Text -- Genesis 19:16-38 (NET)

19:16 When Lot hesitated, the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters because the Lord had compassion on them. They led them away and placed them outside the city. 19:17 When they had brought them outside, they said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look behind you or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape to the mountains or you will be destroyed!” 19:18 But Lot said to them, “No, please, Lord! 19:19 Your servant has found favor with you, and you have shown me great kindness by sparing my life. But I am not able to escape to the mountains because this disaster will overtake me and I’ll die. 19:20 Look, this town over here is close enough to escape to, and it’s just a little one. Let me go there. It’s just a little place, isn’t it? Then I’ll survive.” 19:21 “Very well,” he replied, “I will grant this request too and will not overthrow the town you mentioned. 19:22 Run there quickly, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” (This incident explains why the town was called Zoar.) 19:23 The sun had just risen over the land as Lot reached Zoar. 19:24 Then the Lord rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah. It was sent down from the sky by the Lord. 19:25 So he overthrew those cities and all that region, including all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation that grew from the ground. 19:26 But Lot’s wife looked back longingly and was turned into a pillar of salt. 19:27 Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 19:28 He looked out toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of that region. As he did so, he saw the smoke rising up from the land like smoke from a furnace. 19:29 So when God destroyed the cities of the region, God honored Abraham’s request. He removed Lot from the midst of the destruction when he destroyed the cities Lot had lived in. 19:30 Lot went up from Zoar with his two daughters and settled in the mountains because he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters. 19:31 Later the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man anywhere nearby to have sexual relations with us, according to the way of all the world. 19:32 Come, let’s make our father drunk with wine so we can have sexual relations with him and preserve our family line through our father.” 19:33 So that night they made their father drunk with wine, and the older daughter came and had sexual relations with her father. But he was not aware that she had sexual relations with him and then got up. 19:34 So in the morning the older daughter said to the younger, “Since I had sexual relations with my father last night, let’s make him drunk again tonight. Then you go and have sexual relations with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” 19:35 So they made their father drunk that night as well, and the younger one came and had sexual relations with him. But he was not aware that she had sexual relations with him and then got up. 19:36 In this way both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. 19:37 The older daughter gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the ancestor of the Moabites of today. 19:38 The younger daughter also gave birth to a son and named him Ben-Ammi. He is the ancestor of the Ammonites of today.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Gen 19:16

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Lot) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “in the compassion of the Lord to them.”

³ tn Heb “brought him out and placed him.” The third masculine singular suffixes refer specifically to Lot, though his wife and daughters accompanied him (see v. 17). For stylistic reasons these have been translated as plural pronouns (“them”).

NET Notes: Gen 19:17

¹ tn Or “one of them”; Heb “he.” Several ancient versions (LXX, Vulgate, Syriac) read the plural “they.” See also the note on “your” in v. 19.

² tn Heb “escape.”

³ tn The Hebrew verb translated “look” signifies an intense gaze, not a passing glance. This same verb is used later in v. 26 to describe Lot’s wife’s self-destructive look back at the city.

⁴ tn Or “in the plain”; Heb “in the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.

NET Notes: Gen 19:18

¹ tn Or “my lords.” See the following note on the problem of identifying the addressee here. The Hebrew term is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

NET Notes: Gen 19:19

¹ tn The second person pronominal suffixes are singular in this verse (note “your eyes,” “you have made great,” and “you have acted”). Verse 18a seems to indicate that Lot is addressing the angels, but the use of the singular and the appearance of the divine title “Lord” (אֲדֹנָי, ’adonay) in v. 18b suggests he is speaking to God.

² tn Heb “in your eyes.”

³ tn Heb “you made great your kindness.”

⁴ sn The Hebrew word חֶסֶד (khesed) can refer to “faithful love” or to “kindness,” depending on the context. The precise nuance here is uncertain.

⁵ tn The infinitive construct explains how God has shown Lot kindness.

⁶ tn Heb “lest.”

⁷ tn The Hebrew verb דָּבַק (davaq) normally means “to stick to, to cleave, to join.” Lot is afraid he cannot outrun the coming calamity.

⁸ tn The perfect verb form with vav consecutive carries the nuance of the imperfect verbal form before it.

NET Notes: Gen 19:20

¹ tn The Hebrew word עִיר (’ir) can refer to either a city or a town, depending on the size of the place. Given that this place was described by Lot later in this verse as a “little place,” the translation uses “town.”

² tn Heb “Look, this town is near to flee to there. And it is little.”

³ tn Heb “Let me escape to there.” The cohortative here expresses Lot’s request.

⁴ tn Heb “Is it not little?”

⁵ tn Heb “my soul will live.” After the cohortative the jussive with vav conjunctive here indicates purpose/result.

NET Notes: Gen 19:21

¹ tn Heb “And he said, ‘Look, I will grant.’” The order of the clauses has been rearranged for stylistic reasons. The referent of the speaker (“he”) is somewhat ambiguous: It could be taken as the angel to whom Lot has been speaking (so NLT; note the singular references in vv. 18-19), or it could be that Lot is speaking directly to the Lord here. Most English translations leave the referent of the pronoun unspecified and maintain the ambiguity.

² tn Heb “I have lifted up your face [i.e., shown you favor] also concerning this matter.”

³ tn The negated infinitive construct indicates either the consequence of God’s granting the request (“I have granted this request, so that I will not”) or the manner in which he will grant it (“I have granted your request by not destroying”).

NET Notes: Gen 19:22

¹ tn Heb “Be quick! Escape to there!” The two imperatives form a verbal hendiadys, the first becoming adverbial.

² tn Heb “Therefore the name of the city is called Zoar.” The name of the place, צוֹעַר (tso’ar) apparently means “Little Place,” in light of the wordplay with the term “little” (מִצְעָר, mits’ar) used twice by Lot to describe the town (v. 20).

NET Notes: Gen 19:23

¹ sn The sun had just risen. There was very little time for Lot to escape between dawn (v. 15) and sunrise (here).

² tn The juxtaposition of the two disjunctive clauses indicates synchronic action. The first action (the sun’s rising) occurred as the second (Lot’s entering Zoar) took place. The disjunctive clauses also signal closure for the preceding scene.

NET Notes: Gen 19:24

¹ tn The disjunctive clause signals the beginning of the next scene and highlights God’s action.

² tn Or “burning sulfur” (the traditional “fire and brimstone”).

³ tn Heb “from the Lord from the heavens.” The words “It was sent down” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

sn The text explicitly states that the sulfur and fire that fell on Sodom and Gomorrah was sent down from the sky by the Lord. What exactly this was, and how it happened, can only be left to intelligent speculation, but see J. P. Harland, “The Destruction of the Cities of the Plain,” BA 6 (1943): 41-54.

NET Notes: Gen 19:25

¹ tn Or “and all the plain”; Heb “and all the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.

² tn Heb “and the vegetation of the ground.”

NET Notes: Gen 19:26

¹ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Lot) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn The Hebrew verb means “to look intently; to gaze” (see 15:5).

sn Longingly. Lot’s wife apparently identified with the doomed city and thereby showed lack of respect for God’s provision of salvation. She, like her daughters later, had allowed her thinking to be influenced by the culture of Sodom.

NET Notes: Gen 19:27

¹ tn The words “and went” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

NET Notes: Gen 19:28

¹ tn Heb “upon the face of.”

² tn Or “all the land of the plain”; Heb “and all the face of the land of the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.

³ tn Heb “And he saw, and look, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.”

sn It is hard to imagine what was going on in Abraham’s mind, but this brief section in the narrative enables the reader to think about the human response to the judgment. Abraham had family in that area. He had rescued those people from the invasion. That was why he interceded. Yet he surely knew how wicked they were. That was why he got the number down to ten when he negotiated with God to save the city. But now he must have wondered, “What was the point?”

NET Notes: Gen 19:29

¹ tn The construction is a temporal clause comprised of the temporal indicator, an infinitive construct with a preposition, and the subjective genitive.

² tn Or “of the plain”; Heb “of the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.

³ tn Heb “remembered,” but this means more than mental recollection here. Abraham’s request (Gen 18:23-32) was that the Lord not destroy the righteous with the wicked. While the requisite minimum number of righteous people (ten, v. 32) needed for God to spare the cities was not found, God nevertheless rescued the righteous before destroying the wicked.

sn God showed Abraham special consideration because of the covenantal relationship he had established with the patriarch. Yet the reader knows that God delivered the “righteous” (Lot’s designation in 2 Pet 2:7) before destroying their world – which is what he will do again at the end of the age.

⁴ sn God’s removal of Lot before the judgment is paradigmatic. He typically delivers the godly before destroying their world.

⁵ tn Heb “the overthrow when [he] overthrew.”

NET Notes: Gen 19:31

¹ tn Heb “and the firstborn said.”

² tn Or perhaps “on earth,” in which case the statement would be hyperbolic; presumably there had been some men living in the town of Zoar to which Lot and his daughters had initially fled.

³ tn Heb “to enter upon us.” This is a euphemism for sexual relations.

NET Notes: Gen 19:32

¹ tn Heb “drink wine.”

² tn Heb “and we will lie down.” The cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive is subordinated to the preceding cohortative and indicates purpose/result.

³ tn Or “that we may preserve.” Here the cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates their ultimate goal.

⁴ tn Heb “and we will keep alive from our father descendants.”

sn For a discussion of the cultural background of the daughters’ desire to preserve our family line see F. C. Fensham, “The Obliteration of the Family as Motif in the Near Eastern Literature,” AION 10 (1969): 191-99.

NET Notes: Gen 19:33

¹ tn Heb “drink wine.”

² tn Heb “the firstborn.”

³ tn Heb “and the firstborn came and lied down with her father.” The expression “lied down with” here and in the following verses is a euphemism for sexual relations.

⁴ tn Heb “and he did not know when she lay down and when she arose.”

NET Notes: Gen 19:34

¹ tn Heb “the firstborn.”

² tn Heb “Look, I lied down with my father. Let’s make him drink wine again tonight.”

³ tn Heb “And go, lie down with him and we will keep alive from our father descendants.”

NET Notes: Gen 19:35

¹ tn Heb “drink wine.”

² tn Heb “lied down with him.”

³ tn Heb “And he did not know when she lied down and when she arose.”

NET Notes: Gen 19:37

¹ tn Heb “the firstborn.”

² sn The meaning of the name Moab is not certain. The name sounds like the Hebrew phrase “from our father” (מֵאָבִינוּ, me’avinu) which the daughters used twice (vv. 32, 34). This account is probably included in the narrative in order to portray the Moabites, who later became enemies of God’s people, in a negative light.

NET Notes: Gen 19:38

¹ sn The name Ben-Ammi means “son of my people.” Like the account of Moab’s birth, this story is probably included in the narrative to portray the Ammonites, another perennial enemy of Israel, in a negative light.