19
The men in Sodom are really bad
1 The sun was going down when the 2 angels got close to Sodom. At that time, Abraham's nephew who was named Lot was sitting near the town gate. When he saw the men coming, he went out to meet them. He bowed down with his face on the ground in front of them. 2 He said, “My lords. Come and stay in my house. You can wash your feet and rest before you leave tomorrow.”
The angels answered, “No, it's ok! We will sleep outside in the park.”
3 But Lot asked them again and again to stay with him in his house. And so, the 2 angels went with him. Lot cooked some good food for them, and they ate the food with some flat bread.
4-5 Before the angels went to sleep, all the men in Sodom, both young and old, went to stand around Lot's house and they shouted, “Where are the 2 men that came to your house tonight? Bring them out here so that we can take them to bed.” 6-7 Lot went outside and shut the door. He said to the men, “My friends, please do not do this really bad thing. 8 Look, I have 2 daughters. They are both young girls that have never been with a man. Let me bring them out here for you so that you can do whatever you want to do with them. But please do not do any bad thing to these men.+ They are living in my house and under our law, I have to keep them safe.” 9 But the men of Sodom said to each other, “This man is a stranger here and he wants to tell us what to do. He has no right to do that.” And so they said, “Get out of our way or we will do even worse things to you.” They started to push Lot back against the house. They wanted to break the door down and grab the men that were inside.
10 But the 2 angels quickly opened the door and pulled Lot inside and shut the door again. 11 Straight away the angels used their power to blind all the men outside the house, so that the men could not even find the door.+
12-13 Then the angels said to Lot, “Do you have any more family here in Sodom? Do you have any more children? Are there any men that are married to your daughters, or anyone else that belongs to you? You see the people in this town are so bad, God has sent us to burn the whole town. You have to get your family away from here, straight away.”
14 So Lot went and found the men that were promised to marry his 2 daughters. He said to them, “You have to get out of Sodom. God is going to burn the town.” But the 2 men thought Lot was joking.
15 Very early the next day, the angels tried to get Lot to leave Sodom quickly. They said, “Hurry up Lot. Get your wife and daughters and get away from here. If you do not get away, you will die like everyone else.” 16 But Lot did not hurry, so one of the angels grabbed Lot's hand and his wife's hand, and the other angel grabbed the hands of Lot's 2 daughters and led them quickly out of the town. You see, God wanted Lot and his family to be safe.+ 17 As soon as they were all outside, one of the angels said to them, “Run away quickly. Do not look back, but keep running until you get to the hills. Do not stop anywhere on the plain country. If you don't do as I say, you will die like all the people in Sodom.”
18-19 Lot said to one of the angels, “My lord, you have been very kind to me and you have saved my life, but I cannot run all the way to the hill country, it is too far. I just can't make it and so I will die like everyone else. 20 Look there is a little town over there. Maybe I could run there and be safe. It is not too far for me.”
21 The angel answered, “Ok, I will let you go to that little town. I will not burn it up and you will be safe there. 22 But run quickly. I will not do anything until you are safe in that little town called Zoar.” In that language Zoar means Little.
God sent fire onto Sodom and Gomorrah
23-25 Just as Lot and his daughters got to Zoar, the sun came up. Then the Lord sent burning stone called sulfur down from the sky onto Sodom and Gomorrah. Both those towns and all the plain country around them was burnt. All the people, all the plants and every living thing there died.+
26 But Lot's wife turned around and looked at what was happening, and straight away her body turned into a block of salt.+
27-28 Early the next day, Abraham went to the place where he had talked with God the day before. He looked down the hill at where the 2 towns, Sodom and Gomorrah used to be. The towns and everything on the plain country was on fire. There was a lot of smoke, like the smoke from a really big bushfire.
29 And so, what God told Abraham came true that day. God could not find 10 good people in the towns and so he sent fire and burned them up. But God was kind to Abraham and God saved Lot and his 2 daughters.
Lot's daughters do the wrong thing
30 Lot and his daughters were frightened to stay in Zoar and so they went and lived in a cave up in the hill country.
31 One day the oldest daughter said to her sister, “Our father is really old, and there are no men around here that will marry us. 32 Let's get our father drunk and get him to sleep with us so that we can have babies. That way our family line will keep going.” 33 So, that night the 2 daughters got their father drunk and the oldest daughter slept with her father so that she could have a baby. Lot was so drunk he did not know what happened.
34 The next morning, the older daughter said to her sister, “I slept with our father last night. It's your turn now. We will get him drunk again tonight and you can go and sleep with him. Then we will both have babies and our family line will keep going.”
35 The 2 sisters got their father drunk again and the younger daughter slept with her father. And again, Lot had no idea what happened.
36 And so both sisters had babies from their father. 37 The oldest daughter had a son and she named him Moab which means in their language, He came from my father. All the families that came from that son were called Moabites and they are still living today.
38 The younger daughter had a son too, and she named him Ben-Ammi. In their language it means Son of my relation. All the families that came from this son were called Ammonites and they are still living today.
+ 19:8 Judges 19:22-24 + 19:11 2 Kings 6:18 + 19:16 2 Peter 2:7 + 19:23-25 Deuteronomy 29:23; Jeremiah 49:18; 50:40; Lamentations 4:6; Matthew 10:15,; 11:23-24; Luke 10:12; 17:29; 2 Peter 2:6; Jude 7 + 19:26 Luke 17:32