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The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening. Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom, and when he saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed with his face to the ground,
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and said, “My lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house, stay the night here, and wash your feet; then in the morning you may continue on your way.” They answered, “No, we will spend the night in the open square.”
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But because he urged them strongly, they turned aside to him and entered his house. Then he prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
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But before they lay down, the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house.
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They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may use them.”
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Then Lot went out to them at the doorway, but he shut the door behind him,
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and said, “My brothers, do not do such wickedness.
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Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man; let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you think best. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.”
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But they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came here as an outsider, and now he wants to judge us! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” So they pressed hard against the man, Lot, and came near to break down the door.
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But the two men reached out their hands, pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.
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And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the door.
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Then the two men said to Lot, “Who else do you have here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, or anyone else you have in the city—bring them out of this place,
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for we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against this city before the LORD is great; therefore the LORD has sent us to destroy it.”
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So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up, go out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking.
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When dawn had broken, the two angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, “Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of this city.”
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But as he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, the hand of his wife, and the hands of his two daughters, because the LORD was merciful to him; and they brought him out and set him outside the city.
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When they had brought them outside, one said, “Escape for your life; do not look back, and do not stop anywhere in the Jordan Valley; escape to the mountains, lest you be swept away.”
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Lot said to them, “Oh, no, my lords.
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Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in preserving my life; but if I must flee to the mountains, disaster will surely overtake me, and I shall die.
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Behold, that city yonder is near enough to flee to, and it is small; let me flee there, please. Is it not a little one? Then my life will be preserved.”
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He said to him, “Very well, I grant you this request also; I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.
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Hurry, flee there, for I cannot do anything until you have reached it.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
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The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
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Then the LORD rained sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of heaven;
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and he overthrew those cities, and the Jordan Valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
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But Lot’s wife, who was following behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
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And Abraham rose early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the LORD,
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and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the Jordan Valley; and he saw smoke rising from the land like the smoke of a furnace.
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So it was, when God destroyed the cities of the Jordan Valley and overthrew the cities where Lot had lived, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out from the midst of the overthrow.
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Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the mountains with his two daughters, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar; and he lived in a cave with his two daughters.
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And the elder said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to come in to us, according to the custom of all the earth.
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Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.”
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So that night they made their father drink wine, and the elder went in and lay with her father; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
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The next day the elder said to the younger, “See, I lay with my father last night. Let us make him drink wine again tonight; then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.”
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So that night also they made their father drink wine, and the younger arose and lay with her father; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
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Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father.
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The elder bore a son, and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today.
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The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites of today.
🔥 Summary of Genesis 19
Two angels of the Lord came to Sodom by night. Lot, who was sitting at the city gate (a sign that he held an important place in the city), quickly welcomed them and urged them to stay the night in his house.
However, before they lay down, the men of Sodom, from young to old, surrounded Lot’s house and demanded that Lot hand over his guests for abuse — showing how deeply corrupt the city had become.
Lot tried to protect his guests, even offering his daughters, which showed how disordered the moral standards had become. The angels then pulled Lot into the house and blinded the eyes of the men of the city.
They ordered Lot to bring his family out at once because the Lord was going to destroy the city. Lot warned his future sons-in-law, but they thought he was joking.
The next day, the angel led Lot, his wife, and his two daughters out of the city, because they were slow to leave the place. They were told not to look back.
But Lot’s wife looked back, and became a pillar of salt. Meanwhile, the Lord rained fire and sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah, destroying the cities of the Jordan valley.
Lot and his daughters fled to the mountains. There, the two daughters, fearing that no men were left, made Lot drunk and slept with their father in order to continue their line. From this act were born Moab and Ben-Ammi, ancestors of the peoples of Moab and Ammon.
📖 Main Teaching
- Collective evil will bring the Lord’s wrath if there is no repentance.
- The Lord still saves the righteous, even when they are few.
- Obedience must be immediate — delay can be fatal.
- Looking back means binding oneself to a past that the Lord has left behind.
- Fear and actions without faith can give rise to the sins of the next generation.
✨ Spiritual Meaning
- This story reflects God’s holiness and His firmness toward sin.
- Lot’s wife becomes a symbol of one who leaves the world half-heartedly — unable to look toward the future because still tied to the past.
- The Lord remains patient, but His judgment will surely come.
- Even after being saved, human can fall into sin if not watchful.
- Lot’s children were born from a wrongful act, yet God still used that line in His great plan (the descendants of Moab gave rise to Ruth).
