Genesis 19 Bible in Basic English

About BBE

Scholarly edition
OT: Masoretic Hebrew (not verified)
NT: Critical text (not verified)
Protestant (66 books)
Simplified language
1965
Public domain

Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings

BBE Bible in Basic English

WEB World English Bible (Classic, with Deuterocanon)

1 And at nightfall the two angels came to Sodom; and Lot was seated at the way into the town: and when he saw them he got up and came before them, falling down on his face to the earth.

1 The 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,

2 And he said, My masters, come now into your servant's house and take your rest there for the night, and let your feet be washed; and early in the morning you may go on your way. And they said, Not so, but we will take our night's rest in the street.

2 and 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.”

3 But he made his request more strongly, so they went with him into his house; and he got food ready for them, and made unleavened bread, of which they took.

3 He 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.

4 But before they had gone to bed, the men of the town, all the men of Sodom, came round the house, young and old, from every part of the town;

4 But 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.

5 And crying out to Lot, they said, Where are the men who came to your house this night? Send them out to us, so that we may take our pleasure with them.

5 They 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.”

6 And Lot went out to them in the doorway, shutting the door after him.

6 Lot went out to them through the door, and shut the door after himself.

7 And he said, My brothers, do not this evil.

7 He said, “Please, my brothers, don’t act so wickedly.

8 See now, I have two unmarried daughters; I will send them out to you so that you may do to them whatever seems good to you: only do nothing to these men, for this is why they have come under the shade of my roof.

8 See 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.”

9 And they said, Give way there. This one man, they said, came here from a strange country, and will he now be our judge? now we will do worse to you than to them; and pushing violently against Lot, they came near to get the door broken in.

9 They 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.

10 But the men put out their hands and took Lot into the house to them, shutting the door again.

10 But the men reached out their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door.

11 But the men who were outside the door they made blind, all of them, small and great, so that they were tired out with looking for the door.

11 They 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.

12 Then the men said to Lot, Are there any others of your family here? sons-in-law or sons or daughters, take them all out of this place;

12 The 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:

13 For we are about to send destruction on this place, because a great outcry against them has come to the ears of the Lord; and the Lord has sent us to put an end to the town.

13 for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown so great before Yahweh that Yahweh has sent us to destroy it.”

14 And Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were married to his daughters, Come, let us go out of this place, for the Lord is about to send destruction on the town. But his sons-in-law did not take him seriously.

14 Lot 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 Yahweh will destroy the city!” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking.

15 And when morning came, the angels did all in their power to make Lot go, saying, Get up quickly and take your wife and your two daughters who are here, and go, for fear that you come to destruction in the punishment of the town.

15 When 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.”

16 But while he was waiting, the men took him and his wife and his daughters by the hand, for the Lord had mercy on them, and put them outside the town.

16 But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and his two daughters’ hands, Yahweh being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city.

17 And when they had put them out, he said, Go for your life, without looking back or waiting in the lowland; go quickly to the mountain or you will come to destruction.

17 It 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!”

18 And Lot said to them, Not so, O my Lord;

18 Lot said to them, “Oh, not so, my lord.

19 See now, your servant has had grace in your eyes and great is your mercy in keeping my life from destruction, but I am not able to get as far as the mountain before evil overtakes me and death;

19 See 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.

20 This town, now, is near, and it is a little one: O, let me go there (is it not a little one?) so that my life may be safe.

20 See 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.”

21 And he said, See, I have given you your request in this one thing more: I will not send destruction on this town.

21 He 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.

22 Go there quickly, for I am not able to do anything till you have come there. For this reason, the town was named Zoar.

22 Hurry, escape there, for I can’t do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

23 The sun was up when Lot came to Zoar.

23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

24 Then the Lord sent fire and flaming smoke raining down from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah.

24 Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky.

25 And he sent destruction on those towns, with all the lowland and all the people of those towns and every green thing in the land.

25 He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.

26 But Lot's wife, looking back, became a pillar of salt.

26 But Lot’s wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 And Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had been talking with the Lord:

27 Abraham went up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Yahweh.

28 And looking in the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the lowland, he saw the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of an oven.

28 He 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.

29 So it came about that when God sent destruction on the towns of the lowland, he kept his word to Abraham, and sent Lot safely away when he put an end to the towns where he was living.

29 When 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.

30 Then Lot went up out of Zoar to the mountain, and was living there with his two daughters, for fear kept him from living in Zoar: and he and his daughters made their living-place in a hole in the rock.

30 Lot 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.

31 And the older daughter said to her sister, Our father is old, and there is no man to be a husband to us in the natural way:

31 The 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.

32 Come, let us give our father much wine, and we will go into his bed, so that we may have offspring by our father,

32 Come, let’s make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.”

33 And that night they made their father take much wine; and the older daughter went into his bed; and he had no knowledge of when she went in or when she went away.

33 They 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.

34 And on the day after, the older daughter said to the younger, Last night I was with my father; let us make him take much wine this night again, and do you go to him, so that we may have offspring by our father.

34 It 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.”

35 And that night again they made their father take much wine; and the younger daughter went into his bed; and he had no knowledge of when she went in or when she went away.

35 They 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.

36 And so the two daughters of Lot were with child by their father.

36 Thus both of Lot’s daughters were with child by their father.

37 And the older daughter had a son, and she gave him the name Moab: he is the father of the Moabites to this day.

37 The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day.

38 And the younger had a son and gave him the name Ben-ammi: from him come the children of Ammon to this day.

38 The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.

People & places in this chapter

From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.

People

Abraham
Father of nations
Called by God, he left home in faith to become the father of a chosen people.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 12–25
See in the family tree
Lot
Abraham's nephew
Abraham's nephew who chose the plain of Jordan and settled near Sodom.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 11–14; 19
See in the family tree
Lot's wife
Lot's wife; pillar of salt
Lot's unnamed wife, led out of Sodom with her husband and two daughters, who looked back and became a pillar of salt.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 19:26; Luke 17:32
See in the family tree
Moab
Ancestor of the Moabites
A son of Lot and ancestor of the Moabites, who settled east of the Dead Sea.
Cited in the guide: Gen. 19:37
See in the family tree

Cross references (36)

Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.

Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences

What the Fathers said

Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).

How these were chosen

“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).

Quotes verse 19:24 Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies (Book III, Chapter VI)
And again, referring to the destruction of the Sodomites, the Scripture says, "Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven." For it here points out that the Son, who had also been talking with Abraham, had received power to judge the Sodomites for their wickedness.
Read in context · Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885)
Quotes verse 19:2 Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (Book XVI, Chapters 29–32)
For after saying to them in the plural, "Behold, my lords, turn aside into your servant's house," etc., yet it is afterwards said, "And the angels laid hold upon his hand, and the hand of his wife, and the hands of his two daughters, because the Lord was merciful unto him.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
Quotes verse 19:24 Gregory of Nazianzus, Theological Orations (The Third Theological Oration)
… the Image, the Seal; "Who being the Effulgence of His glory and the Impress of His Essence," and "the Image of His Goodness," and "Him hath God the Father sealed." Lord, King, He That Is, The Almighty. "The Lord rained down fire from the Lord;" and "A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy Kingdom;" and "Which is and …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
Quotes verse 19:33 Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies (Book IV, Chapters XXIX–XXX)
As says the Scripture: "And that night the elder went in and lay with her father; and Lot knew not when she lay down, nor when she arose." And the same thing took place in the case of the younger: "And he knew not," it is said, "when she slept with him, nor when she arose." Since, therefore, Lot knew …
Read in context · Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885)
Quotes verse 19:16–19 Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (Book XVI, Chapters 29–32)
And Lot said unto them, I pray thee, Lord, since thy servant hath found grace in thy sight," etc.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)

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What the Fathers said