Genesis 19
Introduction
Genesis 19 is one of the most dramatic and disturbing chapters in Scripture, narrating the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and its aftermath. The two angels who departed Abraham's tent in Genesis 18 arrive at Sodom in the evening, where Lot — Abraham's nephew — is sitting in the city gate, a position that suggests civic involvement. What follows is a harrowing sequence: Lot's hospitality, the mob's assault, the angels' rescue, and the fiery obliteration of the cities of the plain. The chapter echoes the themes of Genesis 18 — hospitality, justice, and divine judgment — but inverts them. Where Abraham's welcome at Mamre was generous and blessed, Sodom's response to visitors is violent and predatory.
The second half of the chapter traces the aftermath of destruction. Lot's wife looks back and becomes a pillar of salt. Lot and his two daughters retreat to a cave in the mountains, where a desperate and morally troubled episode produces two sons — Moab and Ben-ammi — the ancestors of Israel's future neighbors, the Moabites and Ammonites. The chapter raises difficult questions about Lot's character, the nature of divine judgment, and the long shadow that Sodom's culture casts even on those who escape it.
Lot Welcomes the Angels (vv. 1–3)
1 Now the two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them, bowed facedown, 2 and said, "My lords, please turn aside into the house of your servant; wash your feet and spend the night. Then you can rise early and go on your way." "No," they answered, "we will spend the night in the square." 3 But Lot insisted so strongly that they followed him into his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
1 The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed with his face to the ground. 2 He said, "Please, my lords, turn aside to your servant's house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise early and go on your way." They said, "No; we will spend the night in the square." 3 But he pressed them strongly, so they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
Notes
הַמַּלְאָכִים ("the angels/messengers") — The same visitors who were "men" (אֲנָשִׁים) in Genesis 18 are now explicitly called "messengers." Two of the three visitors have proceeded to Sodom while the LORD remained to speak with Abraham (Genesis 18:22).
יֹשֵׁב בְּשַׁעַר סְדֹם ("sitting in the gate of Sodom") — The city gate was the center of civic life in the ancient Near East, where legal matters were decided and business conducted. That Lot sits here suggests he has risen to a position of some standing in Sodom. Compare his initial choice to "pitch his tent near Sodom" (Genesis 13:12) with his now being embedded in the city's social fabric.
Lot's hospitality mirrors Abraham's in Genesis 18:1-8, but the contrasts are telling. Abraham offered lavish provisions — fine flour, a choice calf, curds and milk. Lot provides unleavened bread (מַצּוֹת), a simpler meal. Abraham ran and hurried; Lot rises and bows. The hospitality is genuine but more modest.
The angels initially refuse Lot's invitation, saying they will spend the night in the town square. This may be a test of Lot's character, or it may reflect what will soon become apparent: the streets of Sodom are not safe for visitors. Lot's insistence (וַיִּפְצַר, "he pressed/urged") shows he knows the danger.
The Men of Sodom at the Door (vv. 4–11)
4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, surrounded the house. 5 They called out to Lot, saying, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have relations with them!" 6 Lot went outside to meet them, shutting the door behind him. 7 "Please, my brothers," he pleaded, "don't do such a wicked thing! 8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them to you, and you can do to them as you please. But do not do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof." 9 "Get out of the way!" they replied. And they declared, "This one came here as a foreigner, and he is already acting like a judge! Now we will treat you worse than them." And they pressed in on Lot and moved in to break down the door. 10 But the men inside reached out, pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. 11 And they struck the men at the entrance, young and old, with blindness, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the door.
4 Before they lay down, the men of the city — the men of Sodom — surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people to the last man. 5 They called to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may know them." 6 Lot went out to them at the entrance, shut the door behind him, 7 and said, "I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. 8 Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you wish. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof." 9 But they said, "Stand back!" And they said, "This fellow came to sojourn, and now he acts as judge! We will deal worse with you than with them." Then they pressed hard against the man Lot and drew near to break the door down. 10 But the men inside reached out their hands, pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. 11 And they struck the men who were at the entrance of the house with blindness, from small to great, so that they wore themselves out trying to find the door.
Notes
וְנֵדְעָה אֹתָם ("so that we may know them") — The verb יָדַע ("to know") can mean sexual relations (as in Genesis 4:1, "Adam knew Eve his wife"). The mob's intent is sexual violence against the visitors. The prophet Ezekiel describes Sodom's sins more broadly: "She and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy" (Ezekiel 16:49), though he adds that "they committed abomination" (Ezekiel 16:50).
הָאֶחָד בָּא לָגוּר וַיִּשְׁפֹּט שָׁפוֹט ("This one came to sojourn, and now he judges, judging!") — The mob's retort reveals their contempt. Lot is a גֵּר (sojourner/resident alien), and they deny his right to moral authority. The infinitive absolute שָׁפוֹט intensifies: "He really presumes to judge!" This is ironic given that Abraham has just been interceding with the ultimate Judge on Sodom's behalf (Genesis 18:25).
Lot's offer of his daughters is deeply troubling to modern readers and was shocking even within the ancient world's moral framework. It reflects the extreme weight placed on the obligation of hospitality — guests under one's roof were inviolable. The narrative presents Lot's offer without endorsing it; the text shows a man making a terrible choice under duress within a corrupt city. A parallel account appears in Judges 19:22-30, where the outcome is even more horrific.
בַּסַּנְוֵרִים ("with blindness/dazzling") — This rare word occurs only here and in 2 Kings 6:18, where Elisha strikes the Aramean army with blindness. It suggests not merely the inability to see but a disorienting confusion — they grope and exhaust themselves searching for the door but cannot find it.
Lot's Escape from Sodom (vv. 12–22)
12 Then the two men said to Lot, "Do you have anyone else here — a son-in-law, your sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, 13 because we are about to destroy this place. For the outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that He has sent us to destroy it." 14 So Lot went out and spoke to the sons-in-law who were pledged in marriage to 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 hurried Lot along, saying, "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 when Lot hesitated, the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters. And they led them safely out of the city, because of the LORD's compassion for them. 17 As soon as the men had brought them out, one of them said, "Run for your lives! Do not look back, and do not stop anywhere on the plain! Flee to the mountains, or you will be swept away!" 18 But Lot replied, "No, my lords, please! 19 Your servant has indeed found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness by sparing my life. But I cannot run to the mountains; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die. 20 Look, there is a town nearby where I can flee, and it is a small place. Please let me flee there — is it not a small place? — Then my life will be saved." 21 "Very well," he answered, "I will grant this request as well, and will not demolish the town you indicate. 22 Hurry! Run there quickly, for I cannot do anything until you reach it." That is why the town was called Zoar.
12 Then the men said to Lot, "Who else do you have here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city — bring them out of this place, 13 for we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it." 14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, "Get up! Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city." But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking. 15 As dawn broke, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city." 16 But he lingered. So the men seized him by the hand, and his wife by the hand, and his two daughters by the hand — the LORD being merciful to him — and they brought him out and set him outside the city. 17 And when they had brought them outside, he said, "Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stop anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be swept away!" 18 And Lot said to them, "Oh no, my lords, please! 19 Look, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown great kindness to me in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the mountains, lest the disaster overtake me and I die. 20 Look, that city is near enough to flee to, and it is a small one. Let me escape there — is it not a small one? — and my life will be saved." 21 He said to him, "Very well, I grant you this also: I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. 22 Hurry, escape there, for I can do nothing until you arrive there." Therefore the city was called Zoar.
Notes
צַעֲקָתָם ("their outcry") — The same word used in Genesis 18:20-21 when the LORD told Abraham He would investigate Sodom's outcry. The angels now confirm that the investigation is complete: the outcry is verified, and judgment is at hand.
כִמְצַחֵק ("as one joking") — A remarkable word choice. The root צחק is the same root from which Isaac's name will come (Genesis 21:3-6). Lot's sons-in-law interpret his warning as laughter — the same root that expressed Sarah's disbelief in Genesis 18:12. Throughout Genesis, the line between laughter and divine seriousness is razor-thin.
וַיִּתְמַהְמָהּ ("but he lingered/hesitated") — This hitpalpel verb form expresses repeated, drawn-out hesitation. Even with angels urging him and destruction imminent, Lot cannot bring himself to leave. Sodom has a hold on him. The verb captures the magnetic pull of a place one knows is wrong but has grown comfortable in.
בְּחֶמְלַת יְהוָה עָלָיו ("the LORD being merciful/compassionate to him") — The narrator pauses to explain why Lot is saved: not because of his own decisiveness (he is paralyzed), but because of God's compassion. The word חֶמְלָה ("compassion, mercy") suggests tender pity. And as Genesis 19:29 will make explicit, this compassion is connected to God's remembering Abraham.
הִמָּלֵט עַל נַפְשֶׁךָ ("Escape for your life!") — Literally "escape on/for your soul." The niphal imperative הִמָּלֵט is urgent. Three commands follow: don't look back, don't stop on the plain, flee to the mountains. Lot negotiates even this, asking to flee to a nearby small city instead. The city is named צוֹעַר, from צָעַר ("small, insignificant") — Lot twice emphasizes "is it not a small one?" and the name sticks.
The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (vv. 23–29)
23 And by the time the sun had risen over the land, Lot had reached Zoar. 24 Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah — from the LORD out of the heavens. 25 Thus He destroyed these cities and the entire plain, including all the inhabitants of the cities and everything that grew on the ground. 26 But Lot's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. 27 Early the next morning, Abraham got up and returned 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 the smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace. 29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham, and He brought Lot out of the catastrophe that destroyed the cities where he had lived.
23 The sun had risen over the land when Lot came to Zoar. 24 Then the LORD rained sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens. 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But his wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. 27 Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD. 28 And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the plain, and he looked, and behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace. 29 So it was that when God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.
Notes
וַיהוָה הִמְטִיר עַל סְדֹם וְעַל עֲמֹרָה גָּפְרִית וָאֵשׁ מֵאֵת יְהוָה מִן הַשָּׁמָיִם ("And the LORD rained sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens") — The unusual phrasing "the LORD...from the LORD" has generated much discussion. Some see two distinct divine figures (an early Trinitarian hint); others understand it as emphatic repetition common in Hebrew narrative, stressing that the destruction came directly from God. The combination of גָּפְרִית ("sulfur/brimstone") and אֵשׁ ("fire") became the archetypal image of divine judgment throughout Scripture (Deuteronomy 29:23, Isaiah 34:9, Revelation 19:20).
וַתַּבֵּט אִשְׁתּוֹ מֵאַחֲרָיו וַתְּהִי נְצִיב מֶלַח ("But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt") — The verb נָבַט (hiphil: "to look") suggests more than a casual glance — it implies gazing intently, looking with longing. She was told not to look back (v. 17), and her disobedience cost her life. Jesus uses her as a warning in Luke 17:32: "Remember Lot's wife." The נְצִיב מֶלַח ("pillar of salt") has been connected to the salt formations along the Dead Sea, where the cities of the plain are traditionally located.
וַיִּזְכֹּר אֱלֹהִים אֶת אַבְרָהָם ("God remembered Abraham") — This is the key theological statement of the chapter. Lot is not saved because of his own merit but because God "remembered Abraham." The same verb זָכַר ("to remember") was used for Noah in Genesis 8:1. Abraham's intercession in Genesis 18:22-33 did not find ten righteous in Sodom — but God still delivered the one righteous man present.
הַהֲפֵכָה ("the overthrow") — From the root הָפַךְ ("to turn over, overturn"). This became the standard term for Sodom's destruction throughout the Old Testament (see Deuteronomy 29:23, Isaiah 13:19, Jeremiah 49:18, Amos 4:11). The image is of the entire landscape being flipped upside down — total, irreversible devastation.
Lot and His Daughters (vv. 30–38)
30 Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains — for he was afraid to stay in Zoar — where they lived in a cave. 31 One day the older daughter said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to sleep with us, as is the custom over all the earth. 32 Come, let us get our father drunk with wine so we can sleep with him and preserve his line." 33 So that night they got their father drunk with wine, and the firstborn went in and slept with her father; he was not aware when she lay down or when she got up. 34 The next day the older daughter said to the younger, "Look, I slept with my father last night. Let us get him drunk with wine again tonight so you can go in and sleep with him and we can preserve our father's line." 35 So again that night they got their father drunk with wine, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him; he was not aware when she lay down or when she got up. 36 Thus both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father. 37 The older daughter gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites of today. 38 The younger daughter also gave birth to a son, and she named him Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites of today.
30 Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the mountains with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters. 31 And the firstborn said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to come in to us after the way of all the earth. 32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring from our father." 33 So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose. 34 The next day the firstborn said to the younger, "Look, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring from our father." 35 So they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. 36 Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. 37 The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38 The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day.
Notes
Lot's fear of remaining in Zoar — the very city he had begged to flee to — shows his psychological unraveling. He ends up in the mountains after all, exactly where the angels told him to go (v. 17). His journey has taken him from the gate of Sodom to a cave in the hills, a complete reversal of status and security.
The daughters' rationale — וְאִישׁ אֵין בָּאָרֶץ לָבוֹא עָלֵינוּ כְּדֶרֶךְ כָּל הָאָרֶץ ("there is no man in the land to come in to us after the way of all the earth") — may reflect a belief that the destruction was universal. Having witnessed the obliteration of the only civilization they knew, they may have assumed all humanity was gone. Alternatively, their isolation in the mountains simply left them with no prospects. The narrative presents their reasoning without endorsement; the echo of Sodom's moral corruption is hard to miss.
מוֹאָב — The name Moab sounds like the Hebrew מֵאָב ("from a father"), a transparent and unflattering etymology. בֶּן עַמִּי means "son of my people" or "son of my kinsman." These origin stories for Israel's neighbors the Moabites and Ammonites carry a polemical edge — tracing these nations to incestuous origins. Yet the narrative is more complex than simple mockery: Ruth, the great-grandmother of David, was a Moabitess (Ruth 1:4), and the Moabite line ultimately feeds into the lineage of the Messiah.
The repeated phrase "he did not know when she lay down or when she arose" (vv. 33, 35) uses the verb יָדַע ("to know") — the same verb the men of Sodom used in verse 5. The irony is sharp: the men of Sodom wanted to "know" the visitors; now Lot does not "know" what his own daughters are doing. The verb ties the chapter's beginning and end together in a grim thematic unity.