Genesis 19:4–28

⁴Before the guests went to bed, the men of Sodom surrounded the house. All the men of the city, both young and old, were there. ^5*They called out to Lot and asked, “Where are the men who came to stay with you tonight? Bring them out to us!” The men of Sodom wanted to have sex with them.

^6*Lot went outside and closed the door behind him. ^7*He said to them, “Friends, I beg you, don’t do such a wicked thing! ^8*Look, I have two daughters who are still virgins. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do whatever you want with them. But don’t do anything to these men; they are guests in my house, and I must protect them.”

⁹But they said, “Get out of our way, you foreigner! Who are you to tell us what to do? Out of our way, or we will treat you worse than them.” They pushed Lot back and moved up to break down the door. ¹⁰But the two men inside reached out, pulled Lot back into the house, and shut the door. ^11*Then they struck all the men outside with blindness, so that they couldn’t find the door.

Lot Leaves Sodom

¹²The two men said to Lot, “If you have anyone else here—sons, daughters, sons-in-law, or any other relatives living in the city—get them out of here, ¹³because we are going to destroy this place. The Lord has heard the terrible accusations against these people and has sent us to destroy Sodom.”

¹⁴Then Lot went to the men that his daughters were going to marry, and said, “Hurry up and get out of here; the Lord is going to destroy this place.” But they thought he was joking.

¹⁵At dawn the angels tried to make Lot hurry. “Quick!” they said. “Take your wife and your two daughters and get out, so that you will not lose your lives when the city is destroyed.” ^16*Lot hesitated. The Lord, however, had pity on him; so the men took him, his wife, and his two daughters by the hand and led them out of the city. ¹⁷Then one of the angels said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look back and don’t stop in the valley. Run to the hills, so that you won’t be killed.”

¹⁸But Lot answered, “No, please don’t make us do that, sir. ¹⁹You have done me a great favour and saved my life. But the hills are too far away; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die before I get there. ²⁰Do you see that little town? It is near enough. Let me go over there—you can see it is just a small place—and I will be safe.”

²¹He answered, “All right, I agree. I won’t destroy that town. ²²Hurry! Run! I can’t do anything until you get there.”

Because Lot called it small, the town was named Zoar.^s

The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

²³The sun was rising when Lot reached Zoar. ^24*Suddenly the Lord rained burning sulphur on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah ^25*and destroyed them and the whole valley, along with all the people there and everything that grew on the land. ^26*But Lot’s wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt.

²⁷Early the next morning Abraham hurried to the place where he had stood in the presence of the Lord. ²⁸He looked down at Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole valley and saw smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a huge furnace.