Turns out the other two men who were at Abraham’s tent were angels. When they left Abraham’s tent they came to the entrance to Sodom. Lot met them and welcomed them with a bow. “My lords,” he said. “Come wash your feet and be my guests for the night.” (Notice ‘lord isn’t capitalized’.)
“No thanks,” they replied. “We’ll spend the night in the city square.”
But Lot insisted and they finally relented. Lot prepared a feast with fresh bread made sans yeast. But before they went to bed, all the men of Sodom surrounded the house and shouted, “Where are your guests? Bring them out so we can have sex with them!” (Every man in the city. Was there something in the water?)
So Lot came outside, shut the door, and talked to them. He begged them, “Please don’t do such a wicked thing. Instead, take my two virgin daughters. I’ll bring them to you and you can do whatever you wish to them. But please, these men are my guests and are under my protection.”
“Stand back!” they shouted. “This outsider is acting like our judge! If you think anal sex is bad, watch what we do to you.” And they lunged toward Lot to break down the door.
But the two angels pulled Lot inside and bolted the door. Then they blinded all the men of Sodom.
Meanwhile, the angels told Lot, “Get your other relatives out of the city! God is about to destroy it.” But the men outside thought he was joking. So did Lot.
They warned him again the next morning. “Get your wife and two daughters out of here!” (After offering them up as sex slaves, would he really care?)
When he still hesitated, the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and rushed them outside the city to safety, for God was merciful. One of the angels told them, “Run for your lives and don’t look back or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape to the mountains or you will be swept away!”
“Oh no, God!” Lot begged. “You have been so gracious and kind to me. But I cannot go to the mountains. Disaster would catch up to me there and I would soon die. Let me go to the small nearby village instead. Then my life will be saved.” (The mountains of Sodom were as dangerous as the mountains of Kentucky.)
One of the angels told Lot to go to the village, called Zoar, or “little place.”
Lot reached Zoar as the sun was rising. Then God rained down fire and burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah. He utterly destroyed them, along with the other cities and villages of the plain, including all vegetation and people. Except Zoar. But Lot’s wife looked back to Sodom and was turned into a pillar salt. (Lot put her in a bag and used her salty ashes to preserve meat for the coming year.)
Abraham stood in front of his tent and looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and watched columns of smoke rise from the cities.
But God had kept Lot safe for Abraham.
Lot left Zoar because he was afraid of the townfolk and went to live in the mountains with his daughters. One day the older daughter said to her sister, “There are no men left in the area, so we can’t get married like everyone else. And our father will soon be too old to have children. Let’s get him drunk and then have sex with him to preserve our family.”
The older daughter slept with him that night but he didn’t know because he was blacked out.
The younger daughter slept with him the next night after getting him drunk.
Both girls became pregnant by their father. The older daughter named her son Moab, the ancestor of the Moabites. The younger daughter named her sone Ben-ammi, the ancestor of the Ammonites.
Arsenio Franklin 