Sodom and Gomorrah

¹⁶ When the men got up to leave, they looked out over Sodom. (Now Abraham was walking with them to see them on their way.) ¹⁷ Then the Lord said, “Should I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? ¹⁸ After all, Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations on the earth may receive blessing through him. ¹⁹ 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 what is right and just. Then the Lord will give to Abraham what he promised him.”

²⁰ So the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so blatant ²¹ that I must go down and see if they are as wicked as the outcry suggests. If not, I want to know.”

²² The two men turned and headed toward Sodom, but Abraham was still standing before the Lord. ²³ Abraham approached and said, “Will you really sweep away the godly along with the wicked? ²⁴ What if there are 50 godly people in the city? Will you really wipe it out and not spare the place for the sake of the 50 godly people who are in it? ²⁵ Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the godly with the wicked, treating the godly and the wicked alike! Far be it from you! Will not the judge of the whole earth do what is right?”

²⁶ So the Lord replied, “If I find in the city of Sodom 50 godly people, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

²⁷ Then Abraham asked, “Since I have undertaken to speak to the Lord (although I am but dust and ashes), ²⁸ what if there are five less than the 50 godly people? Will you destroy the whole city because five are lacking?” He replied, “I will not destroy it if I find 45 there.”

²⁹ Abraham spoke to him again, “What if 40 are found there?” He replied, “I will not do it for the sake of the 40.”

³⁰ Then Abraham said, “May the Lord not be angry so that I may speak! What if 30 are found there?” He replied, “I will not do it if I find 30 there.”

³¹ Abraham said, “Since I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, what if only 20 are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the 20.”

³² Finally Abraham said, “May the Lord not be angry so that I may speak just once more. What if 10 are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the 10.”

³³ The Lord went on his way when he had finished speaking to Abraham. Then Abraham returned home.

¹⁹ The two angels came to Sodom in the evening while Lot was sitting in the city’s gateway. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face toward the ground.

² He said, “Here, my lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house. Stay the night and wash your feet. Then you can be on your way early in the morning.” “No,” they replied, “we’ll spend the night in the town square.”

³ But he urged them persistently, so they turned aside with him and entered his house. He prepared a feast for them, including bread baked without yeast, and they ate. ⁴ Before they could lie down to sleep, all the men—both young and old, from every part of the city of Sodom—surrounded the house. ⁵ They shouted to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so we can take carnal knowledge of them!”

⁶ Lot went outside to them, shutting the door behind him. ⁷ He said, “No, my brothers! Don’t act so wickedly! ⁸ Look, I have two daughters who have never been intimate with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do to them whatever you please. Only don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”

⁹ “Out of our way!” they cried, “This man came to live here as a foreigner, and now he dares to judge us! We’ll do more harm to you than to them!” They kept pressing in on Lot until they were close enough to break down the door.

¹⁰ So the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house as they shut the door. ¹¹ Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, from the youngest to the oldest, with blindness. The men outside wore themselves out trying to find the door. ¹² Then the two visitors said to Lot, “Who else do you have here? Do you have any sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or other relatives in the city? Get them out of this place ¹³ because we are about to destroy it. The outcry against this place is so great before the Lord that he has sent us to destroy it.”

¹⁴ Then Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who were going to marry his daughters. He said, “Quick, get out of this place because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was ridiculing them.

¹⁵ At dawn the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get going! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or else you will be destroyed when the city is judged!” ¹⁶ When Lot hesitated, the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters because the Lord had compassion on them. They led them away and placed them outside the city. ¹⁷ When they had brought them outside, they said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look behind you or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape to the mountains or you will be destroyed!”

¹⁸ But Lot said to them, “No, please, Lord! ¹⁹ Your servant has found favor with you, and you have shown me great kindness by sparing my life. But I am not able to escape to the mountains because this disaster will overtake me and I’ll die. ²⁰ Look, this town over here is close enough to escape to, and it’s just a little one. Let me go there. It’s just a little place, isn’t it? Then I’ll survive.”

²¹ “Very well,” he replied, “I will grant this request too and will not overthrow the town you mentioned. ²² Run there quickly, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” (This incident explains why the town was called Zoar.)

²³ The sun had just risen over the land as Lot reached Zoar. ²⁴ Then the Lord rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah. It was sent down from the sky by the Lord. ²⁵ So he overthrew those cities and all that region, including all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation that grew from the ground. ²⁶ But Lot’s wife looked back longingly and was turned into a pillar of salt.

²⁷ Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord. ²⁸ He looked out toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of that region. As he did so, he saw the smoke rising up from the land like smoke from a furnace.

²⁹ So when God destroyed the cities of the region, God honored Abraham’s request. He removed Lot from the midst of the destruction when he destroyed the cities Lot had lived in.