Genesis 13:13

13:13 (Now ¹  the people ²  of Sodom were extremely wicked rebels against the Lord.) ³ 

Genesis 19:24-25

19:24 Then the Lord rained down ⁴  sulfur and fire ⁵  on Sodom and Gomorrah. It was sent down from the sky by the Lord. ⁶  19:25 So he overthrew those cities and all that region, ⁷  including all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation that grew ⁸  from the ground.

Ezekiel 16:48-50

16:48 As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, your sister Sodom and her daughters never behaved as wickedly as you and your daughters have behaved.

16:49 “‘See here – this was the iniquity ⁹  of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters had majesty, abundance of food, and enjoyed carefree ease, but they did not help ¹⁰  the poor and needy. 16:50 They were haughty and practiced abominable deeds before me. Therefore when I saw it I removed them.

Jude 1:7

1:7 So also ¹¹  Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns, ¹²  since they indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire ¹³  in a way similar to ¹⁴  these angels, ¹⁵  are now displayed as an example by suffering the punishment of eternal fire.

Revelation 11:8

11:8 Their ¹⁶  corpses will lie in the street ¹⁷  of the great city that is symbolically ¹⁸  called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was also crucified.

[13:13]  ¹ tn Here is another significant parenthetical clause in the story, signaled by the vav (וו) disjunctive (translated “now”) on the noun at the beginning of the clause.

[13:13]  ² tn Heb “men.” However, this is generic in sense; it is unlikely that only the male residents of Sodom were sinners.

[13:13]  ³ tn Heb “wicked and sinners against the Lord exceedingly.” The description of the sinfulness of the Sodomites is very emphatic. First, two nouns are used to form a hendiadys: “wicked and sinners” means “wicked sinners,” the first word becoming adjectival. The text is saying these were no ordinary sinners; they were wicked sinners, the type that cause pain for others. Then to this phrase is added “against the Lord,” stressing their violation of the laws of heaven and their culpability. Finally, to this is added מְאֹד (mÿ’od, “exceedingly,” translated here as “extremely”).

[19:24]  ⁴ tn The disjunctive clause signals the beginning of the next scene and highlights God’s action.

[19:24]  ⁵ tn Or “burning sulfur” (the traditional “fire and brimstone”).

[19:24]  ⁶ tn Heb “from the Lord from the heavens.” The words “It was sent down” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[19:25]  ⁷ tn Or “and all the plain”; Heb “and all the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.

[19:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the vegetation of the ground.”

[16:49]  ⁹ tn Or “guilt.”

[16:49]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “strengthen the hand of.”

[1:7]  ¹¹ tn Grk “as.”

[1:7]  ¹² tn Grk “the towns [or cities] surrounding them.”

[1:7]  ¹³ tn Grk “strange flesh.” This phrase has been variously interpreted. It could refer to flesh of another species (such as angels lusting after human flesh). This would aptly describe the sin of the angels, but not easily explain the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. It could refer to the homosexual practices of the Sodomites, but a difficulty arises from the use of ἕτερος ({etero"; “strange,” “other”). When this is to be distinguished from ἄλλος (allos, “another”) it suggests “another of a different kind.” If so, would that properly describe homosexual behavior? In response, the language could easily be compact: “pursued flesh other than what was normally pursued.” However, would this find an analogy in the lust of angels (such would imply that angels normally had sexual relations of some sort, but cf. Matt 22:30)? Another alternative is that the focus of the parallel is on the activity of the surrounding cities and the activity of the angels. This is especially plausible since the participles ἐκπορνεύσασαι (ekporneusasai, “having indulged in sexual immorality”) and ἀπελθοῦσαι (apelqousai, “having pursued”) have concord with “cities” (πόλεις, poleis), a feminine plural noun, rather than with Sodom and Gomorrah (both masculine nouns). If so, then their sin would not necessarily have to be homosexuality. However, most likely the feminine participles are used because of constructio ad sensum (construction according to sense). That is, since both Sodom and Gomorrah are cities, the feminine is used to imply that all the cities are involved. The connection with angels thus seems to be somewhat loose: Both angels and Sodom and Gomorrah indulged in heinous sexual immorality. Thus, whether the false teachers indulge in homosexual activity is not the point; mere sexual immorality is enough to condemn them.

[1:7]  ¹⁴ tn Or “in the same way as.”

[1:7]  ¹⁵ tn “Angels” is not in the Greek text; but the masculine demonstrative pronoun most likely refers back to the angels of v. 6.

[11:8]  ¹⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[11:8]  ¹⁷ tn The Greek word πλατεῖα (plateia) refers to a major (broad) street (L&N 1.103).

[11:8]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “spiritually.”