Narrator
Most High
Messiah
Genesis (Bere'shiyth) 19
1 The two malakim (messengers) arrived at Sedom (Sodom) in the evening. Lot was sitting in the gateway of Sedom. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed with his face to the ground. 2 He said, "Look now, my masters, please come into your servant’s house and stay the night. Wash your feet, and then you can get up early and go on your way."
But they said, "No, we’ll stay in the town square all night." 3 He urged them strongly, so they joined him and entered his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. 4 But before they lay down, the men of the city—the men of Sedom—surrounded the house. All the people from every part of the city were there, both young and old. 5 They called out to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to stay with yourself tonight? Bring them out to us so that we may know them." 6 Lot went out to the door to meet them and shut the door behind him. 7 He said, "I beg you, my brothers, don’t act so wickedly. 8 Look now, I have two daughters who’ve never known a man. Please, let me bring them out to you, and you can do to them whatever you think is right. Only do nothing to these men, because they’ve come under the protection of my roof." 9 But they said, "Stand back!"
Then they said, "This one fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to act like a judge! Now we’ll deal worse with yourself than with them." They pushed hard against Lot and moved in to break down the door. 10 But the men reached out, pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. 11 Then they struck the men at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out trying to find the door. 12 Then the men said to Lot, "Do yourself have anyone else here? A son-in-law, yourself sons, yourself daughters, or anyone else yourself has in the city—get them out of this place. 13 For we’re going to destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before Yahuah (Yah), and Yahuah has sent us to destroy it." 14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, "Hurry and get out of this place! Yahuah (Yah) is going to destroy the city." But his sons-in-law thought he was joking. 15 When morning dawned, the malakim hurried Lot along, saying, "Get up! Take yourself wife and yourself two daughters who are here, or yourself will be swept away in the punishment of the city." 16 But he hesitated. So the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, because Yahuah (Yah) was merciful to him. They brought him out and set him outside the city. 17 When they had brought them outside, one said, "Run for yourself life! Don’t look behind yourself and don’t stop anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountain, or yourself will be swept away." 18 But Lot said to them, "Oh, no, Adonai (Master)!" 19 Look now, yourself servant has found favor in yourself sight, and yourself has shown great mercy to me by saving my life. But I can’t escape to the mountain; some disaster might overtake me and I’ll die. 20 Look, this city is close enough to run to, and it’s a small one. Please, let me escape there—isn’t it just a little one?—so that I can survive." 21 He said to him, "See, I’ve accepted yourself request concerning this thing also; I won’t overthrow this city yourself has spoken of. 22 Hurry and escape there, for I can’t do anything until yourself arrives." Therefore, the name of the city was called Tso'ar (Zoar). 23 The sun had risen over the earth when Lot entered Tso'ar. 24 Then Yahuah (Yah) rained sulfur and fire on Sedom and Amorah (Gomorrah) from Yahuah out of heaven. 25 He overthrew those cities, the entire plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and everything that grew on the ground. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. 27 Avraham (Abraham) got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before Yahuah (Yah). 28 He looked out toward Sedom and Amorah and toward all the land of the plain. He looked and saw the smoke of the land rising like the smoke of a furnace. 29 So it happened that when Yahuah (Yah) destroyed the cities of the plain, Yahuah remembered Avraham and sent Lot out of the destruction when he overthrew the cities where Lot lived. 30 Lot left Tso'ar and lived in the mountains with his two daughters, because he was afraid to stay in Tso'ar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. 31 The firstborn daughter said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there isn’t a man on earth to come in to us in the way of all the earth. 32 Come, let’s make our father drink wine and lie with him, so that we may preserve our father’s line." 33 They made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He didn’t realize when she lay down or when she got up. 34 The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, "Look, I lay with my father last night. Let’s make him drink wine tonight as well. Then yourself go in and lie with him, so that we may preserve our father’s line." 35 They made their father drink wine that night too, and the younger daughter got up and lay with him. Again, he didn’t realize when she lay down or when she got up.