FRAMEWORKS:
Genesis 19: Lot & the destruction of Sodom
v.1-3
Lot Greets the Angels
v.4,5
The Sin of Sodom evidenced
v.6-9
Lot protests but the men continue
v.10-11
The Angels act to thwart them
v.12-14
The Angels share their intentions
v.15-22
The Angels get resisting Lot out of the town
v.23-29
Sodom & Gomorrah destroyed – and Lot's wife
v.30-38
Lot and His Daughters
v.1-3
Lot Greets the Angels
v.1
The
two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting
in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet
them and bowed down with his face to the ground.
v.2
“My
lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant's house. You
can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way
early in the morning.”
“No,”
they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”
v.3
But
he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered
his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast,
and they ate.
[Notes:
The
gateway was usually the place where the elders of the city gathered
– and Lot is there! He greets the two angels [again whether he
is aware who they are is uncertain]. They say they will stay overnight
in the square but he insists they come to his home – which they
do – and he feeds them.]
v.4,5
The Sin of Sodom evidenced
v.4
Before
they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city
of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house.
v.5
They
called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring
them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”
[Notes:
Word
gets out that there are male strangers in the city. The measure
of the city's depravity is revealed when a crowd gathers outside
demanding to have sex with them.]
v.6-9
Lot protests but the men continue
v.6,7
Lot
went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said,
“No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing.
v.8
Look,
I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring
them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don't
do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection
of my roof.”
v.9
“Get
out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner,
and now he wants to play the judge! We'll treat you worse than
them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to
break down the door.
[Notes:
Lot
goes outside and whether his reference to friends is real or simply
being diplomatic is unclear, but he offers the crowd his daughters.
Whatever way you look at this the intended debauchery (and his
response) is terrible and they threaten Lot.]
v.10-11
The Angels act to thwart them
v.10
But
the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house
and shut the door.
v.11
Then
they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and
old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.
[Notes:
The
angels pull him inside and blind the men outside.]
v.12-14
The Angels share their intentions
v.12
The
two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law,
sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you?
Get them out of here,
v.13
because
we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against
its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”
v.14
So
Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to
marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place,
because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law
thought he was joking.
[Notes:
The
angels tell Lot they are going to destroy the city and he should
get his family out of it as quickly as possible. He tells his
potential sons-in-law but they laugh at him.]
v.15-22
The Angels get resisting Lot out of the town
v.15
With
the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take
your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be
swept away when the city is punished.”
v.16
When
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.
v.17
As
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!”
v.18
But
Lot said to them, “No, my lords, please!
v.19
Your
servant has found favor in your eyes, and you 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.
v.20
Look,
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.”
v.21
He
said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will
not overthrow the town you speak of.
v.22
But
flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach
it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar. [Zoar
means small
])
[Notes:
In
the morning the angels urge him to leave with his family but he
hesitated. In all of this Lot's foolishness is clearly apparent
– coming to this city, settling in it and becoming part of it
although it's state was obvious, and now hesitating to leave when
warned. The angels grab he and his close family and lead them
out of the city and tell them to flee. Lot tries to stop them
[his folly gets worse] and pleads to go to a nearby small city.
[his heart does not want to leave the area despite its depravity]
The angels concede to his request and send him off in haste.]
v.23-29
Sodom & Gomorrah destroyed – and Lot's wife
v.23
By
the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land.
v.24
Then
the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from
the Lord out of the heavens.
v.25
Thus
he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all
those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land.
v.26
But
Lot's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
v.27
Early
the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where
he had stood before the Lord.
v.28
He
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.
v.29
So
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.
[Notes:
The
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah takes place, the cities and
the plain. Lot's wife delays and is engulfed by the destruction
and is left as a pillar of chemicals. From a distance Abram sees
what has happened. It was only for him that the Lord spared Lot.]
v.30-38
Lot and His Daughters
v.30
Lot
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.
v.31
One
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.
v.32
Let's
get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve
our family line through our father.”
v.33
That
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.
v.34
The
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.”
v.35
So
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.
v.36
So
both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father.
v.37
The
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.
v.38
The
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 of today.
[Notes:
Lot
eventually takes to the mountains as the angels had advised. Because
they are far from the nearest civilisation the daughters fear
they will remain without a partner and will remain childless,
they get their father drunk, have sex with him, and both become
pregnant. From every angle this chapter reveals a low point of
humanity.]
Continue to Chapter 20