01-19 Genesis Chapter 19

Genesis Chapter 19 - Sodom and Gomorrah's Judgement

The evening of the same day the angels dined with Abraham, two of those angels arrived in Sodom.  Lot saw them as strangers in the city commons area and bowed low to them and invited them to his house.  The angels at first declined, saying they would stay the night in the public square, but Lot was insistent and convinced them to come with him to his house.  There Lot prepared a feast for them.

Afterwards and before Lot and his guests retired, the men of Sodom surrounded Lot's house.  The account states the crowd included, "from boy to old man."  The men of Sodom called out to Lot to send the strangers out so the men of Sodom could rape the guests.

Lot went out to the mob and offered his two virgin daughters to the mob instead and admonished the mob not to act badly.  The mob resented Lot's chastising them as Lot was an alien resident and they accused him of playing judge.  The mob then turned on Lot and threatened to do worse to him than they intended to do to Lot's guests.

The angels at that point struck the mob with a kind of blindness and they recovered Lot to the house.  They then warned Lot to take all his family and leave Sodom because the city of Sodom was to be brought to ruin for the outcry and badness of the city had reached the heavens.

Lot tried to warn his soon to be son-in-laws who were also in the city, but they did not take Lot seriously and thought Lot was joking.

As dawn approached, the Angels became insistent that Lot leave, but he continued to linger.  Finally the guests took Lot by the hand and escorted him out of the city.  There they exhorted Lot and his family to flee the country.  "Escape for your soul!", "Do not look behind you!", "Escape to the Mountains!" they said to Lot.  Lot asked if he could flee to a nearby city as he did not think he could make it to the mountains.  The angel agreed, and then admonished Lot to go, "because he could not do a thing until Lot arrived at Zoar."

When Lot arrived at Zoar, Jehovah made it rain fire and sulphur in the whole valley of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Lot's wife, did not obey the command to not look back and when she did, she was turned into a pillar of salt.

Abraham made his way to the place he had met the angels the day before and when he looked down into the valley of Sodom and Gomorrah, he saw the smoke ascending like the thick smoke of a kiln.

Jehovah honored his word to Abraham and did not destroy the righteous with the wicked, but made the way out for Lot and his family.

Lot then left Zoar and made his way to the mountains and began dwelling in a cave with his daughters.  The older daugher spoke with the younger daughter and they hatched a scheme to get their father drunk and lay with him so that they might bear offspring as there were no men where they were.  They followed through, first the older and then the younger.  The older bore a son, Moab, who became the father of the Moabites.  The younger bore a son, Benammi, who became father to the Ammonites.