1
The two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gateway. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed with his face touching the ground.
2
He said, "Please, gentlemen, why don't you come to my home and spend the night? [You can] wash your feet there. Then early tomorrow morning you can continue your journey." "No," they answered, "we'd rather spend the night in the city square."
3
But he insisted so strongly that they came with him and went into his home. He prepared a special dinner for them, baked some unleavened bread, and they ate.
4
Before they had gone to bed, all the young and old male citizens of Sodom surrounded the house.
5
They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to [stay with] you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."
6
Then Lot went outside and shut the door behind him.
7
"Please, my friends, don't be so wicked," he said.
8
"Look, I have two daughters who have never had sex. Why don't you let me bring them out to you? Do whatever you like with them. But don't do anything to these men, since I'm responsible for them."
9
But the men yelled, "Get out of the way! This man came here to stay awhile. Now he wants to be our judge! We're going to treat you worse than those men." They pushed hard against Lot and lunged forward to break down the door.
10
The men [inside] reached out, pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.
11
Then they struck all the men who were in the doorway of the house, young and old alike, with blindness so that they gave up trying to find the door.
12
Then the men asked Lot, "Do you have anyone else here--any in-laws, sons, daughters, or any other relatives in the city? Get them out of here
13
because we're going to destroy this place. The complaints to the LORD against its people are so loud that the LORD has sent us to destroy it."
14
So Lot went out and spoke to the men engaged to his daughters. He said, "Hurry! Get out of this place, because the LORD is going to destroy the city." But they thought he was joking.
15
As soon as it was dawn, the angels urged Lot by saying, "Quick! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you'll be swept away when the city is punished."
16
When he hesitated, the men grabbed him, his wife, and his two daughters by their hands, because the LORD wanted to spare Lot. They brought them safely outside the city.
17
As soon as they were outside, one [of the angels] said, "Run for your lives! Don't look behind you, and don't stop on the plain. Run for the hills, or you'll be swept away!"
19
Even though you've been so good to me and though you've been very kind to me by saving my life, I can't run as far as the hills. This disaster will overtake me, and I'll die.
20
Look, there's a city near enough to flee to, and it's small. Why don't you let me run there? Isn't it small? Then my life will be saved."
21
The angel said to him, "Alright, I will grant you this request too. I will not destroy the city you're talking about.
22
Run there quickly, because I can't do anything until you get there." (The city is named Zoar [Small].)
23
The sun had just risen over the land as Lot came to Zoar.
24
Then the LORD made burning sulfur and fire rain out of heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah.
25
He destroyed those cities, the whole plain, all who lived in the cities, and whatever grew on the ground.
26
Lot's wife looked back and turned into a column of salt.
27
Early the next morning Abraham came to the place where he had stood in front of the LORD.
28
When he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land in the plain, he saw smoke rising from the land like the thick smoke of a furnace.
29
When God destroyed the cities on the plain, he remembered Abraham. Lot was allowed to escape from the destruction that came to the cities where he was living.