Genesis 19:18-28

18 Lot said to them, "Please, no, my lord!

19 Here, your servant has already found favor in your sight, and you have shown me even greater mercy by saving my life. But I can't escape to the hills, because I'm afraid the disaster will overtake me, and I will die.

20 Look, there's a town nearby to flee to, and it's a small one. Please let me escape there - isn't it just a small one? -and that way I will stay alive."

21 He replied, "All right, I agree to what you have asked. I won't overthrow the city of which you have spoken.

22 Hurry, and escape to that place, because I can't do anything until you arrive there." For this reason the city was named Tzo'ar [small].

23 By the time Lot had come to Tzo'ar, the sun had risen over the land.

24 Then ADONAI caused sulfur and fire to rain down upon S'dom and 'Amora from ADONAI out of the sky.

25 He overthrew those cities, the entire plain, all the inhabitants of the cities and everything growing in the ground.

26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a column of salt.

27 Avraham got up early in the morning, went to the place where he had stood before ADONAI,

28 and looked out toward S'dom and 'Amora, scanning the entire plain. There before him the smoke was rising from the land like smoke from a furnace!

Genesis 19:18-28 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.