Genesis 19:30-38

Lot and His Daughters

30 And Lot went out from Zoar and settled in the hill country with his two daughters, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. So he lived in a cave, he and his two daughters.

31 And the firstborn [daughter] said to the younger one, "Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to come in to us according to the manner of all the land.

32 Come, let us give our father wine to drink and let us lie with him that {we may secure descendants through our father}."

33 And they gave their father wine to drink that night, and the firstborn went and lay with her father, but he did not know when she lay down or when she got up.

34 And it happened [that], the next day the firstborn said to the younger one, "Look, I laid with my father last night. Let us give him wine to drink also tonight, then go and lie with him that {we may secure descendants through our father}."

35 And they gave their father wine to drink again that night, and the younger got up and lay with him, but he did not know when she lay down or when she got up.

36 And the two daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father.

37 The firstborn gave birth to a son, and she called his name Moab. He [is] the father of Moab until this day.

38 And the younger, she also gave birth to a son, and she called his name Ben-Ammi. He [is] the father of the {Ammonites} until this day.

Genesis 19:30-38 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 19

The contents of this chapter are Lot's entertainment of two angels that came to Sodom, Ge 19:1-3; the rude behaviour of the men of Sodom towards them, who for it were smote with blindness, Ge 19:4-11; the deliverance of Lot, his wife and two daughters, by means of the angels he entertained, Ge 19:12-17; the sparing of the city of Zoar at the entreaty of Lot, to which he was allowed to flee, Ge 19:18-22; the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, Ge 19:23-25; Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt for looking back, Ge 19:26; Abraham's view of the conflagration of the cities, Ge 19:28,29; Lot's betaking himself to a mountain, and dwelling in a cave with his two daughters, by whom he had two sons, the one called Moab, and the other Benammi, Ge 19:30-38.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "mountain"
• [b]. Idiom for "have sexual intercourse with him"
• [c]. Literally "that we might preserve offspring from our father"
• [d]. Literally "that we might preserve offspring from our father"
• [e]. Literally "sons/children of Ammon"