Sodom and Gomorrah

Genesis 18

¹Now the LORD appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day.

²When he raised his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed down to the ground,

³and said, “My Lord, if now I have found favor in Your sight, please do not pass Your servant by.

⁴Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet, and make yourselves comfortable under the tree;

⁵and I will bring a piece of bread, so that you may refresh yourselves; after that you may go on, since you have visited your servant.” And they said, “So do as you have said.”

⁶So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quickly, prepare three measures of fine flour, knead it, and make bread cakes.”

⁷Abraham also ran to the herd, and took a tender and choice calf and gave it to the servant, and he hurried to prepare it.

⁸He took curds and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he was standing by them under the tree as they ate.

⁹Then they said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.”

¹⁰He said, “I will certainly return to you at this time next year; and behold, your wife Sarah will have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door, which was behind him.

¹¹Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; Sarah was past childbearing.

¹²So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have become old, am I to have pleasure, my lord being old also?”

¹³But the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I actually give birth to a child, when I am so old?’

¹⁴Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁵Sarah denied it, however, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. And He said, “No, but you did laugh.”

¹⁶Then the men rose up from there, and looked down toward Sodom; and Abraham was walking with them to send them off.

¹⁷The LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,

¹⁸since Abraham will certainly become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed?

¹⁹For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.”

²⁰And the LORD said, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.

²¹I will go down now and see whether they have done entirely as the outcry, which has come to Me indicates; and if not, I will know.”

²²Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before the LORD.

²³Abraham approached and said, “Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

²⁴Suppose there are fifty righteous people within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it?

²⁵Far be it from You to do such a thing, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”

²⁶So the LORD said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the entire place on their account.”

²⁷And Abraham replied, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am only dust and ashes.

²⁸Suppose the fifty righteous are lacking five, will You destroy the entire city because of five?” And He said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”

²⁹And he spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose forty are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it on account of the forty.”

³⁰Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak; suppose thirty are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

³¹And he said, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord; suppose twenty are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the twenty.”

³²Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once: suppose ten are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the ten.”

³³As soon as He had finished speaking to Abraham the LORD departed, and Abraham returned to his place.

Genesis 19

¹Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he stood up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.

²And he said, “Now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servant’s house, and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.” They said, “No, but we shall spend the night in the public square.”

³Yet he strongly urged them, so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

⁴Before 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;

⁵and they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them.”

⁶But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him,

⁷and said, “Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly.

⁸Now look, I have two daughters who have not had relations with any man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you like; only do not do anything to these men, because they have come under the shelter of my roof.”

⁹But they said, “Get out of the way!” They also said, “This one came in as a foreigner, and already he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them!” So they pressed hard against Lot and moved forward to break the door.

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

¹¹Then they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, from the small to the great, so that they became weary of trying to find the doorway.

¹²Then the two men said to Lot, “Whom else do you have here? A son-in-law and your sons and daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place;

¹³for we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before the LORD that the LORD has sent us to destroy it.”

¹⁴So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, “Up, get out of this place, for the LORD is destroying the city.” But he appeared to his sons-in-law to be joking.

¹⁵When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.”

¹⁶But he hesitated. So the men grasped his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, because the compassion of the LORD was upon him; and they brought him out and put him outside the city.

¹⁷When they had brought them outside, one said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the surrounding area; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away.”

¹⁸But Lot said to them, “Oh no, my lords!

¹⁹Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your compassion, which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, for the disaster will overtake me and I will die;

²⁰now behold, this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) so that my life may be saved.”

²¹And he said to him, “Behold, I grant you this request also, not to overthrow the town of which you have spoken.

²²Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the town was named Zoar.

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

²⁴Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the LORD out of heaven,

²⁵and He overthrew those cities, and all the surrounding area, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

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

²⁷Now Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the LORD;

²⁸and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the surrounding area; and behold, he saw the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace.

²⁹So it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the surrounding area, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the destruction, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.