Genesis 19 :: New King James Version (NKJV)

Sodom’s Depravity

Two Evil Cities Destroyed

Gen 19:1Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground.

Gen 19:2

Gen 19:2And he said, “Here now, my lords, please turn in to your servant’s house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.” And they said, “No, but we will spend the night in the open square.”

Gen 19:3

Gen 19:3But he insisted strongly; so they turned in to him and entered his house. Then he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

Gen 19:4

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

Gen 19:5

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

Gen 19:6

Gen 19:6So Lot went out to them through the doorway, shut the door behind him,

Gen 19:7

Gen 19:7and said, “Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly!

Gen 19:8

Gen 19:8“See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.”

Gen 19:9

Gen 19:9And they said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one came in to stay here, and he keeps acting as a judge; now we will deal worse with you than with them.” So they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near to break down the door.

Gen 19:10

Gen 19:10But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.

Gen 19:11

Gen 19:11And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door.

Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed

(Matt. 11:23, 24; Luke 17:28–32 )

Gen 19:12

Gen 19:12Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city—take them out of this place!

Gen 19:13

Gen 19:13“For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it.”

Gen 19:14

Gen 19:14So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, “Get up, get out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city!” But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.

Gen 19:15

Gen 19:15When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, “Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.”

Gen 19:16

Gen 19:16And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.

Gen 19:17

Gen 19:17So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he[fn] said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.”

Gen 19:18

Gen 19:18Then Lot said to them, “Please, no, my lords!

Gen 19:19

Gen 19:19“Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die.

Gen 19:20

Gen 19:20“See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one; please let me escape there (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.”

Gen 19:21

Gen 19:21And he said to him, “See, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken.

Gen 19:22

Gen 19:22“Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

Gen 19:23

Gen 19:23The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar.

Gen 19:24

Gen 19:24Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens.

Gen 19:25

Gen 19:25So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

Gen 19:26

Gen 19:26But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

Gen 19:27

Gen 19:27And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD.

Gen 19:28

Gen 19:28Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace.

Gen 19:29

Gen 19:29And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt.

The Descendants of Lot

Gen 19:30

Gen 19:30Then Lot went up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountains, and his two daughters were with him; for he was afraid to dwell in Zoar. And he and his two daughters dwelt in a cave.

Gen 19:31

Gen 19:31Now the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man on the earth to come in to us as is the custom of all the earth.

Gen 19:32

Gen 19:32“Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father.”

Gen 19:33

Gen 19:33So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.

Gen 19:34

Gen 19:34It happened on the next day that the firstborn said to the younger, “Indeed I lay with my father last night; let us make him drink wine tonight also, and you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father.”

Gen 19:35

Gen 19:35Then they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.

Gen 19:36

Gen 19:36Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father.

Gen 19:37

Gen 19:37The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day.

Gen 19:38

Gen 19:38And the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the people of Ammon to this day.

See the NKJV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NKJV Footnotes

(19:17)

Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate read they.

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