1 The sun was going down when the 2 angels got close to Sodom. At that time, Abraham's nephew who was named Lot was sitting near the town gate. When he saw the men coming, he went out to meet them. He bowed down with his face on the ground in front of them.
2 He said, “My lords. Come and stay in my house. You can wash your feet and rest before you leave tomorrow.”
3 But Lot asked them again and again to stay with him in his house. And so, the 2 angels went with him. Lot cooked some good food for them, and they ate the food with some flat bread.
8 Look, I have 2 daughters. They are both young girls that have never been with a man. Let me bring them out here for you so that you can do whatever you want to do with them. But please do not do any bad thing to these men. They are living in my house and under our law, I have to keep them safe.”
9 But the men of Sodom said to each other, “This man is a stranger here and he wants to tell us what to do. He has no right to do that.” And so they said, “Get out of our way or we will do even worse things to you.” They started to push Lot back against the house. They wanted to break the door down and grab the men that were inside.
10 But the 2 angels quickly opened the door and pulled Lot inside and shut the door again.
11 Straight away the angels used their power to blind all the men outside the house, so that the men could not even find the door.
14 So Lot went and found the men that were promised to marry his 2 daughters. He said to them, “You have to get out of Sodom. God is going to burn the town.” But the 2 men thought Lot was joking.
15 Very early the next day, the angels tried to get Lot to leave Sodom quickly. They said, “Hurry up Lot. Get your wife and daughters and get away from here. If you do not get away, you will die like everyone else.”
16 But Lot did not hurry, so one of the angels grabbed Lot's hand and his wife's hand, and the other angel grabbed the hands of Lot's 2 daughters and led them quickly out of the town. God wanted Lot and his family to be safe.
17 As soon as they were all outside, one of the angels said to them, “Run away quickly. Do not look back, but keep running until you get to the hills. Do not stop anywhere on the plain country. If you don't do as I say, you will die like all the people in Sodom.”
20 Look there is a little town over there. Maybe I could run there and be safe. It is not too far for me.”
21 The angel answered, “Ok, I will let you go to that little town. I will not burn it up and you will be safe there.
22 But run quickly. I will not do anything until you are safe in that little town called Zoar.” In that language Zoar means Little.
26 But Lot's wife turned around and looked at what was happening, and straight away her body turned into a block of salt. Sodom and Gomorrah were burned up|src="Sodom Gomorrah.tif" size="col" copy="Paul Davies" ref="19:26"
29 And so, what God told Abraham came true that day. God could not find 10 good people in the towns and so he sent fire and burned them up. But God was kind to Abraham and God saved Lot and his 2 daughters.
30 Lot and his daughters were frightened to stay in Zoar and so they went and lived in a cave up in the hill country.
31 One day the oldest daughter said to her sister, “Our father is really old, and there are no men around here that will marry us.
32 Let's get our father drunk and get him to sleep with us so that we can have babies. That way our family line will keep going.”
33 So, that night the 2 daughters got their father drunk and the oldest daughter slept with her father so that she could have a baby. Lot was so drunk he did not know what happened.
34 The next morning, the older daughter said to her sister, “I slept with our father last night. It's your turn now. We will get him drunk again tonight and you can go and sleep with him. Then we will both have babies and our family line will keep going.”
35 The 2 sisters got their father drunk again and the younger daughter slept with her father. And again, Lot had no idea what happened.
36 And so both sisters had babies from their father.
37 The oldest daughter had a son and she named him Moab which means in their language, He came from my father. All the families that came from that son were called Moabites and they are still living today.
38 The younger daughter had a son too, and she named him Ben-Ammi. In their language it means Son of my relation. All the families that came from this son were called Ammonites and they are still living today.