How is Lot brought out of Sodom before its destruction?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The angels defend Lot from the crowd, warn him to bring his family out, and lead him, his wife and two daughters out by the hand when he delays. They allow him to flee to Segor before the destruction begins. His wife looks back and becomes a statue of salt; the account later follows Lot and his daughters into a mountain cave.

Chapter breakdown

Two angels arrived in Sodom in the evening. Lot was sitting at the city gate. He rose to meet them and bowed to the ground. He asked them to stay in his house, wash their feet, and continue their journey in the morning. They first said they would remain in the street. Lot strongly urged them to come in, and they entered his house. He prepared a feast, baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

Before the visitors went to bed, the city’s men, young and old, gathered around the house. They demanded that Lot bring out the men who had arrived that night, saying “that we may know them.” Lot went outside, closed the door behind him, and begged them not to commit this evil. He offered his two daughters, who had not had sexual relations with a man, for the crowd to abuse as it pleased, asking that no evil be done to the guests who had come under his roof.

The crowd ordered Lot back. They said he had come as a stranger and now acted as a judge, and threatened to harm him more than the visitors. They pressed violently against him and were close to breaking open the doors. The visitors reached out, pulled Lot inside, and closed the door. They struck those outside, from the least to the greatest, with blindness, so that they could not find the door.

The visitors asked whether Lot had any family there—sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone belonging to him—and told him to bring them out. They said that the Lord had sent them to destroy the place because the outcry against it had grown loud before him. Lot went to the sons-in-law who were to marry his daughters and told them to leave because the Lord would destroy the city. They thought he was speaking in jest.

In the morning, the angels urged Lot to take his wife and the two daughters he had with him, so they would not perish in the city’s wickedness. When he delayed, they took his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters because the Lord spared him. They brought him outside the city. They told him to save his life, not look back, not stop anywhere in the surrounding country, and escape to the mountain so that he would not be destroyed.

Lot appealed to the mercy already shown in saving his life. He said he could not escape to the mountain because some evil might overtake him and he might die. He asked to flee instead to a nearby small city, where his life could be saved. His request was granted: that city would not be destroyed. He was told to hurry there because nothing could be done until he entered it. The city was called Segor. Challoner’s note explains that Segor means “a little one.”

The sun had risen when Lot entered Segor. The Lord rained sulphur and fire from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrha. He destroyed those cities, the surrounding country, all their inhabitants, and everything growing from the earth. Lot’s wife looked behind her and was turned into a statue of salt.

Challoner explains Lot’s wife as a lasting reminder to God’s servants to continue in virtue and not turn back to vice or its attractions. This moral explanation belongs to the commentary; the narrative itself records her looking back and becoming salt.

Abraham rose early and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord. He looked towards Sodom, Gomorrha, and the whole surrounding land. He saw ashes rising from the earth like smoke from a furnace. The account says that when God destroyed those cities, he remembered Abraham and delivered Lot from the destruction of the cities where Lot had lived.

Lot left Segor because he was afraid to remain there. He lived in a cave in the mountain with his two daughters. The elder told the younger that their father was old and that no man was left on earth to have relations with them in the usual way. That was her claim, not a statement by the narrator that all other people had died. She proposed making their father drunk with wine and having relations with him to preserve descendants through him.

They made their father drink wine that night, and the elder had relations with him. He did not perceive when she lay down or when she got up. The next day she told her sister what she had done and repeated the plan: they would make him drink wine again, and the younger would have relations with him to preserve their father’s descendants. They did so that night. The younger had relations with him, and again he did not perceive when she lay down or got up.

Both daughters became pregnant by their father. The elder bore a son and named him Moab; he is identified as the father of the Moabites to the time of the account. The younger bore a son and named him Ammon, explained here as “the son of my people.” He is identified as the father of the Ammonites to the time of the account.

The story inside

Lot’s escape takes several steps rather than a single warning. At first the angels pull him away from the violent crowd and blind those outside. They then tell him to bring his family out, but his future sons-in-law treat the warning as a joke. In the morning he still delays, and the angels take the family by the hand and lead them outside because the Lord spares him. Even there, Lot asks to change the destination: he says he cannot reach the mountain safely and asks for the nearby small city. The request is granted, and the destruction is held back until he enters Segor. The account therefore records both urgent commands and help given to a man who delays and asks for a different refuge. It later says that God remembered Abraham when delivering Lot. These stated reasons should be preserved without adding private motives for Lot’s delay or a claim that his wife longed for city life. The cave episode follows the rescue; it is not another stage in the angels’ instructions.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The warning reaches more people than those who leave. The angels ask about all Lot’s family, and Lot speaks to the men who are to marry his daughters, but they think he is joking. His wife and the two daughters with him are then led out. Keeping these groups distinct explains who hears the warning and who is actually described as departing.
2
The escape has commands, mercy, and a granted request. Lot must not look back or remain in the surrounding country; the angels lead his family by the hand because the Lord spares him. Segor is spared at his request, and he must enter it before the destruction begins. The later statement that God remembered Abraham gives another explicit part of the account’s explanation of Lot’s deliverance.
3
The ending must distinguish a character’s claim from the narrator’s record. The elder daughter claims that no man is left on earth, then proposes preserving descendants through their father. The narrator records the two nights, Lot’s lack of perception, the pregnancies, and the names Moab and Ammon. The chapter does not endorse her claim that everyone else is gone, or give the later history of these peoples.

Test your recall

How do the warning, Lot’s delay, the angels’ help, and his request for Segor shape the sequence of his escape?

Show answer

The angels warn Lot to bring his family out because the city will be destroyed. His future sons-in-law treat the warning as a joke. At morning, Lot still delays, so the angels take him, his wife, and his daughters by the hand and bring them outside. He is told to flee without looking back. At his request, Segor is spared as his refuge, and the destruction waits until he arrives there.

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 1945–1961
Genesis Chapter 19 Lot, entertaining Angels in his house, is delivered from Sodom, which is destroyed: his wife for looking back is turned into a statue of salt. 19:1. And the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of the city. And seeing them, he rose up and went to meet them: and worshipped prostrate to the ground. 19:2. And said: I beseech you, my lords, turn in to the house of your servant, and lodge there: wash your feet, and in the morning you shall go on your way. And they said: No, but we will abide in the street. 19:3. He pressed them very much to turn in unto him: and when they were come into his house, he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate:
Lines 1963–1976
19:4. But before they went to bed, the men of the city beset the house, both young and old, all the people together. 19:5. And they called Lot, and said to him: Where are the men that came in to thee at night? bring them out hither, that we may know them: 19:6. Lot went out to them, and shut the door after him, and said: 19:7. Do not so, I beseech you, my brethren, do not commit this evil. 19:8. I have two daughters who, as yet, have not known man; I will bring them out to you, and abuse you them as it shall please you, so that you do no evil to these men, because they are come in under the shadow of my roof.
Lines 1978–1987
19:9. But they said: Get thee back thither. And again: Thou camest in, said they, as a stranger, was it to be a judge? therefore we will afflict thee more than them. And they pressed very violently upon Lot: and they were even at the point of breaking open the doors. 19:10. And behold the men put out their hand, and drew in Lot unto them, and shut the door. 19:11. And them, that were without, they struck with blindness from the least to the greatest, so that they could not find the door.
Lines 1989–1998
19:12. And they said to Lot: Hast thou here any of thine? son in law, or sons, or daughters, all that are thine bring them out of this city: 19:13. For we will destroy this place, because their cry is grown loud before the Lord, who hath sent us to destroy them. 19:14. So Lot went out, and spoke to his sons in law that were to have his daughters, and said: Arise: get you out of this place, because the Lord will destroy this city. And he seemed to them to speak as it were in jest.
Lines 2000–2010
19:15. And when it was morning, the angels pressed him, saying: Arise, take thy wife, and the two daughters that thou hast: lest thou also perish in the wickedness of the city. 19:16. And as he lingered, they took his hand, and the hand of his wife, and of his two daughters, because the Lord spared him. 19:17. And they brought him forth, and set him without the city: and there they spoke to him, saying: Save thy life: look not back, neither stay thou in all the country about: but save thy self in the mountain, lest thou be also consumed.
Lines 2012–2030
19:18. And Lot said to them: I beseech thee, my Lord, 19:19. Because thy servant hath found grace before thee, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewn to me, in saving my life, and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil seize me, and I die. 19:20. There is this city here at hand, to which I may flee, it is a little one, and I shall be saved in it: is it not a little one, and my soul shall live? 19:21. And he said to him: Behold also in this, I have heard thy prayers, not to destroy the city for which thou hast spoken. 19:22. Make haste, and be saved there: because I cannot do any thing till thou go in thither. Therefore the name of that city was called Segor. Segor.... That is, a little one.
Lines 2032–2042
19:23. The sun was risen upon the earth, and Lot entered into Segor. 19:24. And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. 19:25. And he destroyed these cities, and all the country about, all the inhabitants of the cities, and all things that spring from the earth. 19:26. And his wife looking behind her, was turned into a statue of salt.
Lines 2044–2045
And his wife.... As a standing memorial to the servants of God to proceed in virtue, and not to look back to vice or its allurements.
Lines 2047–2056
19:27. And Abraham got up early in the morning, and in the place where he had stood before with the Lord: 19:28. He looked towards Sodom and Gomorrha, and the whole land of that country: and he saw the ashes rise up from the earth as the smoke of a furnace. 19:29. Now when God destroyed the cities of that country, remembering Abraham, he delivered Lot out of the destruction of the cities wherein he had dwelt.
Lines 2058–2067
19:30. And Lot went up out of Segor, and abode in the mountain, and his two daughters with him (for he was afraid to stay in Segor) and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters with him. 19:31. And the elder said to the younger: Our father is old, and there is no man left on the earth, to come in unto us after the manner of the whole earth. 19:32. Come, let us make him drunk with wine, and let us lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
Lines 2069–2079
19:33. And they made their father drink wine that night: and the elder went in, and lay with her father: but he perceived not, neither when his daughter lay down, nor when she rose up. 19:34. And the next day the elder said to the younger: Behold I lay last night with my father, let us make him drink wine also to night, and thou shalt lie with him, that we may save seed of our father. 19:35. They made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in, and lay with him: and neither then did he perceive when she lay down, nor when she rose up.
Lines 2081–2090
19:36. So the two daughters of Lot were with child by their father. 19:37. And the elder bore a son, and she called his name Moab: he is the father of the Moabites unto this day. 19:38. The younger also bore a son, and she called his name Ammon; that is, the son of my people: he is the father of the Ammonites unto this day.