¹³ Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break.

¹⁵ For the law always brings punishment on those who try to obey it. (The only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break!)

⁵⁶ For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power.

⁷ But Er was a wicked man in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord took his life.

³⁶ As a result, both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their own father.

³² Come, let’s get him drunk with wine, and then we will have sex with him. That way we will preserve our family line through our father.”

⁴ But before they retired for the night, all the men of Sodom, young and old, came from all over the city and surrounded the house.

²⁰ So the Lord told Abraham, “I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah, because their sin is so flagrant.

¹³ But the people of this area were extremely wicked and constantly sinned against the Lord.

²¹ And the Lord was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice and said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things.