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 earth and said, “My lords,
please turn aside to your servant's house and spend the night and
wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way.”
They said, “No; we will spend the night in the town square.” But he
pressed 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, that we may know them.” Lot went out
to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, “I
beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold, I have two
daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you,
and do to them as you please. 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 fellow came to sojourn, and he has
become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.”
Then they pressed hard against the man 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 wore themselves out groping for the door.
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 the place. For we are about to destroy this place, because
the outcry against its people has become great before the LORD, and
the LORD has sent us to destroy it.” So Lot went out and said to
his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up! 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, “Up! 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, the LORD being
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 valley. Escape to
the hills, lest you be swept away.” And Lot said to them, “Oh, no,
my lords. Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and
you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot
escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die.
Behold, 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 saved!” He said to him, “Behold, I grant you this favor also,
that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. Escape
there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there.”
Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then the
LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out
of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and
all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But
Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of
salt.
And Abraham went early in the morning 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 valley, and he looked and, behold,
the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.
So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God
remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow
when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.
Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two
daughters, for he was afraid to live 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 earth to come in to us
after the manner of all the earth. Come, let us make our father
drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve
offspring from 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.
The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay
last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also.
Then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring
from our father.” So 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. 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.
