Genesis 14:17

14:17 After Abram ¹  returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet Abram ²  in the Valley of Shaveh (known as the King’s Valley). ³ 

Genesis 14:3

14:3 These last five kings ⁴  joined forces ⁵  in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea). ⁶ 

Genesis 26:17

26:17 So Isaac left there and settled in the Gerar Valley. ⁷ 

Genesis 26:19

26:19 When Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and discovered a well with fresh flowing ⁸  water there,

Genesis 14:8

14:8 Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) went out and prepared for battle. In the Valley of Siddim they met ⁹ 

Genesis 14:10

14:10 Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits. ¹⁰  When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell into them, ¹¹  but some survivors ¹²  fled to the hills. ¹³ 

Genesis 37:14

37:14 So Jacob ¹⁴  said to him, “Go now and check on ¹⁵  the welfare ¹⁶  of your brothers and of the flocks, and bring me word.” So Jacob ¹⁷  sent him from the valley of Hebron.

Genesis 13:11

13:11 Lot chose for himself the whole region of the Jordan and traveled ¹⁸  toward the east.

So the relatives separated from each other. ¹⁹ 

Genesis 19:25

19:25 So he overthrew those cities and all that region, ²⁰  including all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation that grew ²¹  from the ground.

Genesis 19:17

19:17 When they had brought them outside, they ²²  said, “Run ²³  for your lives! Don’t look ²⁴  behind you or stop anywhere in the valley! ²⁵  Escape to the mountains or you will be destroyed!”

Genesis 13:12

13:12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, but Lot settled among the cities of the Jordan plain ²⁶  and pitched his tents next to Sodom.

Genesis 19:28

19:28 He looked out toward ²⁷  Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of that region. ²⁸  As he did so, he saw the smoke rising up from the land like smoke from a furnace. ²⁹ 

Genesis 13:10

13:10 Lot looked up and saw ³⁰  the whole region ³¹  of the Jordan. He noticed ³²  that all of it was well-watered (before the Lord obliterated ³³  Sodom and Gomorrah) ³⁴  like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, ³⁵  all the way to Zoar.

Genesis 19:29

19:29 So when God destroyed ³⁶  the cities of the region, ³⁷  God honored ³⁸  Abraham’s request. He removed Lot ³⁹  from the midst of the destruction when he destroyed ⁴⁰  the cities Lot had lived in.

Genesis 11:2

11:2 When the people ⁴¹  moved eastward, ⁴²  they found a plain in Shinar ⁴³  and settled there.

Genesis 35:8

35:8 (Deborah, ⁴⁴  Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel; thus it was named ⁴⁵  Oak of Weeping.) ⁴⁶ 

[14:17]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:17]  ² tn Heb “him”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:17]  ³ sn The King’s Valley is possibly a reference to what came to be known later as the Kidron Valley.

[14:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “all these,” referring only to the last five kings named. The referent has been specified as “these last five kings” in the translation for clarity.

[14:3]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew verb used here means “to join together; to unite; to be allied.” It stresses close associations, especially of friendships, marriages, or treaties.

[14:3]  ⁶ sn The Salt Sea is the older name for the Dead Sea.

[26:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he camped in the valley of Gerar and he lived there.”

[26:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “living.” This expression refers to a well supplied by subterranean streams (see Song 4:15).

[14:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “against.”

[14:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Now the Valley of Siddim [was] pits, pits of tar.” This parenthetical disjunctive clause emphasizes the abundance of tar pits in the area through repetition of the noun “pits.”

[14:10]  ¹⁷ tn Or “they were defeated there.” After a verb of motion the Hebrew particle שָׁם (sham) with the directional heh (שָׁמָּה, shammah) can mean “into it, therein” (BDB 1027 s.v. שָׁם).

[14:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the rest.”

[14:10]  ¹⁹ sn The reference to the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah must mean the kings along with their armies. Most of them were defeated in the valley, but some of them escaped to the hills.

[37:14]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[37:14]  ²⁰ tn Heb “see.”

[37:14]  ²¹ tn Heb “peace.”

[37:14]  ²² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:11]  ²² tn Heb “Lot traveled.” The proper name has not been repeated in the translation at this point for stylistic reasons.

[13:11]  ²³ tn Heb “a man from upon his brother.”

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

[19:25]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and the vegetation of the ground.”

[19:17]  ²⁸ 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.

[19:17]  ²⁹ tn Heb “escape.”

[19:17]  ³⁰ 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.

[19:17]  ³¹ tn Or “in the plain”; Heb “in the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.

[13:12]  ³¹ tn Or “the cities of the plain”; Heb “[the cities of] the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.

[19:28]  ³⁴ tn Heb “upon the face of.”

[19:28]  ³⁵ 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.

[19:28]  ³⁶ tn Heb “And he saw, and look, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.”

[13:10]  ³⁷ tn Heb “lifted up his eyes and saw.” The expression draws attention to the act of looking, indicating that Lot took a good look. It also calls attention to the importance of what was seen.

[13:10]  ³⁸ tn Or “plain”; Heb “circle.”

[13:10]  ³⁹ tn The words “he noticed” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[13:10]  ⁴⁰ sn Obliterated. The use of the term “destroy” (שַׁחֵת, shakhet) is reminiscent of the Noahic flood (Gen 6:13). Both at the flood and in Sodom the place was obliterated by catastrophe and only one family survived (see C. Westermann, Genesis, 2:178).

[13:10]  ⁴¹ tn This short temporal clause (preposition + Piel infinitive construct + subjective genitive + direct object) is strategically placed in the middle of the lavish descriptions to sound an ominous note. The entire clause is parenthetical in nature. Most English translations place the clause at the end of v. 10 for stylistic reasons.

[13:10]  ⁴² sn The narrative places emphasis on what Lot saw so that the reader can appreciate how it aroused his desire for the best land. It makes allusion to the garden of the Lord and to the land of Egypt for comparison. Just as the tree in the garden of Eden had awakened Eve’s desire, so the fertile valley attracted Lot. And just as certain memories of Egypt would cause the Israelites to want to turn back and abandon the trek to the promised land, so Lot headed for the good life.

[19:29]  ⁴⁰ tn The construction is a temporal clause comprised of the temporal indicator, an infinitive construct with a preposition, and the subjective genitive.

[19:29]  ⁴¹ tn Or “of the plain”; Heb “of the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.

[19:29]  ⁴² 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.

[19:29]  ⁴³ sn God’s removal of Lot before the judgment is paradigmatic. He typically delivers the godly before destroying their world.

[19:29]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “the overthrow when [he] overthrew.”

[11:2]  ⁴³ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:2]  ⁴⁴ tn Or perhaps “from the east” (NRSV) or “in the east.”

[11:2]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “in the land of Shinar.”

[35:8]  ⁴⁶ sn Deborah. This woman had been Rebekah’s nurse, but later attached herself to Jacob. She must have been about one hundred and eighty years old when she died.

[35:8]  ⁴⁷ tn “and he called its name.” There is no expressed subject, so the verb can be translated as passive.

[35:8]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “Allon Bacuth,” if one transliterates the Hebrew name (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV). An oak tree was revered in the ancient world and often designated as a shrine or landmark. This one was named for the weeping (mourning) occasioned by the death of Deborah.