Genesis 19:16-38

16When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them.

17As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!” 18But Lot said to them, “No, my lords, Or No, Lord; or No, my lord please! 19Your The Hebrew is singular. servant has found favor in your The Hebrew is singular. eyes, and you The Hebrew is singular. have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die.

20Look, 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.” 21He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of.

22But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar. Zoar means small. ) 23By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. 24Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens. 25Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land.

26But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. 27Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD .

28He 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.

29So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.

Lot and His Daughters 30Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. 31One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as is the custom all over the earth.

32Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.”

33That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up. 34The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.”

35So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up. 36So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. 37The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab Moab sounds like the Hebrew for from father. ; he is the father of the Moabites of today. 38The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi Ben-Ammi means son of my father’s people. ; he is the father of the Ammonites Hebrew Bene-Ammon of today.