Genesis 19:23-29

The Destruction of Sodom

23 [After] the sun {had risen} upon the earth and Lot had entered Zoar,

24 Yahweh rained down from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Yahweh.

25 And he overthrew those cities and the whole plain, and the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation of the ground.

26 But his wife looked {back}, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 And Abraham arose early in the morning [and went] to the place where he had stood before Yahweh.

28 And he looked down upon the surface of Sodom and Gomorrah, and upon the whole surface of the land, the plain. And he saw that, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a smelting furnace.

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

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "had gone out"
• [b]. That is, Lot's
• [c]. Literally "behind him"
• [d]. Or "and"