Genesis 19
19
1-2The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening. Lot was sitting at the city gate. He saw them and got up to welcome them, bowing before them and said, “Please, my friends, come to my house and stay the night. Wash up. You can rise early and be on your way refreshed.”
They said, “No, we’ll sleep in the street.”
3But he insisted, wouldn’t take no for an answer; and they relented and went home with him. Lot fixed a hot meal for them and they ate.
4-5Before they went to bed, men from all over the city of Sodom, young and old, descended on the house from all sides and boxed them in. They yelled to Lot, “Where are the men who are staying with you for the night? Bring them out so we can have our sport with them!”
6-8Lot went out, barring the door behind him, and said, “Brothers, please, don’t be vile! Look, I have two daughters, virgins; let me bring them out; you can take your pleasure with them, but don’t touch these men—they’re my guests.”
9They said, “Get lost! You drop in from nowhere and now you’re going to tell us how to run our lives. We’ll treat you worse than them!” And they charged past Lot to break down the door.
10-11But the two men reached out and pulled Lot inside the house, locking the door. Then they struck blind the men who were trying to break down the door, both leaders and followers, leaving them groping in the dark.
12-13The two men said to Lot, “Do you have any other family here? Sons, daughters—anybody in the city? Get them out of here, and now! We’re going to destroy this place. The outcries of victims here to God are deafening; we’ve been sent to blast this place into oblivion.”
14Lot went out and warned the fiancés of his daughters, “Evacuate this place; God is about to destroy this city!” But his daughters’ would-be husbands treated it as a joke.
15At break of day, the angels pushed Lot to get going, “Hurry. Get your wife and two daughters out of here before it’s too late and you’re caught in the punishment of the city.”
16-17Lot was dragging his feet. The men grabbed Lot’s arm, and the arms of his wife and daughters—God was so merciful to them!—and dragged them to safety outside the city. When they had them outside, Lot was told, “Now run for your life! Don’t look back! Don’t stop anywhere on the plain—run for the hills or you’ll be swept away.”
18-20But Lot protested, “No, masters, you can’t mean it! I know that you’ve taken a liking to me and have done me an immense favor in saving my life, but I can’t run for the mountains—who knows what terrible thing might happen to me in the mountains and leave me for dead. Look over there—that town is close enough to get to. It’s a small town, hardly anything to it. Let me escape there and save my life—it’s a mere wide place in the road.”
21-22“All right, Lot. If you insist. I’ll let you have your way. And I won’t stamp out the town you’ve spotted. But hurry up. Run for it! I can’t do anything until you get there.” That’s why the town was called Zoar, that is, Smalltown.
23The sun was high in the sky when Lot arrived at Zoar.
24-25Then God rained brimstone and fire down on Sodom and Gomorrah—a river of lava from God out of the sky!—and destroyed these cities and the entire plain and everyone who lived in the cities and everything that grew from the ground.
26But Lot’s wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt.
27-28Abraham got up early the next morning and went to the place he had so recently stood with God. He looked out over Sodom and Gomorrah, surveying the whole plain. All he could see was smoke belching from the Earth, like smoke from a furnace.
29And that’s the story: When God destroyed the Cities of the Plain, he was mindful of Abraham and first got Lot out of there before he blasted those cities off the face of the Earth.
30Lot left Zoar and went into the mountains to live with his two daughters; he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his daughters.
31-32One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is getting old and there’s not a man left in the country by whom we can get pregnant. Let’s get our father drunk with wine and lie with him. We’ll get children through our father—it’s our only chance to keep our family alive.”
33-35They got their father drunk with wine that very night. The older daughter went and lay with him. He was oblivious, knowing nothing of what she did. The next morning the older said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Tonight, it’s your turn. We’ll get him drunk again and then you sleep with him. We’ll both get a child through our father and keep our family alive.” So that night they got their father drunk again and the younger went in and slept with him. Again he was oblivious, knowing nothing of what she did.
36-38Both daughters became pregnant by their father, Lot. The older daughter had a son and named him Moab, the ancestor of the present-day Moabites. The younger daughter had a son and named him Ben-Ammi, the ancestor of the present-day Ammonites.
* * *
Currently Selected:
Genesis 19: MSG
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Genesis 19
19
Sodom’s Depravity
1Now #Gen. 18:2, 16, 22the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and #Gen. 18:1–5Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. 2And he said, “Here now, my lords, please #Gen. 24:31; (Heb. 13:2)turn in to your servant’s house and spend the night, and #Gen. 18:4; 24:32wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.”
And they said, #Luke 24:28“No, but we will spend the night in the open square.”
3But he insisted strongly; so they turned in to him and entered his house. #Gen. 18:6–8; Ex. 23:15; Num. 9:11; 28:17Then he made them a feast, and baked #Ex. 12:8unleavened bread, and they ate.
4Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. 5#Is. 3:9And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? #Judg. 19:22Bring them out to us that we #Gen. 4:1; Rom. 1:24, 27; Jude 7may know them carnally.”
6So #Judg. 19:23Lot went out to them through the doorway, shut the door behind him, 7and said, “Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly! 8#Judg. 19:24See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, #Gen. 18:5since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.”
9And they said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one #2 Pet. 2:7, 8came in to stay here, #Ex. 2:14and he keeps acting as a judge; now we will deal worse with you than with them.” So they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near to break down the door. 10But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. 11And they #Gen. 20:17, 18struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door.
Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed
12Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city—#Gen. 7:1; 2 Pet. 2:7, 9take them out of this place! 13For we will destroy this place, because the #Gen. 18:20outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and #Lev. 26:30–33; Deut. 4:26; 28:45; 1 Chr. 21:15the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”
14So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, #Matt. 1:18who had married his daughters, and said, #Num. 16:21, 24, 26, 45; Rev. 18:4“Get up, get out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city!” #Ex. 9:21; Jer. 43:1, 2; Luke 17:28; 24:11But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.
15When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, #Ps. 37:2; Rev. 18:4“Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.” 16And while he lingered, the men #Deut. 5:15; 6:21; 7:8; 2 Pet. 2:7took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the #Ex. 34:7; Ps. 32:10; 33:18, 19; Luke 18:13Lord being merciful to him, #Ps. 34:22and they brought him out and set him outside the city. 17So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, #1 Kin. 19:3; Jer. 48:6“Escape for your life! #Gen. 19:26; Matt. 24:16–18; Luke 9:62; Phil. 3:13, 14Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape #Gen. 14:10to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.”
18Then Lot said to them, “Please, #Acts 10:14no, my lords! 19Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die. 20See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one; please let me escape there (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.”
21And he said to him, “See, #Job 42:8, 9; Ps. 145:19I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken. 22Hurry, escape there. For #Ex. 32:10; Deut. 9:14I cannot do anything until you arrive there.”
Therefore #Gen. 13:10; 14:2the name of the city was called Zoar.
23The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar. 24Then the Lord rained #Deut. 29:23; Ps. 11:6; Is. 13:19; Jer. 20:16; 23:14; 49:18; 50:40; Ezek. 16:49, 50; Hos. 11:8; Amos 4:11; Zeph. 2:9; Matt. 10:15; Mark 6:11; Luke 17:29; Rom. 9:29; 2 Pet. 2:6; Jude 7; Rev. 11:8brimstone and #Lev. 10:2fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens. 25So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and #Ps. 107:34what grew on the ground.
26But his wife looked back behind him, and she became #Gen. 19:17; Luke 17:32a pillar of salt.
27And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where #Gen. 18:22he had stood before the Lord. 28Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, #Rev. 9:2; 18:9the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace. 29And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God #Gen. 8:1; 18:23; Deut. 7:8; 9:5, 27remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt.
The Descendants of Lot
30Then Lot went up out of Zoar and #Gen. 19:17, 19dwelt in the mountains, and his two daughters were with him; for he was afraid to dwell in Zoar. And he and his two daughters dwelt in a cave. 31Now the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man on the earth #Gen. 16:2, 4; 38:8, 9; Deut. 25:5to come in to us as is the custom of all the earth. 32Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we #(Mark 12:19)may preserve the lineage of our father.” 33So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
34It happened on the next day that the firstborn said to the younger, “Indeed I lay with my father last night; let us make him drink wine tonight also, and you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father.” 35Then 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.
36Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. 37The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab; #Num. 25:1; Deut. 2:9he is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38And the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Ben-Ammi; #Num. 21:24; Deut. 2:19he is the father of the people of Ammon to this day.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.