Genesis 19 — Legacy Standard Bible

Yahweh Destroys Sodom and Gomorrah

19Then the ^atwo angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. ^bLot saw them and rose to meet them and ¹bowed down with his ²face to the ground. ²And he said, “Now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servant’s house, and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.” They said however, “No, but we shall spend the night in the square.” ³Yet he pressed them strongly, so they turned aside to him and entered his house; ^aand he made a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. ⁴Before they lay down, ^athe men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, from young to old, all the people ¹from every quarter; ⁵and they called to Lot and said to him, “^aWhere are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may ¹know them.” ⁶But Lot went out to them at the doorway and shut the door behind him, ⁷and said, “Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly. ⁸“Now behold, ^aI have two daughters who have not known a man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them what is good in your eyes; only do nothing to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the ¹shelter of my roof.” ⁹But they said, “Step aside.” Furthermore, they said, “This one came to sojourn, and already ^ahe is persistently acting like a judge; now we will treat you more wickedly than them.” So they pressed hard against ¹Lot and stepped up to break the door. ¹⁰But ^athe men reached out their ¹hands and brought Lot into the house ²with them and shut the door. ¹¹^aAnd they ¹struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, from small to great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway.

¹²Then the two men said to Lot, “Whom else have you here? A son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and everyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place; ¹³for we are about to destroy this place because ^atheir outcry has become great before Yahweh, so ^bYahweh has sent us to destroy it.” ¹⁴And Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who ¹were to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up, ^aget out of this place, for Yahweh will destroy the city.” ^bBut he appeared to his sons-in-law ²to be jesting.

¹⁵Now at the ¹breaking of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the ²punishment of the city.” ¹⁶But he hesitated. So the men ^aseized his hand and the hand of his wife and the ¹hands of his two daughters, for ^bthe compassion of Yahweh was upon him; and they brought him out and put him outside the city. ¹⁷Now it happened, as they brought them outside, ¹one said, “^aEscape for your life! ^bDo not look behind you, and do not stay ²anywhere in the ^cvalley; escape to ^dthe ³mountains, lest you be swept away.” ¹⁸But Lot said to them, “Oh no, my lords! ¹⁹“Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your lovingkindness, which you have shown me by preserving my life; but I cannot escape to the ¹mountains, lest calamity overtake me and I die; ²⁰now behold, this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) ¹that my life may be preserved.” ²¹And he said to him, “Behold, I grant you this ¹request also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. ²²“Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called ¹^,^aZoar.

²³The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar. ²⁴And Yahweh ^arained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Yahweh out of heaven, ²⁵and ^aHe overthrew those cities, and all the ¹valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. ²⁶Then his wife, from behind him, ^alooked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

²⁷Now Abraham arose early in the morning and went to ^athe place where he had stood before Yahweh; ²⁸and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the ¹valley, and he saw, and behold, ^athe smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a ²furnace.

²⁹Thus it happened, when God destroyed the cities of the ¹valley, that ^aGod remembered Abraham and ^bsent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.

Lot and His Daughters

³⁰And Lot went up from Zoar and ¹^,^astayed in the ²mountains, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to ³stay in Zoar; and he ⁴stayed in a cave, he and his two daughters. ³¹Then the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man ¹on earth to ^acome in to us after the manner of the earth. ³²“Come, ^alet us make our father drink wine, and let us lie with him that we may preserve our seed through our father.” ³³So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. ³⁴Now it happened on the following day, that the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also; and you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve our seed through our father.” ³⁵So they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. ³⁶Thus both the daughters of Lot conceived by their father. ³⁷And the firstborn bore a son and called his name ^aMoab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day. ³⁸As for the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the ¹sons of ^aAmmon to this day.