Genesis 19:15-17

19:15 At dawn ¹  the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get going! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, ²  or else you will be destroyed when the city is judged!” ³  19:16 When Lot ⁴  hesitated, the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters because the Lord had compassion on them. ⁵  They led them away and placed them ⁶  outside the city. 19:17 When they had brought them outside, they ⁷  said, “Run ⁸  for your lives! Don’t look ⁹  behind you or stop anywhere in the valley! ¹⁰  Escape to the mountains or you will be destroyed!”

Genesis 19:22

19:22 Run there quickly, ¹¹  for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” (This incident explains why the town was called Zoar.) ¹² 

Genesis 19:26

19:26 But Lot’s ¹³  wife looked back longingly ¹⁴  and was turned into a pillar of salt.

¹ tn Heb “When dawn came up.”

² 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.

³ tn Or “with the iniquity [i.e., punishment] of the city” (cf. NASB, NRSV).

⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Lot) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tn Heb “in the compassion of the Lord to them.”

⁶ 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”).

⁷ 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.

⁸ tn Heb “escape.”

⁹ 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.

¹⁰ tn Or “in the plain”; Heb “in the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.

¹¹ tn Heb “Be quick! Escape to there!” The two imperatives form a verbal hendiadys, the first becoming adverbial.

¹² 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).

¹³ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Lot) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁴ tn The Hebrew verb means “to look intently; to gaze” (see 15:5).