Genesis 19:32 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.”

NIV: Let's get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.'

NASB: Come, let’s make our father drink wine, and let’s sleep with him so that we may keep our family alive through our father.'

CSB: Come, let's get our father to drink wine so that we can sleep with him and preserve our father's line."

NLT: Come, let’s get him drunk with wine, and then we will have sex with him. That way we will preserve our family line through our father.'

KJV: Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.

NKJV: Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father.”

Lot's two grown virgin daughters had lost all they had ever known. This included their home, their mother, their wealth and status, and the men to whom they were engaged. The previous verse revealed their state of mind: They could not imagine that they would ever have opportunity to be married or have children after all they had lost. Instead of trusting the God who saved them to provide such things, they hatched a plan to provide them for themselves. This plan is horrific in both its motivation, and its details. However, it's important to remember that these women were raised in a profoundly depraved culture. Their father had even arranged for their marriage to men of that city. These are two desperate women, filled with fear and steeped in a godless environment.

Their plan, as it turns out, is as simple as it is awful: incest. More specifically, the women plan to get their father Lot so drunk with wine that he would not resist (or even be aware of) their coming to have sex with him in the night.

Genesis 19:30–38 describes the humiliating, horrific fate of Lot and his daughters. Having lost everything and living in a cave in the hills with their aging father, the two daughters assume no man will ever marry them or give them children. Their plan to remedy the situation is shocking, but not impossible for children raised in a culture like that of Sodom. Lot's daughters get their father drunk on two consecutive nights, each having sex with him and becoming pregnant.

Two angels, disguised as men, visit Abraham's nephew, Lot, in the city of Sodom. After the men of Sodom attempt to rape the angels in Lot's home, the angels rescue Lot and his family, forcibly removing them from the city. Then God sends fire and sulfur from heaven. This destroys all of the land and people in and around the cities. As stated in earlier verses, this is the result of their great and ongoing wickedness. Lot's wife is turned to a pillar of salt when she disobeys the angels by looking back on the destruction. Lot and his daughters flee first to Zoar, then to a cave in the hills. There, Lot's confused and frightened daughters get him drunk, have sex with him, and each become pregnant.

In the previous chapter, Abraham had bargained with God on behalf of his nephew Lot and the people of Sodom. The Lord assured Abraham He would not destroy the cities if He found ten righteous people there. Chapter 19 immediately demonstrates no righteous people are to be found. Every man of Sodom attempts to attack two visitors, who are God's angels in human form. As the angels rescue Lot, God's judgment falls, utterly destroying everything in the area around Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot and his daughters end up in a cave in the hills, where the daughters scheme to conceive children by making their father drunk. This ends Lot's role in the story of Genesis, with future chapters focusing exclusively on the life and descendants of Abraham.

The book of Genesis establishes fundamental truths about God. Among these are His role as the Creator, His holiness, His hatred of sin, His love for mankind, and His willingness to provide for our redemption. We learn not only where mankind has come from, but why the world is in its present form. The book also presents the establishment of Israel, God's chosen people. Many of the principles given in other parts of Scripture depend on the basic ideas presented here in the book of Genesis. Within the framework of the Bible, Genesis explains the bare-bones history of the universe leading up to the captivity of Israel in Egypt, setting the stage for the book of Exodus.

Accessed 5/3/2024 4:42:39 AM