Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19)

Episode 5: Sodom and Gomorrah

Genesis 19

Two angels come to Sodom

19 ¹ Two angels came to Sodom. When Lot saw them, he said,

² Come to my house, wash your feet, and spend the night. Then tomorrow you can be on your way.

The angels said, "No thanks, we'll sleep in the street."

³ But Lot insisted, and they went with him. He made a feast of unleavened bread, and they ate.

The men of Sodom ask to get to know the angels.

⁴ After dinner, when the angels were getting ready to go to bed, all the men of Sodom, young and old, came to Lot's house and said to him,

⁵ Where are the men that are visiting you tonight? Bring them out to us so we can know them.

Lot offers his two virgin daughters

⁶ Lot said to them,

⁸ I have two virgin daughters. I will bring them out and you can do whatever you'd like to them. But don't do anything to the men who are in my house.

Lot and his family leave Sodom, and God destroys it

¹¹ The angels blinded the Sodomites and said to Lot,

^12-13 Gather your family and belongings and leave Sodom because we are going to destroy it.

¹⁴ Lot said to his sons-in-law, "Get out of here! God is going to destroy this city."

But they thought he was joking.

¹⁷ One of the angels said to Lot,

Run for your life! Don't look behind you. Escape to the mountain or you'll be consumed.

^23-24 So Lot and his family left Sodom while God rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah.

Lot's wife looks back, and God turns here into salt

²⁶ But as Lot and his family were leaving, Lot's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Lot and his daughter fleeing Sodom, with his wife turned to salt

Lot gets drunk and impregnates his daughters

³⁰ After God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot lived in a cave with his two daughters.

³¹ One night, the older daughter said to her sister,

Our father is old, but there's no other men to have sex with.

³² Let's get him drunk to preserve his seed.

³³ So they got Lot drunk that night, and the older daughter had sex with him.

Lot was so drunk he didn't know what had happened.

³⁴ The next day, the older daughter said to the younger,

I had sex last night with Dad.

Let's get him drunk again tonight and you can do it.

³⁵ So they got Lot drunk again, and the younger daughter had sex with him.

^36-38 Both of Lot's daughters got pregnant and had baby boys. They are the fathers of the Moabites and Ammonites.

Lot and His Daughters c.1530 Lucas Cranach the elder

A few more words about this episode

The sin of Sodom

There's a lot of debate among believers about the sin of Sodom. Some say it was homosexuality; others that it was the lack of hospitality. And there's biblical support on both sides of the argument.

Here are verses that use this chapter to condemn homosexuality:

But Ezekiel 16:49-50 lists Sodom's sins as pride, gluttony, idleness, and not helping the needy.

What was the sin of Sodom?

Jesus and the story of Sodom and Gomorrah

Many modern Christians try to ignore unpleasant Bible stories like this one. But it was one of Jesus's favorites.
(See Matthew 10:14-15, 11:24; Luke 17:28-30)

Remember Lot's wife (Forget Jesus)

I have two virgin daughters (v.8)

Lot refuses to give up his angels to the perverted mob, offering his two "virgin daughters" instead.

He tells the bunch of angel rapers to "do unto them (his daughters) as is good in your eyes."

This is the same man that is called "just" and "righteous" in 2 Peter 2:7-8.

Was Lot a righteous man?

What the Quran says about Lot

The Quran says that Allah likes Lot (along with Ishmael, Elisha, and Jonah) better than all his others creatures (6:18).

It includes the story about him offering his daughters to the crowd of male Sodomites (11:78, 15:71), but not the one about him getting drunk and impregnating them.

In the Quran's story, Lot's wife remains in in Sodom and is destroyed with the Sodomites (29:32-33), and she (along with Noah's wife) is now is burnig in the fire of hell (66:10).

God rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah (v.24)

God kills everyone (men, women, children, infants, newborns) in Sodom and Gomorrah by raining "fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven." Well, almost everyone -- he spares the "just and righteous" Lot and his family.

Drunk with Blood: Sodom and Gomorrah

Strange Flesh: Sodom's sin

She became a pillar of salt (v.26)

Drunk With Blood: Remember Lot's Wife (Forget Jesus)

Lot didn't know what had happened (v.33)

Lot apparently was so drunk that he didn't know who he was having sex with -- which is not unusual in Genesis.

Is incest forbidden?

They are the fathers of the Moabites and Ammonites (v.36)

The story of Lot and his daughters is obviously made up to justify the later mistreatment and God-assisted slaughter of the Moabites and Ammonites by the Israelites.

Phinehas's double murder: A killing to end God's killing

God delivers 10,000 lusty Moabites

The Ammonite massacre

Another Ammonite massacre (and another God-inspired body part message)

David killed two thirds of the Moabite POWs and enslaved the rest

Thus did David unto all the children of Ammon

The Lord delivered the Moabites