The Message Bible MSG
English Standard Version ESV
1 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening. Lot was sitting at the city gate. He saw them and got up to welcome them, bowing before them
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The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth
2 and said, "Please, my friends, come to my house and stay the night. Wash up. You can rise early and be on your way refreshed." They said, "No, we'll sleep in the street."
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and said, "My lords, please turn aside to your servant's house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way." They said, "No; we will spend the night in the town square."
3 But he insisted, wouldn't take no for an answer; and they relented and went home with him. Lot fixed a hot meal for them and they ate.
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But he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
4 Before they went to bed men from all over the city of Sodom, young and old, descended on the house from all sides and boxed them in.
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But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house.
5 They yelled to Lot, "Where are the men who are staying with you for the night? Bring them out so we can have our sport with them!"
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And they called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them."
6 Lot went out, barring the door behind him,
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Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him,
7 and said, "Brothers, please, don't be vile!
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and said, "I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.
8 Look, I have two daughters, virgins; let me bring them out; you can take your pleasure with them, but don't touch these men - they're my guests."
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Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof."
9 They said, "Get lost! You drop in from nowhere and now you're going to tell us how to run our lives. We'll treat you worse than them!" And they charged past Lot to break down the door.
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But they said, "Stand back!" And they said, "This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them." Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door down.
10 But the two men reached out and pulled Lot inside the house, locking the door.
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But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door.
11 Then they struck blind the men who were trying to break down the door, both leaders and followers, leaving them groping in the dark.
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And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping for the door.
12 The two men said to Lot, "Do you have any other family here? Sons, daughters - anybody in the city? Get them out of here, and now!
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Then the men said to Lot, "Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place.
13 We're going to destroy this place. The outcries of victims here to God are deafening; we've been sent to blast this place into oblivion."
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For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it."
14 Lot went out and warned the fiancŽs of his daughters, "Evacuate this place; God is about to destroy this city!" But his daughters' would-be husbands treated it as a joke.
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So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, "Up! Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city." But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.
15 At break of day, the angels pushed Lot to get going, "Hurry. Get your wife and two daughters out of here before it's too late and you're caught in the punishment of the city."
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As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city."
16 Lot was dragging his feet. The men grabbed Lot's arm, and the arms of his wife and daughters - God was so merciful to them! - and dragged them to safety outside the city.
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But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.
17 When they had them outside, Lot was told, "Now run for your life! Don't look back! Don't stop anywhere on the plain - run for the hills or you'll be swept away."
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And as they brought them out, one said, "Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away."
18 But Lot protested, "No, masters, you can't mean it!
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And Lot said to them, "Oh, no, my lords.
19 I know that you've taken a liking to me and have done me an immense favor in saving my life, but I can't run for the mountains - who knows what terrible thing might happen to me in the mountains and leave me for dead.
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Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die.
20 Look over there - that town is close enough to get to. It's a small town, hardly anything to it. Let me escape there and save my life - it's a mere wide place in the road."
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Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there--is it not a little one?--and my life will be saved!"
21 He said to him, "All right. If you insist. I'll let you have your way. And I won't stamp out the town you've spotted.
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He said to him, "Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.
22 But hurry up. Run for it! I can't do anything until you get there." That's why the town was called Zoar, that is, Smalltown.
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Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there." Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
23 The sun was high in the sky when Lot arrived at Zoar.
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The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
24 Then God rained brimstone and fire down on Sodom and Gomorrah - a river of lava from God out of the sky! -
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Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven.
25 and destroyed these cities and the entire plain and everyone who lived in the cities and everything that grew from the ground.
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And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
26 But Lot's wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt.
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But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
27 Abraham got up early the next morning and went to the place he had so recently stood with God.
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And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD.
28 He looked out over Sodom and Gomorrah, surveying the whole plain. All he could see was smoke belching from the Earth, like smoke from a furnace.
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And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.
29 And that's the story: When God destroyed the Cities of the Plain, he was mindful of Abraham and first got Lot out of there before he blasted those cities off the face of the Earth.
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So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.
30 Lot left Zoar and went into the mountains to live with his two daughters; he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his daughters.
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Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters.
31 One day the older daughter said to the younger, "Our father is getting old and there's not a man left in the country by whom we can get pregnant.
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And the firstborn said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth.
32 Let's get our father drunk with wine and lie with him. We'll get children through our father - it's our only chance to keep our family alive."
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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."
33 They got their father drunk with wine that very night. The older daughter went and lay with him. He was oblivious, knowing nothing of what she did.
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So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
34 The next morning the older said to the younger, "Last night I slept with my father. Tonight, it's your turn. We'll get him drunk again and then you sleep with him. We'll both get a child through our father and keep our family alive."
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The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, "Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father."
35 So that night they got their father drunk again and the younger went in and slept with him. Again he was oblivious, knowing nothing of what she did.
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So they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
36 Both daughters became pregnant by their father, Lot.
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Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father.
37 The older daughter had a son and named him Moab, the ancestor of the present-day Moabites.
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The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab.He is the father of the Moabites to this day.
38 The younger daughter had a son and named him Ben-Ammi, the ancestor of the present-day Ammonites.
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The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi.He is the father of the Ammonites to this day.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.