¹⁶ Then ^(A)the men rose up from there, and looked down toward Sodom; and Abraham was walking with them to send them off. ^17 (B)The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham ^(C)what I am about to do, ¹⁸ since Abraham will certainly become a great and ^[a]mighty nation, and in him ^(D)all the nations of the earth will be blessed? ¹⁹ For I have ^[b](E)chosen him, so that he may ^(F)command his children and his household after him to ^(G)keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham ^(H)what He has spoken about him.” ²⁰ And the Lord said, “^(I)The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. ²¹ I will ^(J)go down now and see whether they have done entirely as the outcry, which has come to Me indicates; and if not, I will know.”

Abraham Appeals for Sodom

²² Then ^(K)the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before ^(L)the Lord. ²³ Abraham approached and said, “^(M)Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? ²⁴ Suppose there are fifty righteous people within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not ^[c]spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it? ²⁵ Far be it from You to do ^[d]such a thing, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not ^(N)the Judge of all the earth ^[e]deal justly?” ²⁶ So the Lord said, “^(O)If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will ^[f]spare the entire place on their account.” ²⁷ And Abraham replied, “Now behold, I have ^[g]ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am only ^(P)dust and ashes. ²⁸ Suppose the fifty righteous are lacking five, will You destroy the entire city because of five?” And He said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” ²⁹ And he spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose forty are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it on account of the forty.” ³⁰ Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak; suppose thirty are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.” ³¹ And he said, “Now behold, I have ^[h]ventured to speak to the Lord; suppose twenty are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the twenty.” ³² Then he said, “^(Q)Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once: suppose ten are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the ten.” ³³ As soon as He had finished speaking to Abraham ^(R)the Lord departed, and Abraham returned to his place.

The Doom of Sodom

19 Now the ^(S)two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. When ^(T)Lot saw them, he stood up to meet them and ^[i]bowed down with his face to the ground. ² And he said, “Now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servant’s house, and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.” They said, “No, but we shall spend the night in the public square.” ³ Yet he strongly urged them, so they turned aside to him and entered his house; ^(U)and he prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. ⁴ Before they lay down, ^(V)the men of the city—the men of Sodom—surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people ^[j]from every quarter; ⁵ and they called to Lot and said to him, “^(W)Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may ^[k]have relations with them.” ⁶ But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him, ⁷ and said, “Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly. ⁸ Now look, ^(X)I have two daughters who have not ^[l]had relations with any man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them ^[m]whatever you like; only do not do anything to these men, because they have come under the ^[n]shelter of my roof.” ⁹ But they said, “Get out of the way!” They also said, “This one came in ^[o]as a foreigner, and already ^(Y)he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them!” So they pressed hard against ^[p]Lot and moved forward to break the door. ¹⁰ But ^(Z)the men reached out their ^[q]hands and brought Lot into the house ^[r]with them, and shut the door. ¹¹ Then ^(AA)they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, from the small to the great, so that they became weary of trying to find the doorway.

¹² Then the two men said to Lot, “Whom else do you have here? A son-in-law and your sons and daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place; ¹³ for we are about to destroy this place, because ^(AB)their outcry has become so great before the Lord that ^(AC)the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” ¹⁴ So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who ^[s]were to marry his daughters, and said, “Up, ^(AD)get out of this place, for the Lord is destroying the city.” ^(AE)But he appeared to his sons-in-law ^[t]to be joking.

¹⁵ When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the ^[u]punishment of the city.” ¹⁶ But he hesitated. So the men ^(AF)grasped his hand and the hand of his wife and the ^[v]hands of his two daughters, because ^(AG)the compassion of the Lord was upon him; and they brought him out and put him outside the city. ¹⁷ When they had brought them outside, ^[w]one said, “^(AH)Escape for your life! ^(AI)Do not look behind you, and do not stay ^[x]anywhere in the ^(AJ)surrounding area; escape to ^(AK)the ^[y]mountains, or you will be swept away.” ¹⁸ But Lot said to them, “Oh no, my lords! ¹⁹ Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your compassion, which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the ^[z]mountains, for the disaster will overtake me and I will die; ²⁰ now behold, this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) ^[aa]so that my life may be saved.” ²¹ And he said to him, “Behold, I grant you this ^[ab]request also, not to overthrow the town of which you have spoken. ²² Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the town was named ^[ac](AL)Zoar.

²³ The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar. ²⁴ Then the Lord ^(AM)rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of heaven, ²⁵ and ^(AN)He overthrew those cities, and all the surrounding area, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. ²⁶ But ^[ad]Lot’s wife, from behind him, ^(AO)looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

²⁷ Now Abraham got up early in the morning and went to ^(AP)the place where he had stood before the Lord; ²⁸ and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the surrounding area; and ^[ae]behold, he saw ^(AQ)the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a ^[af]furnace.

²⁹ So it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the surrounding area, that ^(AR)God remembered Abraham, and ^(AS)sent Lot out of the midst of the destruction, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.