Genesis 19:17

19:17 When they had brought them outside, they ¹  said, “Run ²  for your lives! Don’t look ³  behind you or stop anywhere in the valley! ⁴  Escape to the mountains or you will be destroyed!”

Genesis 19:29

19:29 So when God destroyed ⁵  the cities of the region, ⁶  God honored ⁷  Abraham’s request. He removed Lot ⁸  from the midst of the destruction when he destroyed ⁹  the cities Lot had lived in.

[19:17]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “escape.”

[19:17]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Or “in the plain”; Heb “in the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.

[19:29]  ⁵ tn The construction is a temporal clause comprised of the temporal indicator, an infinitive construct with a preposition, and the subjective genitive.

[19:29]  ⁶ tn Or “of the plain”; Heb “of the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.

[19:29]  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.

[19:29]  ⁸ sn God’s removal of Lot before the judgment is paradigmatic. He typically delivers the godly before destroying their world.

[19:29]  ⁹ tn Heb “the overthrow when [he] overthrew.”