19The 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 themH935H8147H4397H5467H6153H3876H3427H8179H5467H3876H7200H6965H7125H7812H639H776

2and 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."H559H113H5493H5650H1004H3885H7364H7272H7925H1980H1870H559H3885H7339H3885

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.H6484H3966H5493H935H1004H6213H4960H644H4682H398

4Before 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.H7901H582H5892H582H5467H5437H1004H5437H2205H5288H5971H7097

5They 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!"H7121H3876H559H582H935H3915H3318H3045

6Lot went out, barring the door behind him,H3876H3318H6607H5462H1817H310

7and said, "Brothers, please, don't be vile!H559H251H7489

8Look, 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."H8147H1323H3045H376H3318H6213H2896H5869H411H582H6213H408H1697H935H6738H6982

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.H559H5066H1973H559H259H935H1481H8199H8199H7489H6484H3966H376H3876H5066H7665H1817

10But the two men reached out and pulled Lot inside the house, locking the door.H582H7971H3027H935H3876H1004H5462H1817

11Then they struck blind the men who were trying to break down the door, both leaders and followers, leaving them groping in the dark.H5221H582H6607H1004H5575H6996H1419H3811H4672H6607

12The 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!H582H559H3876H6311H4310H2860H1121H1323H834H5892H3318H4725

13We'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."H587H7843H853H4725H6818H1431H854H6440H3068H3068H7971H7843

14Lot went out and warned the fianc? of his daughters, "Evacuate this place; GOD is about to destroy this city!" But his daughters' would-be husbands treated it as a joke.H3876H3318H1696H2860H3947H1323H559H6965H3318H4725H3068H7843H5892H6711H5869H2860

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."H3644H7837H5927H4397H213H3876H559H6965H3947H802H8147H1323H4672H5595H5771H5892

16Lot 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.H4102H582H2388H3027H3027H802H3027H8147H1323H3068H2551H3318H3240H2351H5892

17When 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."H3318H2351H559H4422H5921H5315H5027H310H5975H3603H4422H2022H5595

18But Lot protested, "No, masters, you can't mean it!H3876H559H113

19I 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.H5650H4672H2580H5869H1431H2617H6213H5978H2421H5315H3201H4422H2022H7451H1692H4191

20Look 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."H5892H7138H5127H1931H4705H4422H4705H5315H2421

21He said to him, "All right. If you insist. I'll let you have your way. And I won't stamp out the town you've spotted.H559H2009H5375H6440H1697H2015H5892H834H1696

22But 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.H4116H4422H3201H6213H1697H935H8034H5892H7121H6820

23The sun was high in the sky when Lot arrived at Zoar.H8121H3318H776H3876H935H6820

24Then GOD rained brimstone and fire down on Sodom and Gomorrah—a river of lava from GOD out of the sky!—H3068H4305H5467H6017H1614H784H3068H8064

25and destroyed these cities and the entire plain and everyone who lived in the cities and everything that grew from the ground.H2015H411H5892H3603H3427H5892H6780H127

26But Lot's wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt.H802H5027H310H5333H4417

27Abraham got up early the next morning and went to the place he had so recently stood with GOD.H85H7925H1242H4725H5975H6440H3068

28He 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.H8259H6440H5467H6017H6440H776H3603H7200H7008H776H5927H7008H3536

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.H430H7843H5892H3603H430H2142H85H7971H3876H8432H2018H2015H5892H2004H3876H3427

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.H3876H5927H6820H3427H2022H8147H1323H3372H3427H6820H3427H4631H8147H1323

31One 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.H1067H559H6810H1H2204H376H776H935H1870H776

32Let'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."H3212H8248H1H8248H3196H7901H2421H2233H1

33They 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.H8248H1H8248H3196H3915H1067H935H7901H1H3045H7901H6965

34The 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."H4283H1067H559H6810H7901H570H1H8248H3196H3915H935H7901H2421H2233H1

35So 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.H8248H1H8248H3196H1931H3915H6810H6965H7901H3045H7901H6965

36Both daughters became pregnant by their father, Lot.H8147H1323H3876H2029H1

37The older daughter had a son and named him Moab, the ancestor of the present-day Moabites.H1067H3205H1121H7121H8034H4124H1931H1H4124H3117

38The younger daughter had a son and named him Ben-Ammi, the ancestor of the present-day Ammonites.H6810H3205H1121H7121H8034H1151H1H1121H5983H3117