Genesis 19:23-29

God Destroys Sodom

23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

24 Then ¹the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven.

25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

26 But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became ²a pillar of salt.

27 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had ³stood before the LORD.

28 And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.

29 So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God ⁴remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.

Genesis 19:23-29 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. Deuteronomy 29:23; Jeremiah 20:16; Jeremiah 50:40; Lamentations 4:6; Amos 4:11; Zephaniah 2:9; Luke 17:29; 2 Peter 2:6
• 2. Luke 17:32
• 3. Genesis 18:22
• 4. See Genesis 8:1