9 Jul 2025 – jeffersonvann

Genesis 19

Genesis 19:1 That evening, the two agents came to Sodom, and Lot was living at the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the land.

Genesis 19:2 He said, “Notice my lords, please turn aside to your slave’s house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you can get up early and go on your way.” They said, “No; we will spend the night in the town square.”

Genesis 19:3 H urged them persistently, so they followed him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

Genesis 19:4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people from every part of the city, surrounded the house.

Genesis 19:5 And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may get to know them.”

Genesis 19:6 Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shutting the door after him,

Genesis 19:7 and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.

Genesis 19:8 Notice, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.”

Genesis 19:9 But they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came as a guest, and he has become our judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot and approached intending to break the door down.

Genesis 19:10 But the men inside reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door.

Genesis 19:11 And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping for the door.

Genesis 19:12 Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place.

Genesis 19:13 For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before Yahveh, and Yahveh has sent us to destroy it.”

Genesis 19:14 So Lot went out and warned his bridegrooms, who were going to marry his daughters, “Up! Get out of this place, because Yahveh is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his bridegrooms to be joking.

Genesis 19:15 As morning dawned, the agents urged Lot, and this is what they said, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or else you will be swept away as the city is punished for its sin.”

Genesis 19:16 But he dawdled. So, the men held him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand strongly, Yahveh being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.

Genesis 19:17 And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your throat. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, or else you will be swept away.”

Genesis 19:18 But Lot said to them, “Oh, no, my lords.

Genesis 19:19 Notice, your slave has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great covenant faithfulness[1] in saving my throat. But I cannot escape to the hills, or the disaster will overtake me and I will die.

Genesis 19:20 Notice, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there – is it not a little one? – and my throat will be saved!”

Genesis 19:21 He said to him, “Notice, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city to which you have referred.

Genesis 19:22 Escape there quickly, because I can do nothing till you arrive there.” That is why the name of the city was called Zoar.

Genesis 19:23 The sun had risen on the land when Lot came to Zoar.

Genesis 19:24 Then Yahveh rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahveh out of the sky.

Genesis 19:25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what had grown on the ground there.

Genesis 19:26 But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a standing pile of salt.

Genesis 19:27 Then Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Yahveh.

Genesis 19:28 And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, noticed the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.

Genesis 19:29 When God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham’s prayer and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.

Genesis 19:30 Now Lot had moved from Zoar and was living in the hills with his two daughters because he was afraid to live in Zoar. So, he lived in a cave with his two daughters.

Genesis 19:31 And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man in the land to enter us after the manner of all the land.

Genesis 19:32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will have lie with him, that we may preserve seed from our father.”

Genesis 19:33 So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He was not aware when she lay down or when she arose.

Genesis 19:34 The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Notice, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you lie with him so that we may preserve seed from our father.”

Genesis 19:35 So they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him and was unaware when she lay down or when she arose.

Genesis 19:36 This is how both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father.

Genesis 19:37 The firstborn gave birth to a son and called his name Moab. He is the ancestor of the Moabites people today.

Genesis 19:38 The younger also gave birth to a son and called his name Ben-Ammi. He is the father of the Ammonite people today.

[1] חֶסֶד = covenant faithfulness. Genesis 19:19; 20:13; 21:23; 24:12, 14, 27, 49; 32:10; 39:21; 40:14; 47:29.

Genesis 19 quotes:

“There is some bitter irony in this scene: The girls are obliged to have sex with their father who previously felt obliged to sacrifice them to the sexual lust of the Sodomites. First too many men, and now none at all.”

Loader, J. A. A Tale of Two Cities: Sodom and Gomorrah in the Old Testament, Early Jewish and Early Christian Traditions. J.H. Kok Pub. House, 1990. p. 45.

” Though Lot was a success in Sodom, it does not appear he was very successful as a husband or father or at influencing those around him toward the Lord.”

Moody, Edward. Ministering in a Changing Sexual Landscape: A Guide to Helping Those with Sexual Issues. Randall House Publications, 2015. p. 9.

“So the revisionist approach to Genesis 19 … is twofold. With Boswell and Bailey, some deny that homosexuality was involved at Sodom. Rather, the issue was inhospitality. Others … affirm that homosexual rape or violence was involved at Sodom, but they do not regard this as evidence for universal condemnation of homosexual acts.”

DeYoung, James B. Homosexuality: Contemporary Claims Examined in Light of the Bible and Other Ancient Literature and Law. Kregel Publications, 2000. p.33.