Open English Translation GEN Chapter 19

19 So the two messengers arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting at the city gate. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them and knelt down in front of them with his face to the ground. 2 Then he said, “Listen, my masters: Come with me to your slave’s home and wash your feet and stay the night. Then you can get up early and continue on your way.”

But they said, “No, rather we’ll just spend the night in the street.” 3 However, Lot insisted, so they followed him off the main road and went into his house. Then he prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

4 However, before they went to bed, the men of Sodom surrounded the house—there were young and old from all parts of the city—5 and they called out to Lot, “Where are the men who came to your place tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can ‘use’ them.”[ref]

6 So Lot went out to them at the entrance of the house and shut the door behind him 7 and said, “My brothers, don’t do this evil. 8 Listen, I’ve got two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you and you can treat them however you like. But don’t do anything to these men, because they’ve entered my house and so I’m responsible for them.”

9 But they insisted, “Stand back!” Then they said to each other, “This guy came to stay with us, and now he’s judging us. We’ll treat you worse than them!” Then they started pushing hard against Lot and came closer to break down the door. 10 But the two visitors reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house and shut the door again. 11 Then they struck the men who were at the entrance of the house with blindness—all of them from the lowly to the prominent men—so that they gave up trying to find the door.[ref]

12 Then the men said to Lot, “Who else belongs to you here, a son-in-law or your sons or your daughters or anyone else who belongs to you in the city? Take them out from this place, 13 because we’re about to destroy it. The people have repeatedly cried out to Yahweh, so he’s sent us to destroy the city.”

14 Then Lot went out and spoke to his future sons-in-law who were engaged to his daughters, and he told them, “Hurry, get out of this place, because Yahweh is going to destroy the city!” But they thought he was just joking.

15 At dawn the next day, the two messengers urged Lot, saying, “Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who’re here, so that all of you won’t be swept away in the punishment of the city.” 16 When Lot hesitated, because of Yahweh’s mercy for him, the men grabbed his hand and his wife’s hand and the hands of their daughters, and led them out beyond the edge of the city.[ref] 17 At that point one of them told Lot, “Flee for your lives! Don’t turn around and look behind you and don’t stop anywhere down in the plain. Escape up to the hills so you don’t get swept away!”

18 But Lot argued, “Not right now, my masters. 19 Listen, you’ve been kind to me and show us mercy by saving my life, but I won’t be able to make it to the hills because the disaster will overtake me and I’ll die. 20 Listen, there’s a small town nearby that I could flee to. Let me escape there. It’s only small. Then my life would be saved.”

21 “Ok then,” the man replied, “I’ll also grant your request about this so I won’t overthrow the town that you’re talking about. 22 Hurry up, escape there, because I am not able to do a thing until you go there.”

That’s why they renamed the town to ‘Zoar’ (which means ‘small’).

23 The sun had already risen by the time Lot and family reached Zoar. 24 Then Yahweh rained burning sulfur down onto Sodom and Gomorrah,[ref] 25 and he destroyed those cities and all their inhabitants as well, as all of the plain including all the vegetation. 26 But Lot’s wife who was following him looked back and she turned into a pillar of salt.[ref]

27 Meanwhile, Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before Yahweh, 28 and he looked down towards Sodom and Gomorrah and the land of the plain. From there he saw, wow, that smoke was rising from the land like a furnace chimney. 29 So it was that when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham and had Lot removed out of the middle of the destruction when he destroyed the cities that Lot had been living in.

30 Then Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled up in the hills, because he was afraid to stay in Zoar. So he lived in a cave up there with his two daughters. 31 Then the older girl said to the younger, “Dad’s old and there isn’t a single man up here to marry us like happens to other women in the world. 32 So let’s get Dad drunk and then we can lie with him, so that at least we can have some descendants through our father.” 33 So then, they got their father to drink wine that evening, and the oldest daughter went and lay with her father, but he wasn’t aware of her coming or going.

34 Then the next day, the older girl said to the younger, Listen, last night I lay with my father. Let’s get him drunk again tonight then you go lie with him so that we’ll give life to descendants through our father.” 35 So that next evening also, they got their father to drink wine and the younger girl went and lay with him, but again he wasn’t aware of her coming or going. 36 In that way, both of Lot’s daughters got themselves pregnant through their father. 37 Then the eldest daughter gave birth to a son and she named him Moab (which means ‘from my father’). (He’s the ancestor of the Moabites to this day.) 38 The younger daughter also gave birth to a son and she named him Ben-Ammi (which means ‘son of my people’). (He’s the ancestor of Ammonites to this day.)