Genesis 19:17

17 There they spake to him, and said, Save thou thy life; do not thou behold behind thy back, neither stand thou in all the country(side) about, but make thee safe in the hill(s); lest also thou perish (al)together. (And they spoke to him there, and said, Save thou thy life; do not thou look behind thy back, nor stand thou in all the countryside about, but make thee safe in the hills; lest also thou altogether perish.)

Genesis 19:17 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 19:17

And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad,
&c.] Into the fields of Sodom, or the suburbs of it: that he said, escape for thy life;
not one of the two men or angels that had been with him all the night past, for they had now left him, and were gone back to the city: but Jehovah the Son of God, who had been communing with Abraham, and now came to Sodom, and appeared to Lot, just at the time the two angels left him, and bid him escape with all haste, if he had any regard for his life, and that of those with him: look not behind thee;
as showing any concern for his goods and substance he had left behind him, or for his sons-in-law, who refused to come with him, and much less for the wicked inhabitants of the city; and this command was not given to Lot only, but to his wife and daughters, as appears by the sequel: neither stay thou in all the plain:
in the plain of Jordan, for the whole plain, and the cities in it, were to be destroyed: escape to the mountain, lest thou be destroyed, lest thou be consumed;
the same mountain the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, and they that were with them after the battle of the kings, fled to, ( Genesis 14:10 ) ; here only he and his could be safe from the conflagration of the plain.

Genesis 19:17 In-Context

15 And when the morrowtide was (made), the angels constrained Lot, and said, Rise thou (up), and take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which thou hast, lest also thou perish (al)together in the sin of the city (lest also thou altogether perish amidst the sin of this city).
16 While he dissembled, they took his hand, and the hand of his wife, and of his two daughters; for the Lord spared him. And they led out him, and set him without the city. (And while he hesitated, they took his hand, and the hand of his wife, and the hands of his two daughters; for the Lord had spared him. And they led them away, and brought them outside the city.)
17 There they spake to him, and said, Save thou thy life; do not thou behold behind thy back, neither stand thou in all the country(side) about, but make thee safe in the hill(s); lest also thou perish (al)together. (And they spoke to him there, and said, Save thou thy life; do not thou look behind thy back, nor stand thou in all the countryside about, but make thee safe in the hills; lest also thou altogether perish.)
18 And Lot said to them, My Lord (My lords), I beseech,
19 for thy servant hath found grace before thee, and thou hast magnified thy grace and mercy, which thou hast done to me, (so) that thou shouldest save my life, (I am most grateful); (but) I may not be saved in the hill(s), lest peradventure evil (over)take me, and I die (but I cannot be saved in the hills, for before that I can get there, the destruction shall surely overtake me, and I shall die);
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.