Do we yet know what an angel is? I have to look at the linguistic root at this point since the narrative hasn't said word one about it. Well in it's current English form it's from Sanskrit via Greek via Latin via French and it means messenger. The Hebrew it has been translated from also means messenger so an angel is no more special than a messenger, I suppose envoy might be a good approximation. Back to the text then are these two messengers the same two men that went and visited Abraham with the man that Abraham recognised as the LORD? Are angels human? is the LORD for that matter?

Lot is hospitable and offers them a bed for the night and they that they'll sleep in the street. It might be because I'm English but it strikes me that the angels were being sarcastic.

Lot convinces them to come in and makes them a meal.

A good number of the menfolk of Sodom come and surround Lot's house. Why?

Now do they mean know in the way that people call biblical? Like Adam knew his wife? perhaps, so some men turn up in a city (angels must look exactly like men) and all the men in the city want to have sex with them? I find their motivation to be inadequately explained. For what reason would an entire town of men, young and old, from all quarters, descend on Lot's house and demand to have sex with his guests?

Good move, if there are indeed that many men all wanting to slip some to your house guests are waiting outside.

He begins to plead with the horny hoard...

...and offers the men 'full access' to his virgin daughters in place of his male guests. Is this a good act? a righteous suggestion? Are daughters less valuable than strangers? Would it not be more honourable to not offer *anyone* to the rampaging rapists and actually just say no?

So unsatisfied with Lot's offer and with an appetite for angelic-arse-action, the hole-hungry-horde attempt to push by Lot and break into the house where their rectal-ramming-retribution will be laid heavier on Lot for having got in the way.

The men (are angels human) pull lot into the house and close the door...

...and struck all of the men at the door blind. What sorcery is this? By what mechanism was this achieved?

The men (Still men? after blinding all those people with magic?) instruct Lot to get his whole family out of Sodom.

Right, so these angels were sent to destroy Sodom. There is no mention of the investigation the LORD agreed to carry out to find out if there were ten good people in Sodom. Has the LORD broken his agreement with Abraham and just sent some angels to destroy the city despite there possibly being some righteous people in it. Was it just by chance that they walked past Lot's house? If they had taken a different route into Sodom, would Lot's family have been spared?

Lot's sons-in-law didn't believe him, I can't say I blame them. On a side note, how big is Lot's family? How many Sons-in-law does he have? we already know he has two unmarried daughters and a wife, if he has just three married daughters then his family alone make up the ten required to save Sodom from destruction.

The angels (formerly referred to as men. Are they just messengers?) usher Lot, His wife and two daughters out of the city.

...

Is this the LORD speaking now?

...

Lot complains to the LORD that the mountains he's been ordered to are too dangerous to run to...

...and begs that he be allowed to run to this nearby city instead.

God capitulates, just like he did with Abraham. Is this god all powerful? All knowing? surely he would know it was too dangerous for Lot to go to the mountains and if it wasn't too dangerous why capitulate? If the city was the best destination for Lot, why didn't God command him to go there in the first place?

God can't destroy Sodom and Gomorrah until Lot is safely in Zoar.

Phew, he got there in time.

Now, which heaven are we talking about here? The heavens as in the sky, or the odd ethereal other-world that the gods (The Lord and his friends from Genesis 1,2 and 3) live in? Or... is 'the LORD out of heaven' a title and he is spewing fire and brimstone out of himself like some sort of flamethrower?

What about Zoar? As I remember from Genesis 14 Zoar is in the plain.

Wait what? Why did she become a pillar of salt? There was no warning against looking back, who or what turned her to salt and why? What precedent do we have to even believe it possible? who's testimony is this? This sounds rather like a story fabricated to explain the existence of pillars of salt in a dry sea-bed by goat herders to stop their children asking what they were.

OK.

The cities and lands of the plain burned (but not Zoar?)

Well he didn't remember Abraham very well did he? He said he'd spare Sodom if he found ten righteous people, He didn't even look, he just sent two messengers who didn't get past the first house.

OK, Caves are cool I guess, not quite as good as a house and probably about as good as a tent, I might have gone for a tent myself.

Conveniently forgetting all of the men in Zoar and for some reason not knowing that there are plenty of people living outside of the now destroyed plain, probably not three days walk away...

The eldest daughter decides to get her father drunk and have sex with him in order to keep the family line going.

How drunk would the man have to be to not notice being boinked by his daughter?

And then his youngest daughter does the same?

Could he really be drunk enough not to notice yet be functional enough to 'rise' to the challenge? Again I ask who's testimony this is because it sounding a little shaky, Could it be lot that got his daughters drunk? Either way the acts are distasteful and at the very least not the best way to preserve a family line... If you want to preserve it in an healthy way that is.

OK.. and by that I mean I understand, not that it's OK.

Right you are.

Well there we are then.

Genesis 19.So what have we got out of this?God promised Abraham that he would survey Sodom to see if there were ten or more righteous people and not destroy it if he found them but instead sent two messengers who stopped at the first house and didn't bother to look any further. Why did the LORD destroy Sodom? It seems quite likely that ten righteous people would have been found if a thorough search were conducted. Did the LORD lie to Abraham? It seems he did but this should come as no surprise given that his first words to a human were also a lie.Are angels human? The description of them would indicate yes. Admittedly the angels in this story were able to strike a crowd blind but then so are men today with the aid of powders or gases. It is entirely likely that these 'angels' are just human men with some nifty weapons.Speaking of nifty weapons, is the LORD in this chapter and the last also a human? He is described as a man many times, he walks from place to place on foot, he eats food and drinks wine, he negotiates with both Abraham and Lot showing no clear authority. So if the LORD is a man, is the destruction of the plains and the cities therein supernatural? Well, it depends how you read verse 24.Is the judgement of Lot as righteous a tacit approval of his offer to send his daughters out to a rape-mob as fuck-fodder? It seems that protecting the messengers, who it turns out are capable of protecting themselves, is something that Lot needs to do at any cost, including the surrender of his virgin daughters to sexual violence and humiliation. For some reason this is also the first thing Lot thinks of to try to placate the mob, there are a great number of things he could have tried first. Is offering your daughters up for rape a righteous act in the eyes of the LORD?Why was Lot's wife turned to salt? This is very ill explained, there isn't even enough detail to try to work it out.And finally... The incest! Why? What possible reason could there be for both of Lot's daughters to need to have sex with their father? We know there are settlements in the mountains, Abraham's tribe for example, there is also a city full of men in near-by Zoar. There is no justification for the incest. Furthermore, is it actually possible for a man to be drunk enough to not notice his own daughters riding his rod yet be sober enough to keep it up?What an odd chapter!