Sodom and Gomorrah

19 Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, while Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them, and bowed down with his face to the ground. ² Then he said, “Here, please my lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house, spend the night and wash your feet. Then you can get up early and go on your way.”

But they said, “No. We will spend the night in the open plaza.”

³ But he urged them strongly, so they turned aside to him and they came into his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked matzot, and they ate. ⁴ They had not yet lain down when the men of the city (the men of Sodom) surrounded the house—from youth to elderly, all the people without exception. ⁵ And they called out to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can 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, don’t act wickedly. ⁸ Look, I have two daughters who haven’t been intimate with a man. Please let me bring them out to you—do to them whatever is good in your eyes! However, do nothing to these men—since they have come under the protection of my roof.”

⁹ “Get out of the way!” they said, and they said, “This one came as an outsider and dares to judge! Now we’ll treat you worse than them!”

So they strongly pressed against the man, Lot, and moved in close to break the door down. ¹⁰ But the men reached out their hands, brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. ¹¹ Then they struck the men at the doorway of the house with blindness—from youth to elderly—so that they gave up trying to find the doorway.

¹² Then the men said to Lot, “Who else related to you is still here? A son-in-law, your sons and your daughters, whoever else is related to you in the city—bring them out of the place! ¹³ For we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before Adonai that Adonai has sent us to destroy it.”

¹⁴ So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who were going to marry his daughters, “Get up!” he said, “Get out of this place! For Adonai is about to destroy the city!” But in the eyes of his sons-in-law, he was like a joker.

¹⁵ So when morning dawned the angels rushed Lot, saying, “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or else you will be swept away with the city’s iniquity!” ¹⁶ But he hesitated. So the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand and his two daughters’ hands—because of Adonai’s compassion for him—and they brought him out and left him outside the city.

¹⁷ When they brought them outside, one said, “Flee for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stop anywhere in the surrounding area! Escape to the hills, or else you’ll be swept away!”

¹⁸ But Lot said to them, “No, my Lord, please! ¹⁹ Look, please, your servant has found favor in Your eyes and You have magnified Your merciful loyalty, which You have shown me by letting me live. But I can’t escape to the hill country—for the disaster will overtake me and I’ll die! ²⁰ Look, please, this city is close enough to flee there, and it’s little. Please let me escape there. Isn’t it small? And let me live!”