Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed

19 The two angels^(A) arrived at Sodom^(B) in the evening, and Lot^(C) was sitting in the gateway of the city.^(D) When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.^{(E) 2} “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet^(F) and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.”

“No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”^(G)

³ But he insisted^(H) so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house.^(I) He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast,^(J) and they ate.^{(K) 4} Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom^(L)—both young and old—surrounded the house. ⁵ They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”^(M)

⁶ Lot went outside to meet them^(N) and shut the door behind him ⁷ and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. ⁸ Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”^(O)

⁹ “Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner,^(P) and now he wants to play the judge!^(Q) We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.

¹⁰ But the men^(R) inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. ¹¹ Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness^(S) so that they could not find the door.

¹² The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you?^(T) Get them out of here, ¹³ because we^(U) are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great^(V) that he has sent us to destroy it.”^(W)

¹⁴ So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry^[a] his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!^(X)” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.^(Y)

¹⁵ With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away^(Z) when the city is punished.^(AA)”

¹⁶ When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters^(AB) and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them.^{(AC) 17} As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives!^(AD) Don’t look back,^(AE) and don’t stop anywhere in the plain!^(AF) Flee to the mountains^(AG) or you will be swept away!”

¹⁸ But Lot said to them, “No, my lords,^[b] please! ¹⁹ Your^[c] servant has found favor in your^[d] eyes,^(AH) and you^[e] have shown great kindness^(AI) to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains;^(AJ) this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. ²⁰ Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”

²¹ He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request^(AK) too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. ²² But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar.^[f](AL))

²³ By the time Lot reached Zoar,^(AM) the sun had risen over the land. ²⁴ Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur^(AN) on Sodom and Gomorrah^(AO)—from the Lord out of the heavens.^{(AP) 25} Thus he overthrew those cities^(AQ) and the entire plain,^(AR) destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land.^{(AS) 26} But Lot’s wife looked back,^(AT) and she became a pillar of salt.^(AU)

²⁷ Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord.^{(AV) 28} He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.^(AW)

²⁹ So when God destroyed the cities of the plain,^(AX) he remembered^(AY) Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe^(AZ) that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.^(BA)

²² “‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman;^(A) that is detestable.^(B)

¹³ “‘If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable.^(A) They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.

God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity

¹⁸ The wrath of God^(A) is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.^{(B) 20} For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made,^(C) so that people are without excuse.^(D)

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.^{(E) 22} Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools^{(F) 23} and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images^(G) made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

²⁴ Therefore God gave them over^(H) in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.^{(I) 25} They exchanged the truth about God for a lie,^(J) and worshiped and served created things^(K) rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.^(L) Amen.^(M)

²⁶ Because of this, God gave them over^(N) to shameful lusts.^(O) Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.^{(P) 27} In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.^(Q)

²⁸ Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over^(R) to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,^{(S) 30} slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;^{(T) 31} they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love,^(U) no mercy. ³² Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death,^(V) they not only continue to do these very things but also approve^(W) of those who practice them.

⁹ Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God?^(A) Do not be deceived:^(B) Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers^(C) nor men who have sex with men^{[a](D) 10} nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers^(E) will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And that is what some of you were.^(F) But you were washed,^(G) you were sanctified,^(H) you were justified^(I) in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

⁸ We know that the law is good^(A) if one uses it properly. ⁹ We also know that the law is made not for the righteous^(B) but for lawbreakers and rebels,^(C) the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, ¹⁰ for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine^(D)