Yahweh Destroys Sodom and Gomorrah

1Then the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them and rose to meet them and [†]bowed down with his [†]face to the ground. 2And he said, “Now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servant’s house, and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.” They said however, “No, but we shall spend the night in the square.” 3Yet he pressed them strongly, so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he made a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. 4Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, from young to old, all the people [†]from every quarter; 5and they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may [†]know them.” 6But Lot went out to them at the doorway and shut the door behind him, 7and said, “Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly. 8Now behold, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them what is good in your eyes; only do nothing to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the [†]shelter of my roof.” 9But they said, “Step aside.” Furthermore, they said, “This one came to sojourn, and already he is persistently acting like a judge; now we will treat you more wickedly than them.” So they pressed hard against [†]Lot and stepped up to break the door. 10But the men reached out their [†]hands and brought Lot into the house [†]with them and shut the door. 11And they [†]struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, from small to great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway.

12Then the two men said to Lot, “Whom else have you here? A son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and everyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place; 13for we are about to destroy this place because their outcry has become great before Yahweh, so Yahweh has sent us to destroy it.” 14And Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who [†]were to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up, get out of this place, for Yahweh will destroy the city.” But he appeared to his sons-in-law [†]to be jesting.

15Now at the [†]breaking of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the [†]punishment of the city.” 16But he hesitated. So the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the [†]hands of his two daughters, for the compassion of Yahweh was upon him; and they brought him out and put him outside the city. 17Now it happened, as they brought them outside, [†]one said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay [†]anywhere in the valley; escape to the [†]mountains, lest you be swept away.” 18But Lot said to them, “Oh no, my lords! 19Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your lovingkindness, which you have shown me by preserving my life; but I cannot escape to the [†]mountains, lest calamity overtake me and I die; 20now behold, this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) [†]that my life may be preserved.” 21And he said to him, “Behold, I grant you this [†]request also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. 22Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called [†]Zoar.

23The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24And Yahweh rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Yahweh out of heaven, 25and He overthrew those cities, and all the [†]valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26Then his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

27Now Abraham arose early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before Yahweh; 28and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the [†]valley, and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a [†]furnace.

29Thus it happened, when God destroyed the cities of the [†]valley, that God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.

Lot and His Daughters

30And Lot went up from Zoar and [†]stayed in the [†]mountains, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to [†]stay in Zoar; and he [†]stayed in a cave, he and his two daughters. 31Then the firstborn 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 the earth. 32Come, let us make our father drink wine, and let us lie with him that we may preserve our seed through 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. 34Now it happened on the following day, that the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also; and you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve our seed through our father.” 35So 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 conceived by their father. 37And the firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38As for the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the [†]sons of Ammon to this day.