Genesis 19 (RSV)
[preliminaries in verses 4-8; main event after he goes to the cave, verse 30]
- 1
- 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,
- 2
- and said, "My lords, turn aside, I pray you, 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
street."
- 3
- 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.
- 4
- 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;
- 5
- and they called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight?
Bring them out to us, that we may know them."
- 6
- Lot went out of the door to the men, shut the door after him,
- 7
- and said, "I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.
- 8
- Behold, I have two daughters who have not known 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."
- 9
- But they said, "Stand back!" And they said, "This fellow came to
sojourn, and he would play 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.
- 10
- But the men put forth their hands and brought Lot into the house to
them, and shut the door.
- 11
- And they struck with blindness the men who were at the door of the
house, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves groping
for the door.
- 12
- Then the men said to Lot, "Have you any one else here? Sons-in-law,
sons, daughters, or any one you have in the city, bring them out of the
place;
- 13
- 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."
- 14
- 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.
- 15
- When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Arise, take your
wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the
punishment of the city."
- 16
- 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 forth and set him outside the city.
- 17
- And when they had brought them forth, they said, "Flee for your life;
do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley; flee to the hills,
lest you be consumed."
- 18
- And Lot said to them, "Oh, no, my lords;
- 19
- behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown
me great kindness in saving my life; but I cannot flee to the hills,
lest the disaster overtake me, and I die.
- 20
- Behold, yonder 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!"
- 21
- He said to him, "Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not
overthrow the city of which you have spoken.
- 22
- Make haste, escape there; for I can do nothing till you arrive there."
Therefore the name of the city was called Zo'ar.
- 23
- The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zo'ar.
- 24
- Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomor'rah brimstone and fire from the
LORD out of heaven;
- 25
- and he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the
inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
- 26
- But Lot's wife behind him looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
- 27
- And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood
before the LORD;
- 28
- and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomor'rah and toward all the land
of the valley, and beheld, and lo, the smoke of the land went up like
the smoke of a furnace.
- 29
- 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 dwelt.
- 30
- Now Lot went up out of Zo'ar, and dwelt in the hills with his two
daughters, for he was afraid to dwell in Zo'ar; so he dwelt in a cave
with his two daughters.
- 31
- And the first-born 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.
- 32
- Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that
we may preserve offspring through our father."
- 33
- So they made their father drink wine that night; and the
first-born
went in, and lay with her father; he did not know when she lay down or
when she arose.
- 34
- And on the next day, the first-born 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 through
our father."
- 35
- 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.
- 36
- Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father.
- 37
- The first-born bore a son, and called his name Moab; he is the father
of the Moabites to this day.
- 38
- The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the
father of the Ammonites to this day.