New International Reader s Version - NIrV - 1996
Genesis 19
1
The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening. Lot was sitting near the gate of the city. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them. He bowed down with his face to the ground.
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2
"My lords," he said, "please come to my house. You can wash your feet and spend the night here. Then you can go on your way early in the morning." "No," they answered. "We'll spend the night in the street."
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3
But Lot wouldn't give up. So they went with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them. He baked bread without using yeast. And they ate.
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4
Before Lot and his guests had gone to bed, all of the men came from every part of the city of Sodom. Young and old men alike surrounded the house.
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5
They called out to Lot. They said, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us. We want to have sex with them."
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6
Lot went outside to meet them. He shut the door behind him.
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Parallel theme
Judges 19:23
7
He said, "No, my friends. Don't do such an evil thing.
8
Look, I have two daughters. No man has ever made love to them. I'll bring them out to you now. Then do to them what you want to. But don't do anything to these men. I've brought them inside so they can be safe."
Reference
Good
Judges 19:24
Romans 3:8
Parallel theme
Isaiah 58:7
Mark 9:6
Exodus 32:22
Genesis 18:5
Genesis 42:37
Judges 9:15
9
"Get out of our way!" the men of Sodom replied. They said, "This fellow came here as an outsider. Now he wants to act like a judge! We'll treat you worse than them." They kept trying to force Lot to open the door. Then they moved forward to break it down.
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10
But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house. They shut the door.
11
Then they made the men who were at the door of the house blind. They blinded young and old men alike. So the men couldn't find the door.
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12
The two men said to Lot, "Do you have anyone else here? Do you have sons-in-law, sons or daughters? Does anyone else in the city belong to you? Get them out of here.
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13
We are going to destroy this place. There has been a great cry to the Lord against the people of this city. So he has sent us to destroy it."
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References Lord
Genesis 18:20
14
Then Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law. They had promised to get married to his daughters. He said, "Hurry up! Get out of this place! The Lord is about to destroy the city!" But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
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Parallel theme
Numbers 16:21
Numbers 16:45
Numbers 16:26
2 Chronicles 30:10
Acts 17:32
Proverbs 29:1
Matthew 9:24
References Lord
Jeremiah 51:6
Isaiah 28:22
Jeremiah 20:7
15
The sun was coming up. So the angels tried to get Lot to leave. They said, "Hurry up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here. Get out! If you don't, you will be swept away when the city is punished."
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16
Lot didn't move right away. So the men grabbed him by the hand. They also took hold of the hands of his wife and two daughters. They led all of them safely out of the city. The Lord had mercy on them.
17
As soon as the angels had brought them out, one of them spoke. He said, "Run for your lives! Don't look back! Don't stop anywhere in the valley! Run to the mountains! If you don't, you will be swept away!"
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18
But Lot said to them, "No, my lords! Please!
19
You have done me a big favor. You have been very kind to me by sparing my life. But I can't run to the mountains. This horrible thing that's going to happen will catch up with me. And then I'll die.
20
"Look, here's a town near enough to run to. It's small. Let me run to it. It's very small, isn't it? Then my life will be spared."
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Parallel theme
Psalm 119:175
21
The Lord said to Lot, "All right. I will also give you what you are asking for. I will not destroy the town you are talking about.
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22
But run there quickly. I can't do anything until you reach it." The town was named Zoar. Zoar means "small."
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23
By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land.
24
Then the Lord sent down burning sulfur. It came down like rain on Sodom and Gomorrah. It came from the Lord out of the sky.
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Parallel theme
Isaiah 13:19
Jude 1:7
2 Peter 2:6
Job 18:15
Lamentations 4:6
References Lord
Deuteronomy 29:23
Jeremiah 50:40
Amos 4:11
Jeremiah 20:16
Zephaniah 2:9
25
He destroyed those cities and the whole valley. All of the people who were living in the cities were wiped out. So were the plants in the land.
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27
Early the next morning Abraham got up. He returned to the place where he had stood in front of the Lord.
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28
He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole valley. He saw thick smoke rising from the land. It looked like smoke from a furnace.
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29
So when God destroyed the cities of the valley, he showed concern for Abraham. He brought Lot out safely when he destroyed the cities where Lot had lived.
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30
Lot and his two daughters left Zoar. They went to settle down in the mountains. Lot was afraid to stay in Zoar. So he and his daughters lived in a cave.
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Parallel theme
Genesis 19:19
31
One day the older daughter spoke to the younger one. She said, "Our father is old. There aren't any other men around here to make love to, as people all over the earth do.
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32
So let's get our father to drink wine. Then we can make love to him. We can use our father to continue our family line."
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Parallel theme
Genesis 11:3
33
That night they got their father to drink wine. Then the older daughter went in and made love to him. He didn't know when she lay down or when she got up.
34
The next day the older daughter spoke to the younger one again. She said, "Last night I made love to my father. Let's get him to drink wine again tonight. Then you go in and make love to him. In that way, we can use our father to continue our family line."
35
So they got their father to drink wine that night also. Then the younger daughter went and made love to him. Again he didn't know when she lay down or when she got up.
36
So both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father.
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Parallel theme
Habakkuk 2:15
37
The older daughter had a son. She named him Moab. He's the father of the Moabites of today.
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People
Parallel theme
Deuteronomy 2:9
38
The younger daughter also had a son. She named him Ben-Ammi. He's the father of the Ammonites of today.
Reference
People
Parallel theme
Deuteronomy 2:19
Summary of Genesis 19
Genesis chapter nineteen picks up directly where the intense bargaining session left off in chapter eighteen, answering any question the reader might have had about whether Sodom has even ten righteous men in it.
The chapter opens with the two angels arriving in Sodom in the evening, and Lot is sitting in the city gate, which was the traditional place for officials to sit in judgment. This suggests that Lot has taken up residence in Sodom, and in fact has achieved some status among its citizens. The two angels arrive, and he rises to meet them, bowing low before them and inviting them to stay at his home, where they will be able to wash their feet and rest before continuing on their journey. He insists that they spend the night in his home, and at first they refuse, saying they will spend the night in the city square, but he convinces them to return home with him. He sets food before them and bakes bread without leaven.
But before they can lie down and rest, the men of the city, all of them young and old, surround the house and demand that Lot bring out the men, so that they can "know" them, using a word that means to have sexual relations with them. Lot goes out the door and tells them to leave the men alone, that it's an outrage. But then he offers the men something that is difficult to stomach, suggesting that he would give them his two daughters, who are still virgins, in exchange for the safety of his guests. But they refuse to listen and tell him to leave the city, and they begin to mob the house to get him out. The men inside drag Lot back inside the house and shut the door before striking the men attempting to get in blind so they cannot see where the entrance is.
This is where the angels reveal for the first time that they are indeed messengers from God, carrying out his will. They tell him to take his wife and daughters out of the city, as well as any other people he can find, for the Lord is going to bring destruction upon it. The outcry against the city has grown to the point where the Lord has decided to bring that judgment himself. Lot goes to his sons-in-law, that is, the fathers of his daughters, and tells them to get out of the city, but they laugh at him, thinking he is joking.
The angels urge him to hurry and take his wife and daughters out of the city, for it is about to happen. The man seems reluctant at first, and even as he is hurried out of the city, the angels have to take his wife and daughters by the hand and lead him out of the city himself, for the Lord was merciful to him. Once they are outside, the angels tell him to flee to the mountains and not look back, for he must not be delayed going in the direction of the hills, so he does not get caught in his city's destruction. But he asks the angel to take them instead to a nearby little town, and the angel agrees, granting them this favor. The town is named Zoar, which means small.
And so the Lord rains down fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah, destroying the cities and everything in them. But as Lot and his family travel to Zoar, the wife looks back and is turned to salt. This is an incredibly brief moment that is mentioned only in passing, but it is a lesson that has stuck with people for thousands of years. Do not look back longingly at what you have left behind, but instead think of a better future ahead of you.
Abraham rises up early the next morning and sees the smoke rising from the cities like smoke from a furnace. The Lord has brought Lot out of the conflagration, and remembered Abraham, showing mercy to him.
The last part of the chapter is perhaps even grimmer, telling us the story of Lot and his two daughters. He is afraid to stay in Zoar, and so he takes up residence in a cave in the mountains with his two daughters. One fateful day, the daughters decide that there is no longer anyone on earth for them to marry, as all the men have died, and so they get their father drunk on wine on two consecutive nights and sleep with him, pretending that it is their father. Both become pregnant and bear sons, who become the progenitors of the Moabites and the Ammonites, peoples who appear later throughout the Old Testament.
Lot, his wife, and his two daughters form a sort of dark triptych at the end of this chapter of fire and brimstone. Between the mob violence of the Sodomites, the incendiary destruction visited upon the cities, Lot's wife turned to salt, and the grim ending in the cave involving his daughters getting him drunk and pretending that it is their father, chapter nineteen stands as one of the darkest chapters in Genesis.
The chapter opens with the two angels arriving in Sodom in the evening, and Lot is sitting in the city gate, which was the traditional place for officials to sit in judgment. This suggests that Lot has taken up residence in Sodom, and in fact has achieved some status among its citizens. The two angels arrive, and he rises to meet them, bowing low before them and inviting them to stay at his home, where they will be able to wash their feet and rest before continuing on their journey. He insists that they spend the night in his home, and at first they refuse, saying they will spend the night in the city square, but he convinces them to return home with him. He sets food before them and bakes bread without leaven.
But before they can lie down and rest, the men of the city, all of them young and old, surround the house and demand that Lot bring out the men, so that they can "know" them, using a word that means to have sexual relations with them. Lot goes out the door and tells them to leave the men alone, that it's an outrage. But then he offers the men something that is difficult to stomach, suggesting that he would give them his two daughters, who are still virgins, in exchange for the safety of his guests. But they refuse to listen and tell him to leave the city, and they begin to mob the house to get him out. The men inside drag Lot back inside the house and shut the door before striking the men attempting to get in blind so they cannot see where the entrance is.
This is where the angels reveal for the first time that they are indeed messengers from God, carrying out his will. They tell him to take his wife and daughters out of the city, as well as any other people he can find, for the Lord is going to bring destruction upon it. The outcry against the city has grown to the point where the Lord has decided to bring that judgment himself. Lot goes to his sons-in-law, that is, the fathers of his daughters, and tells them to get out of the city, but they laugh at him, thinking he is joking.
The angels urge him to hurry and take his wife and daughters out of the city, for it is about to happen. The man seems reluctant at first, and even as he is hurried out of the city, the angels have to take his wife and daughters by the hand and lead him out of the city himself, for the Lord was merciful to him. Once they are outside, the angels tell him to flee to the mountains and not look back, for he must not be delayed going in the direction of the hills, so he does not get caught in his city's destruction. But he asks the angel to take them instead to a nearby little town, and the angel agrees, granting them this favor. The town is named Zoar, which means small.
And so the Lord rains down fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah, destroying the cities and everything in them. But as Lot and his family travel to Zoar, the wife looks back and is turned to salt. This is an incredibly brief moment that is mentioned only in passing, but it is a lesson that has stuck with people for thousands of years. Do not look back longingly at what you have left behind, but instead think of a better future ahead of you.
Abraham rises up early the next morning and sees the smoke rising from the cities like smoke from a furnace. The Lord has brought Lot out of the conflagration, and remembered Abraham, showing mercy to him.
The last part of the chapter is perhaps even grimmer, telling us the story of Lot and his two daughters. He is afraid to stay in Zoar, and so he takes up residence in a cave in the mountains with his two daughters. One fateful day, the daughters decide that there is no longer anyone on earth for them to marry, as all the men have died, and so they get their father drunk on wine on two consecutive nights and sleep with him, pretending that it is their father. Both become pregnant and bear sons, who become the progenitors of the Moabites and the Ammonites, peoples who appear later throughout the Old Testament.
Lot, his wife, and his two daughters form a sort of dark triptych at the end of this chapter of fire and brimstone. Between the mob violence of the Sodomites, the incendiary destruction visited upon the cities, Lot's wife turned to salt, and the grim ending in the cave involving his daughters getting him drunk and pretending that it is their father, chapter nineteen stands as one of the darkest chapters in Genesis.