Genesis 19:17-26

17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”

18 But Lot said to them, “No, my lords,^[a] please!

19 Your^[b] servant has found favor in your^[c] eyes, and you^[d] have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die.

20 Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”

21 He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of.

22 But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar.^[e] )

23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land.

24 Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens.

25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land.

26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Genesis 19:17-26 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 19

The contents of this chapter are Lot's entertainment of two angels that came to Sodom, Ge 19:1-3; the rude behaviour of the men of Sodom towards them, who for it were smote with blindness, Ge 19:4-11; the deliverance of Lot, his wife and two daughters, by means of the angels he entertained, Ge 19:12-17; the sparing of the city of Zoar at the entreaty of Lot, to which he was allowed to flee, Ge 19:18-22; the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, Ge 19:23-25; Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt for looking back, Ge 19:26; Abraham's view of the conflagration of the cities, Ge 19:28,29; Lot's betaking himself to a mountain, and dwelling in a cave with his two daughters, by whom he had two sons, the one called Moab, and the other Benammi, Ge 19:30-38.

Cross References

• 1. 1 Kings 19:3; Jeremiah 48:6
• 2. ver 26
• 3. S Genesis 13:12
• 4. S ver 19; S Genesis 14:10; Matthew 24:16
• 5. S Genesis 6:8; S Genesis 18:3
• 6. Genesis 24:12; Genesis 39:21; Genesis 40:14; Genesis 47:29; Ruth 1:8; Ruth 2:20; Ruth 3:10
• 7. S ver 17,30
• 8. 1 Samuel 25:35; 2 Samuel 14:8; Job 42:9
• 9. S Genesis 13:10
• 10. S Genesis 13:10
• 11. Job 18:15; Psalms 11:6; Isaiah 30:33; Isaiah 34:9; Ezekiel 38:22
• 12. Deuteronomy 29:23; Isaiah 1:9; Isaiah 13:19; Jeremiah 49:18; Jeremiah 50:40; Amos 4:11
• 13. S Genesis 18:17; S Leviticus 10:2; S Matthew 10:15; Luke 17:29; 2 Peter 2:6; Jude 7
• 14. S ver 24; Ezekiel 26:16; Zephaniah 3:8; Haggai 2:22
• 15. S Genesis 13:12
• 16. Psalms 107:34; Isaiah 1:10; Jeremiah 20:16; Jeremiah 23:14; Lamentations 4:6; Ezekiel 16:48
• 17. S ver 17
• 18. Luke 17:32

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "No, Lord" ; or "No, my lord"
• [b]. The Hebrew is singular.
• [c]. The Hebrew is singular.
• [d]. The Hebrew is singular.
• [e]. "Zoar" means "small."