The Men of Sodom at Lot’s Door
1The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, while Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed with his face to the ground. 2“Please, my lords,” he said, “turn aside to your servant’s house. Stay the night, wash your feet, and you can rise early and go on your way.” “No,” they said, “we will spend the night in the square.” 3But he urged them so strongly that they turned aside to him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking unleavened bread, and they ate. 4Before they had lain down to sleep, the men of the city — the men of Sodom — surrounded the house, young and old, all the people, to the last man. 5They called out to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so we can know them.” 6Lot went out to them at the entrance, shutting the door behind him, 7and said, “No, my brothers — do not do this wicked thing. 8Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you like. Only do nothing to these men, since they have come under the shelter of my roof.” 9“Stand back!” they said. “This man came here as an outsider, and now he wants to play judge! We will treat you worse than them.” They pressed hard against Lot and moved in to break down the door. 10But the men reached out, pulled Lot back inside the house with them, and shut the door. 11Then they struck the men at the entrance of the house with blindness, from the least to the greatest, until they wore themselves out trying to find the door.
The Escape from Sodom
12The men said to Lot, “Who else do you have here — a son-in-law, sons, daughters, anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of this place. 13We are about to destroy it. The outcry against this place has grown so great before Yahweh that Yahweh has sent us to destroy it.” 14So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were engaged to marry his daughters. “Get up,” he said, “get out of this place — Yahweh is about to destroy the city.” But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking. 15As dawn broke, the angels urged Lot on. “Get up,” they said, “take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.” 16Still he hesitated. So the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters — Yahweh being merciful to him — and led them out and left them outside the city. 17As soon as they had brought them outside, one of them said, “Run for your life! Do not look back, and do not stop anywhere on the plain. Flee to the mountains, or you will be swept away.” 18But Lot said to them, “No, please, my lord. 19Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot flee to the mountains — the disaster will overtake me first, and I will die. 20Look, that town right there is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Please let me escape there — is it not small? — and my life will be saved.” 21He said to him, “Very well, I grant you this too — I will not overthrow the town you speak of. 22Hurry, flee there, for I can do nothing until you arrive.” That is why the town is called Zoar. 23The sun had risen over the earth when Lot entered Zoar.
The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
24Then Yahweh rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah, from Yahweh, out of the heavens. 25He overthrew those cities and the whole plain, along with everyone living in the cities, and everything growing on the ground. 26But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
Abraham Looks Toward the Smoke
27Early the next morning, Abraham went to the place where he had stood before Yahweh. 28He looked out over Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole land of the plain, and saw smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace. 29So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the catastrophe, when he overthrew the cities where Lot had been living.
Lot’s Daughters
30Lot went up from Zoar and settled in the mountains, with his two daughters, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He lived in a cave, he and his two daughters. 31The older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man left in the land to sleep with us, as is the custom everywhere on earth. 32Come, let us get our father drunk on wine and sleep with him, so we can preserve a line through our father.” 33So that night they got their father drunk on 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. 34The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Let us get him drunk on wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him, so we can preserve a line through our father.” 35So that night too they got their father drunk on wine, and the younger daughter got up and slept with him. He was not aware when she lay down or when she got up. 36So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. 37The older daughter bore a son and named him Moab — he is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38The younger daughter also bore a son and named him Ben-Ammi — he is the father of the Ammonites to this day.
