Shared Word Translation
Genesis 19
The Angels Come to Sodom
The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the ground. And he said, “My lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise early and go on your way.” But they said, “No, we will spend the night in the square.” But he urged them strongly, so they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may know them.” Lot went out to them at the entrance and shut the door behind him. And he said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. See, I have two daughters who have not known a man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as is good in your eyes. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.”
But they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This one came to sojourn, and now he acts as judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against Lot and drew near to break the door down. But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door. And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they exhausted themselves trying to find the doorway.
Lot Escapes from Sodom
Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city—bring them out of this place. For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its inhabitants has become great before the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it.” So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, “Rise, get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.
As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Rise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, because the LORD was merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the plain. Escape to the hill country, lest you be swept away.”
But Lot said to them, “Oh no, my lords. See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown great kindness to me by saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hill country, lest disaster overtake me and I die. See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there—is it not a little one?—and my life will be spared.” He said to him, “See, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. Hurry, escape there, for I can do nothing until you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew upon the ground. But Lot’s wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
Abraham rose early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the LORD. And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the plain, and behold, he saw the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of a furnace. So it was that when God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.
Lot and His Daughters
Now Lot went up out of Zoar and settled in the hill country with his two daughters, for he was afraid to dwell in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters. And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on the earth to come in to us according to the way of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring through our father.” So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
On the next day the firstborn said to the younger, “See, I lay with my father last night. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring through our father.” So they made their father drink wine that night also. Then the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day.