Genesis19

Two angels arrive in Sodom and are hosted by Lot, but the city's wicked men demand access to them. The angels rescue Lot, his wife, and two daughters before God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone, though Lot's wife disobeys and turns into a pillar of salt. Afterward, Lot and his daughters dwell in a cave, where, fearing isolation, the daughters intoxicate their father and conceive sons, Moab and Benammi, perpetuating their lineage.

Angels Visit Lot in Sodom

1
The two angels came to Sodom at evening. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them. He bowed himself with his face to the earth, ​
2
and he said, “See now, my lords, please turn aside into your servant’s house, stay all night, wash your feet, and you can rise up early, and go on your way.” They said, “No, but we will stay in the street all night.” ​
3
He urged them greatly, and they came in with him, and entered into his house. He made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

The Wickedness of Sodom Exposed

4
But before 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.
5
They called to Lot, and said to him, “Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them.” ​
6
Lot went out to them to the door, and shut the door after him.
7
He said, “Please, my brothers, don’t act so wickedly.
8
See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof.” ​
9
They said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one fellow came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself a judge. Now will we deal worse with you, than with them!” They pressed hard on the man Lot, and drew near to break the door.
10
But the men reached out their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door.
11
They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door. ​

Warning and Impending Judgment

12
The men said to Lot, “Do you have anybody else here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whoever you have in the city, bring them out of the place:
13
for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the LORD that the LORD has sent us to destroy it.” ​
14
Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up! Get out of this place, for the LORD will destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking. ​

The Escape to Zoar

15
When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, “Get up! Take your wife, and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city.”
16
But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and his two daughters’ hands, the LORD being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city. ​
17
It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, “Escape for your life! Don’t look behind you, and don’t stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed!” ​
18
Lot said to them, “Oh, not so, my lord.
19
See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can’t escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die.
20
See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn’t it a little one?), and my soul will live.” ​
21
He said to him, “Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.
22
Hurry, escape there, for I can’t do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. ​
23
The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

Destruction of the Cities of the Plain

24
Then the LORD rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of the sky. ​
25
He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.
26
But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. ​
27
Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD.
28
He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and looked, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.
29
When God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived. ​

Lot and His Daughters: Origin of Moab and Ammon

30
Lot went up out of Zoar, and lived in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his two daughters. ​
31
The firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in to us in the way of all the earth.
32
Come, let’s make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s seed.” ​
33
They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she arose.
34
It came to pass on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine again, tonight. You go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s seed.”
35
They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger went and lay with him. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she got up.
36
Thus both of Lot’s daughters were with child by their father.
37
The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. ​
38
The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon to this day. ​

Study Notes for Genesis 19

Verse 1

The two visitors are the angels previously seen with the LORD in Genesis 18. Lot sat in the gate, which was the place of business, legal proceedings, and social prominence, indicating he held some status in the city.

Verse 2

Lot demonstrates the sacred duty of hospitality expected in the ancient Near East, a virtue that stands in stark contrast to the subsequent behavior of the city residents.

Verse 5

The phrase 'that we may know them' (Hebrew: *yada'*) is a euphemism for sexual intercourse. This demand reveals the deep moral perversion and violent intent of the Sodomites, confirming the severity of the 'outcry' mentioned in Genesis 18:20.

Verse 8

Lot's offer of his daughters, though morally appalling, underscores the absolute priority of protecting a guest under one's roof in ancient culture, even above the honor of one's own family. This shows Lot's desperate moral confusion after years of assimilation.

Verse 11

The immediate, localized blindness inflicted by the angels demonstrates their supernatural power and serves as a final, decisive warning to the inhabitants before the ultimate judgment.

Verse 13

The angels confirm that they are God’s agents sent specifically to execute the destruction of the city because its sin has reached a catastrophic level, fulfilling the divine investigation of Genesis 18.

Verse 14

The sons-in-law's dismissal of Lot's warning illustrates the spiritual blindness and complacency that results from living within a corrupt culture, leading them to mock the divine decree.

Verse 16

Lot 'lingered,' showing his spiritual lethargy and attachment to the condemned city. His rescue was not due to his own initiative but was an act of sovereign grace, as the LORD was merciful to him for Abraham’s sake (v. 29).

Verse 17

The command to 'look not behind thee' symbolizes the spiritual necessity of total separation from the condemned way of life, emphasizing that attachment to the world leads to ruin.

Verse 20

Lot’s fear prevents him from obeying the command to flee to the mountain; instead, he bargains for the small, nearby city of Zoar. This reveals his weakness and continued reliance on visible safety rather than divine protection.

Verse 22

The statement, 'I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither,' highlights God's protective commitment to the righteous (even the compromised Lot) before the full judgment is executed upon the wicked.

Verse 24

The destruction by 'brimstone and fire' suggests a catastrophic, yet divinely directed, event involving volcanic or seismic activity, marking the area as a place of irreversible judgment.

Verse 26

Lot's wife's disobedience and looking back signify a desire or longing for the life she was commanded to abandon. She serves as a lasting testament to the danger of spiritual compromise (Luke 17:32).

Verse 29

This verse provides the theological reason for Lot's deliverance: God remembered Abraham, confirming that Lot’s salvation was an extension of the covenant promise and Abraham’s intercession in Genesis 18.

Verse 30

Lot’s fear of Zoar, the city he had just negotiated for, demonstrates his continuing psychological instability and inability to trust after the trauma of the judgment.

Verse 32

The daughters’ primary motivation is not sexual pleasure but the cultural imperative to 'preserve seed,' ensuring the continuation of their father's lineage in what they perceive as the end of the world.

Verse 37

Moab, meaning 'from father,' becomes the ancestor of the Moabites, a people who would often be hostile to Israel, establishing an ancient rivalry rooted in this dishonorable event.

Verse 38

Ben-ammi, meaning 'son of my people,' becomes the ancestor of the Ammonites, another nation frequently antagonistic to the Israelites, completing the tragic legacy of Lot’s family.

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