Knox Bible

1

It was evening when the two angels reached Sodom, and Lot was sitting at the town gate. He rose up when he saw them, and went to meet them, bowing down his face to the earth.

2

Pray, sirs, he said, turn in to my house and spend the night there; wash your feet now, and go on your journey to-morrow. And when they said, No, we will stay here in the open square,

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he would take no denial, they must needs lodge with him. So they went to his house, and he baked unleavened bread for them, which they ate.

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And before ever they had gone to rest, the townspeople laid siege to the house, old and young, from every quarter of the city,

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calling for Lot, and crying out, Where are thy evening visitors? Bring them out here, to minister to our lust.

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So Lot went out, shutting the door behind him, and said,

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No, brethren, I entreat you, do not be guilty of such a wrong.

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I have two daughters here, that have as yet no knowledge of man; these I will bring out, and you shall have your will with them, but do these men no harm;✻ are they not guests under my roof?

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What, said they, wouldst thou come here as a stranger, and then set thyself up as a judge? Stand back, or it will be worse for thee than for them. And they pushed Lot aside with great violence, trying to break the door in.

10

So the two men reached out and pulled Lot back into the house, shutting the door after him;

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and they put a ban of blindness on the folk without, so that never a man of them could find the entry.

12

And now the two men asked Lot, Is there any here besides thyself, son-in-law, or son, or daughter of thine? If so, take them out of the city, all that are thine.

13

Our intent is to destroy this place; the ill repute of it goes from bad to worse, and the Lord knows of it, and has sent us to destroy them.

14

So Lot went out, and spoke to the suitors who were betrothed to his daughters;✻ Up, he said, leave this place; the Lord means to destroy the city. But they thought he was speaking in jest.

15

Then morning came, and the angels were urgent with him; Up, they said, take thy wife with thee, and the two daughters who are still at home, or else thou too wilt perish with the offending city.

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And when they found that he hung back, they pulled him away, with his wife and his two daughters, so resolved was the Lord to spare him;

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led him out, and set him clear of the city. Here they said to him, Flee for thy life, never once looking behind thee, never lingering once in all the plain round about thee; take refuge in the hills, or thou, too, wilt perish.

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But now Lot pleaded with them, My Lord, he said, I entreat thee,

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as thou lovest thy servant, as thou hast shewn me signal mercy in saving this life of mine, bethink thee that I have no strength to reach the safety of the hills; calamity will overtake me first, and I must die.

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But there is a city close by that I may reach in safety, a little city, but I can find refuge there. So small a city, and wilt thou not grant me life if I go there?

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Once again, said he, I yield to thy entreaty; I will not overthrow the city thou pleadest for.

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Only make haste, and take refuge there; I can do nothing till thou hast reached it. That is how it came to be called the little city, Segor.

23

Into Segor Lot entered as the sun rose over the earth;

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and thereupon the Lord rained down brimstone and fire out of heaven, the Lord’s dwelling-place,

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and overthrew these cities, with all the plain about them, and all those who dwelt there, and all that grew from their soil.

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And Lot’s wife, because she looked behind her as she went, was turned into a pillar of salt.

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That morning, Abraham rose up early, and from the place where but now he had stood talking to the Lord,

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he looked out over Sodom and Gomorrha, and all the plain where they stood, and saw nothing but smoke going up from the land, like the smoke of a furnace.

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So it was that when he overthrew the cities in that plain God remembered Abraham, and rescued Lot from the ruins of his chosen dwelling-place.

30

But Lot left Segor, and went up to live in the hills, taking his two daughters with him; he was afraid to live at Segor, and took up his abode in a cave. There his two daughters dwelt with him,

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and the elder of these said to the younger, Our father grows old, and as for us, there is no one in the land to mate with us, after the wont of human kind.✻

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Why then, let us give him wine and make him drunk, and so sleep with him, to preserve our father’s posterity.

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So that night they gave their father wine to drink; and the elder went in and slept with her father, lying down beside him and rising up without his knowledge.

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And next day, the elder said to the younger, Last night it was I that slept with our father; let us give him wine again to-night, and thou shalt sleep with him, to preserve our father’s posterity.

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So that night too they gave their father wine to drink, and the younger went in and slept with him, and still he knew nothing of it when she lay down, or when she rose up.

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Thus the two daughters of Lot were got with child by their father,

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and the elder bore a son whom she called Moab, the ancestor of the Moabite race that still survives;

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the younger, too, had a son, whom she called Ammon, as if she would say Ben-ammi, the son of my people; his descendants still survive as the Ammonites.