Genesis 19:20-38

Living Bible

^18-20 “Oh no, sirs, please,” Lot begged, “since you’ve been so kind to me and saved my life, and you’ve granted me such mercy, let me flee to that little village over there instead of into the mountains, for I fear disaster in the mountains. See, the village is close by and it is just a small one. Please, please, let me go there instead. Don’t you see how small it is? And my life will be saved.”

²¹ “All right,” the angel said, “I accept your proposition and won’t destroy that little city. ²² But hurry! For I can do nothing until you are there.” (From that time on that village was named Zoar, meaning “Little City.”)

²³ The sun was rising as Lot reached the village. ²⁴ Then the Lord rained down fire and flaming tar from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah, ²⁵ and utterly destroyed them, along with the other cities and villages of the plain, eliminating all life—people, plants, and animals alike. ²⁶ But Lot’s wife looked back as she was following along behind him and became a pillar of salt.

²⁷ That morning Abraham was up early and hurried out to the place where he had stood before the Lord. ²⁸ He looked out across the plain to Sodom and Gomorrah and saw columns of smoke and fumes, as from a furnace, rising from the cities there. ²⁹ So God heeded Abraham’s plea and kept Lot safe, removing him from the maelstrom of death that engulfed the cities.

³⁰ Afterwards Lot left Zoar, fearful of the people there, and went to live in a cave in the mountains with his two daughters. ³¹ One day the older girl said to her sister, “There isn’t a man anywhere in this entire area that our father would let us marry. And our father will soon be too old for having children. ³² Come, let’s fill him with wine and then we will sleep with him, so that our clan will not come to an end.” ³³ So they got him drunk that night, and the older girl went in and had sexual intercourse with her father; but he was unaware of her lying down or getting up again.

³⁴ The next morning she said to her younger sister, “I slept with my father last night. Let’s fill him with wine again tonight, and you go in and lie with him, so that our family line will continue.” ³⁵ So they got him drunk again that night, and the younger girl went in and lay with him, and, as before, he didn’t know that anyone was there. ³⁶ And so it was that both girls became pregnant from their father. ³⁷ The older girl’s baby was named Moab; he became the ancestor of the nation of the Moabites. ³⁸ The name of the younger girl’s baby was Benammi; he became the ancestor of the nation of the Ammonites.