And the two angels came to Sodom at evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them, and he bowed down with his face to the earth
and he said, “Behold now, my lords, please turn aside into your servant’s house, stay the night, wash your feet. Then you can rise up early and go on your way.” They said, “No, but we will spend the night in the city square.”
But he pressed them hard, so they turned aside with him and went into his house. 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 even from the outskirts of the city, surrounded the house.
They called out to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came in to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we can know them sexually.”
Lot went out to them, to the door, and shut the door after him.
And he said, “Please, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.
Behold now, I have two daughters who have not known a man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever is good in your eyes. Only do not do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof.”
But they said, “Stand aside!” Then they said, “This one came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself as a judge. Now will we deal worse with you than with them!” And they pressed hard on the man Lot, and drew near to break down the door.
But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot to them, into the house, and shut the door.
They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out trying to find the door.
The men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here? Sons-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and all that you have in the city, bring them out of this place;
for we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against them is so great before the face of Yahweh that Yahweh has sent us to destroy it.”
So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up! Get out of this place, for Yahweh is about to destroy the city.” But in the eyes of his sons-in-law he was as one who was joking.
And when the dawn arose, the angels urged Lot on, saying, “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city!”
But he hesitated. So the men grabbed his hand, and his wife’s hand, and his two daughters’ hands, because Yahweh was merciful to him; and they brought him out and set him outside the city.
And it came to pass when they had brought them out that one of them said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stop anywhere in the plain. Escape to the hill country or you will be swept away!”
But Lot said to them, “Oh, no, my lord.
Behold now, your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown me great kindness by saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hill country, lest this disaster overtake me and I die.
Look, this city is close enough to escape to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there—isn’t it a little one?—and my soul will live.”
And he said to him, “Behold, I will lift up your face in this matter also; and I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.
Be quick! Escape to there!—for I cannot do anything until you get there.” That is why the name of the city was called Zoar.
God Destroys Sodom
The sun had just risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire—coming from Yahweh out of heaven.
And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and whatever grew on the ground.
But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
And Abraham started early in the morning to go to the place where he had stood before Yahweh.
He looked out toward the face of Sodom and Gomorrah and toward the face of all the land of the plain. And he looked, and behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.
It came to pass that when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham and brought Lot out of the middle of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities where Lot had been living.
Lot and His Daughters
And Lot went up out of Zoar and settled in the hill country, and his two daughters with him, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his two daughters.
Then the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on the earth to come into us as is the way of all the earth.
Come, let’s make our father drink wine, and let’s lie with him, so that we can preserve our father’s seed.”
So they made their father drink wine that night; and the firstborn went in and lay with her father. But he didn’t know when she lay down nor when she arose.
And it came to pass on the next day that the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let’s make him drink wine again tonight. Then you go in and lie with him, so that we can preserve our father’s seed.”
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 nor when she got up.
Thus both of Lot’s daughters were with child 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 children of Ammon to this day.