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Genesis 19

Genesis 19 sets YHWH’s judgment on Sodom beside his mercy toward Lot, then records further harm within the rescued household.

Two angels arrive in Sodom, where Lot takes them into his house. A mob demands the visitors for sexual assault, and Lot offers his daughters in their place. The angels intervene and warn that YHWH will destroy the city. They lead Lot’s household out, though Lot hesitates; his wife looks back and becomes a pillar of salt. After the destruction, Lot and his daughters live in a cave, where the daughters use wine and incest to preserve their father’s family line.

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1The 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,
2and 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.”
3He 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.
4But 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.
5They 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.”
7He said, “Please, my brothers, don’t act so wickedly.
8See 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.”
9They 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.
11They 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.
12The 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:
13for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown so great before the LORD that the LORD has sent us to destroy it.”
14Lot 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 the LORD will destroy the city!” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking.
15When 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.”
16But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and his two daughters’ hands, the LORD being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city.
17It 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!”
18Lot said to them, “Oh, not so, my lord.
19See 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.
20See 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.”
21He 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.
22Hurry, escape there, for I can’t do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
24Then the LORD rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of the sky.
25He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.
26But Lot’s wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
27Abraham went up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD.
28He 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.
29When 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.
30Lot 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.
31The 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.
32Come, let’s make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.”
33They 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.
34It 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.”
35They 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.
36Thus both of Lot’s daughters were with child by their father.
37The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day.
38The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Genesis 19:24The destruction comes from YHWH, carrying out the judgment the angels announced against the cities.
Genesis 19:29God’s remembrance of Abraham explains Lot’s rescue and links the household’s escape to the wider account of Abraham.
Genesis 19:5The mob’s demand exposes the sexual violence confronting Lot’s guests before the angels announce judgment on the city.
Where this chapter reaches

Luke recalls Sodom’s destruction and Lot’s wife in Jesus’ teaching about the coming judgment, while 2 Peter pairs Sodom’s overthrow with Lot’s rescue. Deuteronomy, Isaiah, and Jeremiah use Sodom and Gomorrah as comparisons for devastated land or communities facing God’s judgment.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What does Lot’s hesitation, alongside the angels taking his hand, show you about mercy in this account?

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How does the cave scene affect your understanding of the household rescued from Sodom?

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Questions people ask about Genesis 19

Why did Lot offer his daughters to the men of Sodom?

Lot says his guests have come under the protection of his roof, so his stated aim is to protect them. The text gives no further explanation for offering his daughters to the mob. It records an offer that would expose them to sexual violence; it provides no approval of that offer.

Why did Lot’s wife turn into a pillar of salt?

The escape command forbids looking behind or remaining in the plain. Lot’s wife looks back while following him and becomes a pillar of salt. The account connects her fate with disregarding that command. It does not describe her thoughts or explain the physical process by which this happened.

Why did Lot’s daughters sleep with their father?

The older daughter says there is no man available to father children with them, and both seek to preserve their father’s family line. They make Lot drink wine and have intercourse with him while he is unaware. The account identifies their sons as the ancestors of Moab and Ammon; it does not endorse their actions.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).