before they had gone to bed, all the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, surrounded the house.
5They called out to Lot saying, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have relations with them!”
6Lot went to meet them outside, shutting the door behind him.
7“Please my brothers,” he pleaded, “don’t do such a wicked thing!
8Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them to you and you can do to them as you please. But to these men, do not do anything for they have come under the protection of my roof.”
9“Get out of the way!” they replied. And they declared, “This one came here as a foreigner and he is already acting like a judge! Now we will treat you worse than them.” And they pressed in on Lot and moved in to break down the door.
10But the men [inside] reached out, pulled Lot into the house with them and shut the door.
11And they struck the men at the entrance with blindness, young and old, so that they wearied themselves [trying] to find the door.
12Then the [two] men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—a son-in-law, your sons or daughters or anyone who belongs to you? Get them out of here
13because we are about to destroy this place. For the outcry [against its people] is so great to AO that [He] has sent us to destroy it.”
14So Lot went out and spoke to the sons-in-law who were pledged in marriage to his daughters. “Get up,” he said. “Get out of this place for AO is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
15At daybreak the angels hurried Lot along saying, “Get up! Takne your wife and your two daughters who are here or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.”
16But when [Lot] hesitated, the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters because of AO's compassion for them. And they led them safely out of the city.
17As 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!”
18But Lot replied, “No my lords please!
19Your 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.
20Look there [is] a town nearby where I can flee and it is a small place. Please let me flee there—is it not a small place? Then my life will be saved.”
21“Very well,” he answered. “I will grant this request as well and will not demolish the town you indicate.
22Hurry! Run there quickly for I cannot do anything until you reach it.” That is why the town was called Zoar.
23And by the time the sun had risen over the land, Lot had reached Zoar.
24Then AO rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah—sulfur and fire from AO out of the heavens.
25Thus He destroyed these cities and the entire plain including all the inhabitants of the cities and everything that grew on the ground.
26But [Lot’s] wife looked back and she became a pillar of salt.
27Early the next morning, Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before AO.
28He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain and he saw the smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace.
29So 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.
30Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains—for he was afraid to stay in Zoar—where [they] lived in a cave.
31One day the older [daughter] said to the younger, “Our father is old and there is no man in the land to sleep with us as is the custom over all the earth.
32Come let us get our father drunk with wine so we can sleep with him and preserve [his] line.”
33So that night they got their father drunk with wine and the firstborn went in and slept with her father; he was not aware when she lay down or when she got up.
34The next day the older [daughter] said to the younger, “Look I slept with my father last night. Let us get him drunk with wine again so you can go in [and] sleep with him and we can preserve our father’s line.”
35So again they got their father drunk with wine that night and the younger [daughter] went in and slept with him; he was not aware when she lay down or when she got up.
36Thus both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father.
37The older [daughter] gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites of today.
38The younger [daughter] also gave birth to a son and she named him Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites of today.