Catholic Public Domain Version

Genesis 19:12-29 Catholic Public Domain Version (CPDV)

12. Then they said to Lot: "Do you have here anyone of yours? All who are yours, sons-in-law, or sons, or daughters, bring them out of this city.

13. For we will eliminate this place, because the outcry among them has increased before the Lord, who sent us to destroy them."

14. And so Lot, going out, spoke to his sons-in-law, who were going to receive his daughters, and he said: "Rise up. Depart from this place. For the Lord will destroy this city." And it seemed to them that he was speaking playfully.

15. And when it was morning, the Angels compelled him, saying, "Arise, take your wife, and the two daughters that you have, lest you also should perish amid the wickedness of the city."

16. And, since he ignored them, they took his hand, and the hand of his wife, as well as that of his two daughters, because the Lord was sparing him.

17. And they brought him out, and placed him beyond the city. And there they spoke to him, saying: "Save your life. Do not look not back. Neither should you stay in the entire surrounding region. But save yourself in the mountain, lest you also should perish."

18. And Lot said to them: "I beg you, my lord,

19. though your servant has found grace before you, and you have magnified your mercy, which you have shown to me in saving my life, I cannot be saved on the mountain, lest perhaps some misfortune take hold of me and I die.

20. There is a certain city nearby, to which I can flee; it is a little one, and I will be saved in it. Is it not a modest one, and will not my soul live?"

21. And he said to him: "Behold, even now, I have heard your petitions about this, not to overturn the city on behalf of which you have spoken.

22. Hurry and be saved there. For I cannot do anything until you enter there." For this reason, the name of that city is called Zoar.

23. The sun had risen over the land, and Lot had entered into Zoar.

24. Therefore, the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah sulphur and fire, from the Lord, out of heaven.

25. And he overturned these cities, and all the surrounding region: all the inhabitants of the cities, and everything that springs from the land.

26. And his wife, looking behind herself, was turned into a statue of salt.

27. Then Abraham, rising up in the morning, in the place where he had stood before with the Lord,

28. looked out toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and the entire land of that region. And he saw embers rising up from the land like smoke from a furnace.

29. For when God overthrew the cities of that region, remembering Abraham, he freed Lot from the overthrow of the cities, in which he had dwelt.