Genesis 19:24-29

19:24 Then the Lord rained down ¹  sulfur and fire ²  on Sodom and Gomorrah. It was sent down from the sky by the Lord. ³  19:25 So he overthrew those cities and all that region, ⁴  including all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation that grew ⁵  from the ground. 19:26 But Lot’s ⁶  wife looked back longingly ⁷  and was turned into a pillar of salt.

19:27 Abraham got up early in the morning and went ⁸  to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 19:28 He looked out toward ⁹  Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of that region. ¹⁰  As he did so, he saw the smoke rising up from the land like smoke from a furnace. ¹¹ 

19:29 So when God destroyed ¹²  the cities of the region, ¹³  God honored ¹⁴  Abraham’s request. He removed Lot ¹⁵  from the midst of the destruction when he destroyed ¹⁶  the cities Lot had lived in.

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.

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

⁵ tn Heb “and the vegetation of the ground.”

⁶ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Lot) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ tn The Hebrew verb means “to look intently; to gaze” (see 15:5).

⁸ tn The words “and went” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁹ tn Heb “upon the face of.”

¹⁰ 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.

¹¹ tn Heb “And he saw, and look, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.”

¹² tn The construction is a temporal clause comprised of the temporal indicator, an infinitive construct with a preposition, and the subjective genitive.

¹³ tn Or “of the plain”; Heb “of the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.

¹⁴ 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.

¹⁵ sn God’s removal of Lot before the judgment is paradigmatic. He typically delivers the godly before destroying their world.

¹⁶ tn Heb “the overthrow when [he] overthrew.”