Genesis 19
Big idea: The answer to Abraham's bargain, told from inside. Two angels reach Sodom at evening and Lot presses them to shelter under his roof — and the whole city, young and old, surrounds the house. Lot's attempt at negotiation is monstrous in its own right, and the mob turns on him as an outsider who dares to judge. The rescuers become the rescued: the angels pull Lot in, strike the crowd blind, and in the morning have to seize four hands and drag the family out because Lot lingers. Fire falls; his wife looks back and becomes salt; and the chapter ends in a mountain cave with an act that gives Israel two of its most persistent enemies. But between the sulfur and the cave stands one sentence: God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out.
Chapter 19 ends with Moab and Ammon born in a cave, and Abraham looking down at the smoke from the ridge. Chapter 20 returns to Abraham himself, travelling south — where he tells the same lie about his wife that nearly cost him everything in Egypt.
19:1–11 — The city at the door
Two angels arrive at evening; Lot, sitting in the gate, bows and urges them into his house, and they come. Before they lie down, the men of the city — young and old, from every quarter — surround it and demand the visitors. Lot goes out, shuts the door behind him, calls them brothers, and offers his two daughters instead. They round on him: this fellow came to live as a foreigner and now he judges us. The angels pull Lot inside and strike the crowd with blindness.
1 The two angels came to Sodom at evening. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them. He bowed himself with his face to the earth, 2 and he said, “See now, my lords, please come into your servant’s house, stay all night, wash your feet, and you can rise up early, and go on your way.” They said, “No, but we will stay in the street all night.” 3 He urged them greatly, and they came in with him, and entered into his house. 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, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter. 5 They called to Lot, and said to him, “Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them.” 6 Lot went out to them through the door, and shut the door after himself. 7 He said, “Please, my brothers, don’t act so wickedly. 8 See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof.” 9 They said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one fellow came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself a judge. Now we will deal worse with you than with them!” They pressed hard on the man Lot, and came near to break the door. 10 But the men reached out their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door. 11 They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.
19:12–23 — Dragged out by the hand
The angels tell Lot to gather everyone he has; his sons-in-law think he is joking. At dawn they urge him to hurry — and when he lingers, they seize his hand, his wife's, and his daughters', because Yahweh was merciful to him, and set them outside the city. Told to escape to the mountains without looking back, Lot negotiates for a nearby town instead, and is granted it: nothing can happen until he arrives. The sun rises as he reaches Zoar.
12 The men said to Lot, “Do you have anybody else here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place: 13 for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown so great before Yahweh that Yahweh has sent us to destroy it.” 14 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 will destroy the city!” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking. 15 When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city.” 16 But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and his two daughters’ hands, Yahweh being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city. 17 It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, “Escape for your life! Don’t look behind you, and don’t stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed!” 18 Lot said to them, “Oh, not so, my lord. 19 See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can’t escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die. 20 See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn’t it a little one?), and my soul will live.” 21 He said to him, “Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. 22 Hurry, escape there, for I can’t do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. 23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
19:24–29 — Sulfur, salt, and a remembered Abraham
Yahweh rains sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, overthrowing the cities, the plain, all the inhabitants, and what grew on the ground. Lot's wife looks back and becomes a pillar of salt. Abraham goes up early to the place where he had stood before Yahweh and sees the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of a furnace. And the narrator explains what happened: God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the overthrow.
24 Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky. 25 He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. 27 Abraham went up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Yahweh. 28 He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace. 29 When God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.
19:30–38 — The cave, and two nations
Afraid to stay even in Zoar, Lot goes up into the mountains and lives in a cave with his two daughters. Convinced there is no man left to marry them, the elder proposes making their father drunk and lying with him to preserve offspring. It happens on two consecutive nights. Both daughters conceive, and their sons are Moab and Ben-Ammi — the fathers of the Moabites and the Ammonites.
30 Lot went up out of Zoar, and lived in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his two daughters. 31 The firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on the earth to come in to us in the way of all the earth. 32 Come, let’s make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.” 33 They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she arose. 34 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. You go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.” 35 They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger went and lay with him. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she got up. 36 Thus both of Lot’s daughters were with child by their father. 37 The firstborn bore a son, and named him 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 children of Ammon to this day.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).