The Genesis of Justice 5. Lot's Daughters Rape Their Father - and Save the World Schocken Bible Translation Contemporary English Version   Genesis 19: 4 They had not yet lain down, when the men of the city, the men of Sedom, encircled the house, from young lad to old man, all the people (even) from the outskirts. we want to know them: The meaning is unmistakably sexual. 5 They called out to Lot and said to him: Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, we want to know them! 6 Lot went out to them, to the entrance, shutting the door behind him 7 and said: Pray, brothers, do not be so wicked! pray let me bring them out to you…: For a similar story, see Judg. 19. There the offer of rape is accepted by the townspeople. 8 Now pray, I have two daughters who have never known a man, pray let me bring them out to you, and you may deal with them however seems good in your eyes; only to these men do nothing, for they have, after all, come under the shadow of my roof-beam! judge, play-the-judge: Heb. va-yishpot shafot.] 9 But they said: Step aside! and said: This one came to sojourn and (wants to) judge, play-the-judge?! Now we will do worse to you than (to) them! And they pressed exceedingly hard against the man, against Lot, and stepped closer to break down the door. the men: The messengers 10 But the men put out their hand and brought Lot in to them, into the house, and shut the door. (all men) great and small: Lit. “from small to great.” 11 And the men who were at the entrance to the house, they struck with dazzling-light—(all men) great and small, so that they were unable to find the entrance. 12 The men said to Lot: Whom else have you here—a son-in-law, sons, daughters? Bring anyone whom you have in the city out of the place! 13 For we are about to bring ruin on this place, for how great is their outcry before YHWH! And YHWH has sent us to bring it to ruin. 14 Lot went out to speak to his sons-in-law, those who had taken his daughters (in marriage), and said: Up, out of this place, for YHWH is about to bring ruin on the city! But in the eyes of his sons-in-law, he was like one who jests. 15 Now when the dawn came up, the messengers pushed Lot on, saying: Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the iniquity of the city! 16 When he lingered, the men seized his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hand of his two daughters —because YHWH’s pity was upon him— and, bringing him out, they left him outside the city. Escape: Heb. himmalet, used five times here. Perhaps it is a pun on Lot’s name; he is “the escaper” in a number of situations. 17 It was, when they had brought him outside, that (one of them) said: Escape for your life, do not gaze behind you, do not stand still anywhere in the plain: to the hill-country escape, lest you be swept away! 18 Lot said to them: No, pray, my lord! lest the wickedness cling to me: The expression of an idea common to many cultures: that evil is like a disease, a physical rather than purely moral entity. 19 Now pray, your servant has found favor in your eyes, you have shown great faithfulness in how you have dealt with me, keeping me alive— but I, I am not able to escape to the hill-country, lest the wickedness cling to me, and I die! tiny: Or “a trifle.” 20 Now pray, that town is near enough to flee to, and it is so tiny; pray let me escape there—is it not tiny?—and stay alive! lift up your face: A similar Assyrian phrase means “save” or “cheer.” overturning: Overthrowing. The word is used later in the Bible to describe the fate of the two cities again (e.g., Lam. 4:6).] 21 He said to him: Here then, I lift up your face in this matter as well, by not overturning this town of which you speak. I am not able…until you come there: In deference to Avraham (see v.29).] 22 Make haste, escape there, for I am not able to do anything until you come there. Therefore the name of the town was called: Tzo’ar/Tiny. 23 (Now) the sun was going out over the earth as Lot came to Tzo’ar. 24 But YHWH rained down brimstone and fire upon Sedom and Amora, coming from YHWH, from the heavens, 25 he overturned those cities and all of the plain, all those settled in the cities and the vegetation of the soil. she became a pillar of salt: An old folklore motif of what happens when humans see God (or his actions), made popular by the many mineral pillars in the region around the Dead Sea. 26 Now his wife gazed behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. 27 Avraham started-early in the morning to the place where he had stood in YHWH’s presence, 28 he looked down upon the face of Sedom and Amora and upon the whole face of the plain-country and saw: here, the dense-smoke of the land went up like the dense-smoke of a furnace! 29 Thus it was, when God brought ruin on the cities of the plain, that God kept Avraham in mind and sent out Lot from the overturning, when he overturned the cities where Lot had settled. 30 Lot went up from Tzo’ar and settled in the hill-country, his two daughters with him, for he was afraid to settle in Tzo’ar. So he settled in a cave, he and his two daughters. 31 Now the firstborn said to the younger: Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to come in to us as befits the way of all the earth! 32 Come, let us have our father drink wine and lie with him so that we may keep seed alive by our father. 33 So they had their father drink wine that night, then the firstborn went in and lay with her father— but he knew nothing of her lying down or her rising up. 34 It was on the morrow that the firstborn said to the younger: Here, yesternight I lay with father. Let us have him drink wine tonight as well, then you go in and lie with him, so that we may keep seed alive by our father. but he knew nothing…: The repetition of the phrase from v.33 is meant either to absolve Lot or to ridicule him. 35 They had their father drink wine that night as well, then the younger arose and lay with him, but he knew nothing of her lying down or her rising up. 36 And Lot’s two daughters became pregnant by their father. Fox, Everett, The Five Books of Moses, (New York: Schocken Books Inc.) © 1995. The Schochen Bible The Genesis of Justice