1 Now the two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them, bowed facedown, 2 and said, “My lords, please turn aside into the house of your servant; wash your feet and spend the night. Then you can rise early and go on your way.” “No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.” 3 But Lot insisted so strongly that they followed him into his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. 4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, surrounded the house. 5 They called out to Lot, saying, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have relations with them!” 6 Lot went outside to meet them, shutting the door behind him. 7 “Please, my brothers,” he pleaded, “don’t do such a wicked thing! 8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them to you, and you can do to them as you please. But do not do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.” 9 “Get out of the way!” they replied. And they declared, “This one came here as a foreigner, and he is already acting like a judge! Now we will treat you worse than them.” And they pressed in on Lot and moved in to break down the door. 10 But the men inside reached out, pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. 11 And they struck the men at the entrance, young and old, with blindness, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the door. 12 Then the two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—a son-in-law, your sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, 13 because we are about to destroy this place. For the outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that He has sent us to destroy it.” 14 So Lot went out and spoke to the sons-in-law who were pledged in marriage to his daughters. “Get up,” he said. “Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking. 15 At daybreak the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.” 16 But when Lot hesitated, the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters. And they led them safely out of the city, because of the LORD’s compassion for them. 17 As soon as the men had brought them out, one of them said, “Run for your lives! Do not look back, and do not stop anywhere on the plain! Flee to the mountains, or you will be swept away!” 18 But Lot replied, “No, my lords, please! 19 Your servant has indeed found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness by sparing my life. But I cannot run to the mountains; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die. 20 Look, there is a town nearby where I can flee, and it is a small place. Please let me flee there—is it not a small place? Then my life will be saved.” 21 “Very well,” he answered, “I will grant this request as well, and will not demolish the town you indicate. 22 Hurry! Run there quickly, for I cannot do anything until you reach it.” That is why the town was called Zoar. 23 And by the time the sun had risen over the land, Lot had reached Zoar. 24 Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens. 25 Thus He destroyed these cities and the entire plain, including all the inhabitants of the cities and everything that grew on the ground. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. 27 Early the next morning, Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD. 28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and he saw the smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace. 29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham, and He brought Lot out of the catastrophe that destroyed the cities where he had lived. 30 Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains—for he was afraid to stay in Zoar—where they lived in a cave. 31 One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to sleep with us, as is the custom over all the earth. 32 Come, let us get our father drunk with wine so we can sleep with him and preserve his line.” 33 So that night they got their father drunk with wine, and the firstborn went in and slept with her father; he was not aware when she lay down or when she got up. 34 The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Look, I slept with my father last night. Let us get him drunk with wine again tonight so you can go in and sleep with him and we can preserve our father’s line.” 35 So again that night they got their father drunk with wine, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him; he was not aware when she lay down or when she got up. 36 Thus both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. 37 The older daughter gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites of today. 38 The younger daughter also gave birth to a son, and she named him Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites of today.
Genesis · Majority Standard Bible
Genesis 19 Majority Standard Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Abraham
Called by God, he left home in faith to become the father of a chosen people.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 12–25
Lot
Abraham's nephew who chose the plain of Jordan and settled near Sodom.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 11–14; 19
Moab
A son of Lot and ancestor of the Moabites, who settled east of the Dead Sea.
Cited in the guide: Gen. 19:37
Cross references (36)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Genesis 18:1–5; Genesis 18:22; Hebrews 13:2; Job 31:32
- 2 Genesis 18:4; Luke 24:28–29; Hebrews 13:2; Acts 16:15; Judges 19:17–21
- 3 Genesis 18:6–8; Judges 6:19; 1 Samuel 28:24; 1 Corinthians 5:8; Exodus 12:39
- 4 Genesis 13:13; Proverbs 4:16; Genesis 18:20; Exodus 23:2; Jeremiah 5:31
- 5 Judges 19:22; Isaiah 3:9; Jude 7; Leviticus 18:22; Romans 1:26–27
- 6 Judges 19:23
- 7 Leviticus 20:13; Romans 1:24; 1 Corinthians 6:9–11; Deuteronomy 23:17; Jude 7
- 8 Judges 19:24; Genesis 19:31–38; Mark 9:6; Romans 3:8; Judges 9:15
- 9 Exodus 2:14; Genesis 13:12; 2 Peter 2:7–8; Daniel 3:19–22; Ecclesiastes 9:3
- 11 2 Kings 6:18; Acts 13:11; Jeremiah 2:36; Deuteronomy 28:28–29; Isaiah 57:10
- 12 Genesis 7:1; 2 Peter 2:7; Revelation 18:4; 2 Peter 2:9; Numbers 16:26
- 13 Genesis 18:20; Matthew 13:49–50; Jude 7; Revelation 16:1–12; Acts 12:23
- 14 Numbers 16:21; Numbers 16:26; Jeremiah 51:6; Numbers 16:45; Revelation 18:4–8
- 15 Numbers 16:24–27; Luke 13:24–25; Revelation 18:4; Proverbs 6:4–5; Genesis 19:22
- 16 Romans 9:15–16; Titus 3:5; Psalm 103:13; Psalm 111:4; Exodus 34:6
- 17 Matthew 24:16–18; Luke 9:62; Philippians 3:13–14; Genesis 19:26; Genesis 19:22
- 18 Genesis 32:26; Isaiah 45:11; Acts 9:13; Acts 10:14; 2 Kings 5:11–12
- 19 1 Kings 9:9; Matthew 8:25–26; Psalm 116:1–19; Psalm 106:1–48; Deuteronomy 31:17
- 20 Psalm 119:175; Proverbs 3:5–7; Isaiah 55:3; Genesis 19:30; Genesis 12:13
- 21 Psalm 145:19; Psalm 102:17; Job 42:8–9; Psalm 34:15; Luke 11:8
- 22 Genesis 13:10; Genesis 14:2; Exodus 32:10; Genesis 32:25–28; Deuteronomy 9:14
- 24 Deuteronomy 29:23; Isaiah 13:19; Jude 7; Amos 4:11; 2 Peter 2:6
- 25 Psalm 107:34; Genesis 14:3; Genesis 13:10
- 26 Luke 17:31–32; Genesis 19:17; Hebrews 10:38; Proverbs 14:14; Numbers 16:38
- 27 Habakkuk 2:1; Psalm 5:3; Hebrews 2:1; Genesis 18:22–33; Ezekiel 16:49–50
- 28 Revelation 18:9; Revelation 9:2; Jude 7; Revelation 21:8; Revelation 18:18
- 29 Genesis 8:1; Deuteronomy 9:5; Psalm 25:7; Genesis 18:23–33; Hosea 11:8
- 30 Genesis 19:19; Genesis 19:17; Genesis 14:22; James 1:8; Deuteronomy 34:3
- 31 Deuteronomy 25:5; Isaiah 4:1; Genesis 6:4; Genesis 4:1; Genesis 16:2
- 32 Leviticus 18:6–7; Genesis 11:3; Mark 12:19; Genesis 9:21; Proverbs 23:31–33
- 33 Habakkuk 2:15–16; Leviticus 18:6–7; Proverbs 20:1; Proverbs 23:29–35
- 34 Jeremiah 3:3; Isaiah 3:9; Jeremiah 6:15; Jeremiah 5:3; Jeremiah 8:12
- 35 1 Corinthians 10:11–12; Ecclesiastes 7:26; 1 Peter 4:7; Luke 21:34; Psalm 8:4
- 36 Habakkuk 2:15; Genesis 19:8; 1 Samuel 15:33; Leviticus 18:6–7; Judges 1:7
- 37 Deuteronomy 2:9; Numbers 22:1–41; Judges 3:1–31; Deuteronomy 23:3; Ruth 4:10
- 38 Deuteronomy 2:19; 1 Samuel 11:1–15; Judges 10:6–11:40; Isaiah 11:14; Zephaniah 2:9
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).
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.
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)
… 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)
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 …
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)