BIBLE CHAPTER STUDY
Genesis 19: Sodom's Destruction and Lot's Rescue
Two angels arrive in Sodom, rescue Lot and his family from the city's impending destruction, and oversee the Lord's judgment by fire on Sodom and Gomorrah.
Scripture
1And the two angels came to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face to the earth;
2and he said, Behold now, my lords, turn aside, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your way. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night.
3And he urged them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.
4But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both young and old, all the people from every quarter;
5and they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men that came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
6And Lot went out unto them to the door, and shut the door after him.
7And he said, I pray you, my brethren, do not so wickedly.
8Behold now, I have two daughters that have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing, forasmuch as they are come under the shadow of my roof.
9And they said, Stand back. And they said, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and drew near to break the door.
10But the men put forth their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door.
11And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.
12And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whomsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of the place:
13for we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxed great before Jehovah; and Jehovah hath sent us to destroy it.
14And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons-in-law, who married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for Jehovah will destroy the city. But he seemed unto his sons-in-law as one that mocked.
15And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters that are here, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.
16But he lingered; and the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters, Jehovah being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.
17And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the Plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.
18And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my lord:
19behold now, thy servant hath found favor in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy lovingkindness, which thou hast showed unto me in saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die:
20behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape thither (is it not a little one?), and my soul shall live.
21And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which thou hast spoken.
22Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do anything till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
23The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot came unto Zoar.
24Then Jehovah rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Jehovah out of heaven;
25and he overthrew those cities, and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
26But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
27And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Jehovah:
28and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the Plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.
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 dwelt.
30And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.
31And the first-born said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth:
32come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
33And they made their father drink wine that night: and the first-born went in, and lay with her father; and he knew not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
34And it came to pass on the morrow, that the first-born said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
35And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he knew not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
36Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.
37And the first-born bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day.
38And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Ben-ammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.
What this passage means
The chapter portrays a stark contrast between divine mercy extended to Lot and the terrifying judgment poured on Sodom and Gomorrah. The angels' arrival triggers both protection and destruction: Lot is physically pulled out of the city (19:16), while the cities are demolished by 'brimstone and fire from Jehovah out of heaven' (19:24). The repeated plea 'lest thou be consumed' (19:15, 17) frames the urgency of obedience in the face of judgment.
A central ethical crisis unfolds at Lot's door, where he offers his two virgin daughters to the surrounding mob to protect his angelic guests (19:8). This shocking decision exposes the depth of Sodom's corruption, yet it also shows the honor due to guests under one's roof—a value Lot clings to even at terrible cost. The blinding of the mob (19:11) demonstrates that human violence is restrained only by divine intervention.
The aftermath reveals the tragic trajectory of Lot's family. His wife becomes 'a pillar of salt' for looking back (19:26), and his daughters, believing themselves the last people on earth, conspire to preserve offspring through their father (19:31-36). These offspring become Moab and Ben-ammi (19:37-38). The chapter thus links judgment on wickedness with the messy, compromised origins of Israel neighboring nations.
Context
The events of Genesis 19 follow directly from the divine visitors' appearance to Abraham in Genesis 18, where the Lord announces that Sarah will bear a son and reveals that the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah has become great. Abraham intercedes for the cities, and the chapter opens with the two angels arriving at Sodom in the evening. The full_chapter text shows no preceding or following content within the provided data, so the reading depends on the chapter itself plus the supplied cross references and curated note.
Cross references situate Lot's wife within a wider biblical motif of looking back at what God is destroying: Luke 17:32 commands 'Remember Lot's wife.' The fire imagery of Sodom becomes a recurring sign of eschatological judgment in Matthew 24 and Luke 17. The summary statement that 'God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow' (19:29) ties the rescue of Lot to Abraham's intercession earlier in the surrounding narrative.
Key words in the original
- H4397 Hebrew מַלְאָךִים (malʾāḵiym), 'angels' or 'messengers.' In Genesis 19:1 these two visitors are first introduced simply as 'the two angels,' linking back to the three men of Genesis 18 who visited Abraham.
- H8179 Hebrew שַׁעַר (šaʿar), 'gateway' or 'gate.' Lot 'sat in the gate of Sodom' (19:1), which in the broader Old Testament world is a place of legal decisions and community presence, indicating Lot's established role among the city's leaders.
- H3876 Hebrew לוֹט (Lôṭ), the personal name 'Lot,' Abraham's nephew. The name recurs throughout the chapter as the focal character, particularly in the rescue narrative where his hesitation (19:16) contrasts with divine urgency.
Related verses
- Luke 17:32 Jesus explicitly commands, 'Remember Lot's wife,' anchoring the warning against looking back at God's judgment in the New Testament and turning the wife's act into a universal cautionary image.
- Genesis 19:26 The exact wording of the chapter's centerpoint: 'his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt,' which becomes the hinge event between mercy (rescue) and judgment (destruction).
- Matthew 24:16 Jesus tells those in Judea to 'flee unto the mountains' in eschatological crisis, echoing the angelic command to Lot in 19:17 'escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed,' linking the two events typologically.
Common questions
Why did Lot offer his daughters to the mob in Genesis 19:8?
Within the ancient Near Eastern value system shown in the chapter, protecting guests who have come under one's roof is an absolute duty. Lot appeals to this duty in 19:8 when he says the men have 'come under the shadow of my roof.' His horrifying offer reveals both how deeply Sodom's culture had corrupted ordinary ethics and how far Lot is willing to go to honor the guest-right.
Why was Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt (Genesis 19:26)?
The text simply states that 'she looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt' (19:26). The angels had commanded in 19:17 not to look back. The narrative presents her looking back as an act of disobedience to a direct command during a judgment event, not as mere curiosity. The phrase 'behind him' suggests she physically lagged behind Lot during the escape.
What is the connection between Genesis 19 and Jesus' words in Luke 17:32?
Luke 17:32 says 'Remember Lot's wife,' drawing directly on Genesis 19:26. Jesus places her within an eschatological context: just as judgment came suddenly on Sodom, so will the Son of Man's day. Looking back at the world being destroyed is set up as a spiritual failure to commit fully to escape, making Lot's wife a paradigm of divided loyalty.