CHAPTER NINETEEN

Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, while Lot sat
at the gate of the city. When he saw them he rose to meet them 
	and fell at
their feet prostrate; saying, "Come inside, Lords, into thy servant's
	house, and stay
the night and bathe your feet, then you, may rise early, 
	and go your way."
They said, "No, we shall pass the night in the public square," but he
urged then so strongly that they turned aside and entered his house;
	and he
prepared a meal for them, and baked bread, unleavened, and they ate.
They had not yet retired when the townsmen, young and old, 
	stood at the gate
surrounding the house, and called Lot, and said to him, 
	"Where are the men
who came to your house tonight? Bring them out that 
	we may abuse them."
Lot went out to the men of Sodom and, behind him, he shut the door,
and said, "I entreat you, brethren, do not act wickedly. For
I have two daughters who have not known man; let me bring them
	out to you;
do as you please with them. Only do nothing to these men, I beg you;
for they have come under the shelter of my roof." But they said,
"Stand back! This fellow came as a stranger and would play judge
	over our heads!"
And  pressing hard  against Lot, they said, "Why, we will treat you
	worse than
we will them," and pushed at the door. But the visitors reached out 
	their hands,
and drew Lot back in the house with them. Now those who were outside
	before
the house were stricken with blindness so that they could not find 
	the door.
Then they said to Lot, "Have you anyone else here who lives in this
	town?
Take them out of this place, for we are about to bring it down,
and destroy this place, because the outcry against them has become
	so great,
before the Lord, that he sent us here to destroy it. Do not wait."
Lot went therefore to speak onto his intended sons-in-law,
and said, "Come, leave this place, for the Lord shall destroy the city
	and all
that are in it." But they thought that he was jesting. When morning
	arrived,
the angels urged Lot, saying, "Come and take your wife and two 
	daughters alive
out of this place, lest you perish in the punishment this city will bear."
And as he lingered, the visitors took him by the hand. Away from there
they led him and his wife and daughters through the mercy of the Lord
toward him, and set him outside the city. When they had brought them
	all before
the city they told them, "Flee for your life;  do not look back  or stop
	anywhere
in the valley; flee to the hills lest you perish." But Lot said, "I cannot
	go there.
No, my Lords; surely, your servant has found favor with you,
	and great
is the mercy you have shown to me in saving my life from this fate.
I cannot flee to the mountains; the disaster would overtake me and 
	I would die.
But there is a city near to which we can all flee. Grant, therefore, that I
may save myself in that little city." And he said to him, "I grant to you
this favor also; I will not destroy that city. Make haste and do into
that city and seek your safety there; for I can do nothing before
you get there that you all will be safe." That city was called Segor.
The sun had risen on the earth when Lot entered Segor. The Lord
	then poured
on Sodom and Gommorah, sulfur and fire, out of heaven, down 
	from the Lord.
He overthrew those cities and that whole region, all the inhabitants
	and plants of the soil,
all those who dwelt in those cities of sin and all those who therein 
	did toil,
for their sin was great. But Lot's wife who was behind him looked back
	to see,
and she became a pillar of salt, as the Lord had warned it would be.
Early in the morning, Abraham came to where he had stood before
	the Lord,
and saw fire and smoke rising from the earth as from a furnace,
	when he looked toward
Sodom and Gomorrah. While God destroyed those evil cities, then he
remembered Abraham, and also led Lot away from the catastrophe.
And Lot went up from Segor and lived with his two brothers 
	in the hills;
for he was afraid to live in Segor, that there he might be killed.
He and his daughters dwelt in a cave, and his firstborn daughter said
to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is no man here to wed
as is the custom everywhere. Let us give our father wine to drink,
then lie with him, that we may save his seed, or his line will go extinct."
So they gave their father wine to drink and went in to lay with
	and learn
their father, the eldest the one night, and the younger, the next night,
	in turn.
But he did not know of it when they lay down, or when they arose.
The elder bore a son and called him Moab and he is the father of those
who call themselves the Moabites of the present. In the same way,
the younger bore a son called Ben-ammi, father of the Ammonites
	onto this day.


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