THEN THE LORD SAID, “I have heard many things against the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. They are very evil.”
The two angels came to Sodom in the evening. Lot was sitting near the city gate and saw them. He got up and went to them and bowed face down on the ground.
The two men said to Lot, “Do you have any other relatives in this city? Do you have any sons-in-law, sons, daughters or any other relatives? If you do, tell them to leave now. We are about to destroy this city. The Lord has heard of all the evil that is here. So he has sent us to destroy it.”
So Lot went out and spoke to his future sons-in-law. They were pledged to marry his daughters. Lot said, “Hurry and leave this city! the Lord is about to destroy it!” But they thought Lot was joking.
At dawn the next morning, the angels begged Lot to hurry. They said, “Go! Take your wife and your two daughters with you. Then you will not be destroyed when this city gets punished”
But Lot delayed. So the two men took the hands of lot, his wife and his two daughters. The men led them safely out of the city. So the Lord was merciful to Lot and his family The two men brought Lot and his family out of the city. Then one of the men said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Run to the mountains or you will be destroyed.”
Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed
The sun had already come up when Lot entered Zoar. The Lord sent a rain of burning sulphur down from the sky on Sodom and Gomorrah. So the Lord destroyed those cities He also destroyed the whole Jordan Valley, everyone living in the cities and even all the plants.
At that point Lot’s wife looked back. When she did, she became a pillar of salt.
Early the next morning Abraham got up and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord. Abraham looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the Jordan Valley. He saw smoke rising from the land. It was like smoke from a furnace.
God destroyed the cities in the valley. But he remembered what Abraham had asked. So God saved Lot’s life. But he destroyed the city where Lot had lived.
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Quoted from Genesis 18:20; 19:1, 12-17, 23-29, International Children’s Bible, New Century Version)
Illustration courtesy Nestor G. Magalpo Sr.