Genesis 19

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1. 1Two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening. Lot was sitting at the city gate, and when he saw them, he got up to greet them and bowed with his face to the ground.
2. 2He said, "Please, my lords, come to your servant's house, spend the night, and wash your feet. Then you can get up early and continue on your journey." They replied, "No, we will stay in the open square for the night."
3. 3But he urged them so strongly that they went with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
4. 4Before they had gone to bed, the men of the city — the men of Sodom — surrounded the house, both young and old, from every part of the city.
5. 5They shouted to Lot, "Where are the men who came to stay with you tonight? Bring them out to us so we can know them."
6. 6Lot went out to them and closed the door behind him.
7. 7He said, "Please, my brothers, do not do such a wicked thing."
8. 8"Look, I have two daughters who have never been with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do whatever you want with them. But do nothing to these men, because they have come under the protection of my roof."
9. 9They said, "Stand back!" Then they said, "This one fellow came here to live temporarily, and now he insists on being a judge. We will deal worse with you than with them." They pressed hard against the man Lot and came near to breaking the door.
10. 10But the men inside reached out, pulled Lot back into the house with them, and shut the door.
11. 11Then they struck the men outside the doorway with blindness, from the least to the greatest, so that they exhausted themselves trying to find the entrance.
12. 12The two men asked Lot, "Do you have anyone else here — sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone else belonging to you in the city? Get them out of this place."
13. 13"We are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has grown so great before the LORD that the LORD has sent us to destroy it."
14. 14So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters. He said, "Hurry and leave this place, because the LORD is about to destroy this city!" But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
15. 15At dawn, the angels hurried Lot, saying, "Get up! Take your wife and your 2 daughters who are here, so that you are not consumed in the iniquity of the city."
16. 16When he hesitated, the men grabbed his hand, his wife's hand, and the hands of his two daughters — because the LORD was merciful to him — and they brought him out and set him outside the city.
17. 17Once they had brought them out, one of them said, "Run for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stop anywhere on the plain. Flee to the mountains, or you will be destroyed."
18. 18But Lot said to them, "No, please, my Lord!"
19. 19"Your servant has found grace in your sight, and you have shown me great mercy by sparing my life. But I cannot flee to the mountains — disaster might overtake me there, and I will die."
20. 20"Look, there is a small town nearby that I could escape to. It is just a little place. Please let me flee there — is it not a small town? — and my soul shall live."
21. 21He replied, "Very well, I grant you this request as well. I will not overthrow the town you have mentioned."
22. 22"Hurry! Escape there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you arrive there." That is why the town was named Zoar.
23. 23The sun had risen over the land by the time Lot reached Zoar.
24. 24Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah — from the LORD out of heaven.
25. 25He overthrew those cities, the entire plain, all the people living in the cities, and everything growing on the ground.
26. 26But Lot's wife, who was behind him, looked back, and she turned into a pillar of salt.
27. 27Abraham got up early that morning and went to the place where he had stood before the LORD.
28. 28He gazed out toward Sodom and Gomorrah and across the whole plain, and he saw thick smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace.
29. 29So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham and brought Lot out safely from the devastation when he overthrew the cities where Lot had been living.
30. 30Lot left Zoar and settled in the mountains with his two daughters, because he was afraid to remain in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave.
31. 31The older daughter said to the younger, "Our father is getting old, and there is not a man on earth to be with us in the usual way."
32. 32"Let us get our father to drink wine, and then we will sleep with him so that we can preserve our father's family line."
33. 33That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with her father. He was not aware when she lay down or when she got up.
34. 34The next day the older daughter said to the younger, "Last night I slept with our father. Let us get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our father's family line."
35. 35So that night too they got their father to drink wine, and the younger daughter went and slept with him. Again, he was not aware when she lay down or when she got up.
36. 36In this way, both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father.
37. 37The older daughter gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the ancestor of the Moabites to this day.
38. 38The younger daughter also gave birth to a son and named him Benammi. He is the ancestor of the children of Ammon to this day.