Genèse 19

¹ The two angels entered Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in Sodom’s gateway. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them. He bowed with his face to the ground

² and said, “My lords, turn aside to your servant’s house, wash your feet, and spend the night. Then you can get up early and go on your way.”“No,” they said. “We would rather spend the night in the square.”

³ But he urged them so strongly that they followed him and went into his house. He prepared a feast and baked unleavened bread for them, and they ate.

⁴ Before they went to bed, the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, the whole population, surrounded the house.

⁵ They called out to Lot and said, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have sex with them!”

⁶ Lot went out to them at the entrance and shut the door behind him.

⁷ He said, “Don’t do this evil, my brothers.

⁸ Look, I’ve got two daughters who haven’t been intimate with a man. I’ll bring them out to you, and you can do whatever you want to them. However, don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the protection of my roof.”

⁹ “Get out of the way!” they said, adding, “This one came here as an alien, but he’s acting like a judge! Now we’ll do more harm to you than to them.” They put pressure on Lot and came up to break down the door.

¹⁰ But the angels reached out, brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.

¹¹ They struck the men who were at the entrance of the house, both young and old, with blindness so that they were unable to find the entrance.

Note · Genèse 19.1–11

Une menace qui ne se justifie par aucune coutume

Les hommes de la ville veulent soumettre les visiteurs à une agression. La proposition de Lot d’exposer ses filles est elle aussi inacceptable ; le récit ne la transforme pas en conduite prescrite. Cette scène de coercition collective ne peut être simplement assimilée à une discussion sur les relations consenties entre adultes.

¹² Then the angels said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here: a son-in-law, your sons and daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of this place,

¹³ for we are about to destroy this place because the outcry against its people is so great before the Lord, that the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”

¹⁴ So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were going to marry his daughters. “Get up,” he said. “Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

¹⁵ At daybreak the angels urged Lot on: “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.”

¹⁶ But he hesitated. Because of the Lord’s compassion for him, the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters. They brought him out and left him outside the city.

¹⁷ As soon as the angels got them outside, one of them said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look back and don’t stop anywhere on the plain! Run to the mountains, or you will be swept away!”

¹⁸ But Lot said to them, “No, my lords — please.

¹⁹ Your servant has indeed found favor with you, and you have shown me great kindness by saving my life. But I can’t run to the mountains; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die.

²⁰ Look, this town is close enough for me to flee to. It is a small place. Please let me run to it — it’s only a small place, isn’t it? — so that I can survive.”

²¹ And he said to him, “All right, I’ll grant your request about this matter too and will not demolish the town you mentioned.

²² Hurry up! Run to it, for I cannot do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city is Zoar.

Note · Genèse 19.12–22

Une sortie arrachée à l’hésitation

Lot reçoit l’avertissement de partir, mais tarde. Sa délivrance inclut le geste des messagers qui le prennent par la main. Le passage décrit une compassion active envers un homme hésitant, non la supériorité morale absolue de tous les membres de sa maison.

²³ The sun had risen over the land when Lot reached Zoar.

²⁴ Then out of the sky the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah burning sulfur from the Lord.

²⁵ He demolished these cities, the entire plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and whatever grew on the ground.

²⁶ But Lot’s wife looked back and became a pillar of salt.

²⁷ Early in the morning Abraham went to the place where he had stood before the Lord.

²⁸ He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and he saw that smoke was going up from the land like the smoke of a furnace.

²⁹ So it was, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham and brought Lot out of the middle of the upheaval when he demolished the cities where Lot had lived.

Note · Genèse 19.23–29

Le jugement ne devient pas un pouvoir du lecteur

La destruction s’inscrit dans le cadre de l’enquête et de l’intercession du chapitre précédent. Le destin de la femme de Lot est raconté avec gravité. Aucune de ces scènes ne permet d’annoncer avec autorité qu’une ville actuelle ou les victimes d’une catastrophe subiraient une condamnation identique.

³⁰ Lot departed from Zoar and lived in the mountains along with his two daughters, because he was afraid to live in Zoar. Instead, he and his two daughters lived in a cave.

³¹ Then the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to sleep with us as is the custom of all the land.

³² Come, let’s get our father to drink wine so that we can sleep with him and preserve our father’s line.”

³³ So they got their father to drink wine that night, and the firstborn came and slept with her father; he did not know when she lay down or when she got up.

³⁴ The next day the firstborn said to the younger, “Look, I slept with my father last night. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight so you can go sleep with him and we can preserve our father’s line.”

³⁵ That night they again got their father to drink wine, and the younger went and slept with him; he did not know when she lay down or when she got up.

³⁶ So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father.

³⁷ The firstborn gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites of today.

³⁸ The younger also gave birth to a son, and she named him Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites of today.

Note · Genèse 19.30–38

Un récit d’origine qui n’est pas un modèle

Les filles de Lot agissent dans l’isolement et utilisent l’ivresse de leur père pour obtenir une descendance. Le narrateur rattache à ces naissances Moab et Ammon. Il raconte ces actes sans en faire une norme ; les descendants ne doivent pas être rendus personnellement coupables des actes attribués à leurs ancêtres.