Genesis 18:28

18:28 what if there are five less than the fifty godly people? Will you destroy ¹  the whole city because five are lacking?” ²  He replied, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”

Genesis 19:15

19:15 At dawn ³  the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get going! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, ⁴  or else you will be destroyed when the city is judged!” ⁵ 

Genesis 19:29

19:29 So when God destroyed ⁶  the cities of the region, ⁷  God honored ⁸  Abraham’s request. He removed Lot ⁹  from the midst of the destruction when he destroyed ¹⁰  the cities Lot had lived in.

¹ tn The Hebrew verb שָׁחַת (shakhat, “to destroy”) was used earlier to describe the effect of the flood.

² tn Heb “because of five.”

³ tn Heb “When dawn came up.”

⁴ tn Heb “who are found.” The wording might imply he had other daughters living in the city, but the text does not explicitly state this.

⁵ tn Or “with the iniquity [i.e., punishment] of the city” (cf. NASB, NRSV).

⁵ tn The construction is a temporal clause comprised of the temporal indicator, an infinitive construct with a preposition, and the subjective genitive.

⁶ tn Or “of the plain”; Heb “of the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.

⁷ 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.

⁸ sn God’s removal of Lot before the judgment is paradigmatic. He typically delivers the godly before destroying their world.

⁹ tn Heb “the overthrow when [he] overthrew.”