Genesis 19

Two angels visit Sodom and find a city so violent and corrupt that even a righteous man like Lot is shaken by it. God rescues Lot and his daughters before He destroys the cities with fire. The chapter ends with Lot’s sad, shameful story in the hills, which gives rise to Moab and Ammon.

Genesis 19:1

The two angels who left Abraham now reach Sodom at evening. Lot sits in the city gate, where leaders met and business was done, so he had a place among Sodom’s people. He greets the strangers with deep respect, bowing to the ground.

BSA: bowed (“prostrated himself, worshiped”): Lot’s low bow shows great reverence and humility toward his guests.

Hebrew: שַׁעַר (shaʿar, H8179) — “gate.” The city gate was the place of public life, where elders settled disputes. Lot sitting there suggests he had settled into Sodom’s community.

See also: Hebrews 13:2.

Genesis 19:2

Lot offers a servant’s welcome: a roof, water for tired feet, and a bed. The visitors first refuse and say they will stay in the open square. Lot knows how dangerous Sodom’s streets are at night.

BSA: wash (“cleanse, purify”): Washing the feet was a basic act of welcome and care for travelers on dusty roads.

Hebrew: רְחוֹב (rechov, H7339) — “broad open place, public square.” The word means a wide open space in the city. Sleeping there would have left strangers exposed to whatever the night held.

Genesis 19:3

Lot presses them until they come in. He serves a hurried meal, with bread baked without yeast because it is quick to make. His urgency shows he knows what lies outside his door.

BSA: insisted (“urged them greatly, pressed upon them”): Lot would not take no for an answer, because he feared for his guests’ safety.

Genesis 19:4

Before bedtime the whole city, from young to old, surrounds the house. Not one man stands apart. The sin of Sodom is not a few bad people but a whole community given over to evil.

BSA: surrounded (“to turn, to encircle”): They closed in on every side, so the guests could not get away.

See also: Ezekiel 16:49-50.

Genesis 19:5

The crowd demands that Lot hand over his guests so they can abuse them sexually. Their purpose is lust joined with violence against strangers. This shows the depth of the city’s corruption, in cruelty and in sexual sin.

BSA: relations (“know them, be intimate”): Scripture often uses the word ‘know’ for sexual union, and here it is used for a violent, shameful demand.

Hebrew: נֵדְעָה (nēdʻāh, H3045) — “let us know.” The Hebrew simply says ’let us know them.’ The same verb is used for the closeness of husband and wife, which makes its twisted use here more shocking.

Genesis 19:6-7

Lot goes out alone and shuts the door behind him, to protect those inside. He calls the mob ‘brothers’ and names their plan plainly as wickedness. He speaks bravely, but his words carry little weight with them.

BSA: wicked (“evil, bad”): Lot calls the deed what it is, not an impulse or a custom but evil.

Genesis 19:8

Lot offers his own daughters instead. The text records this without praising it. It shows how seriously a host in that world guarded his guests, and how Sodom had clouded even Lot’s moral sense. It is a dark, troubling moment.

BSA: protection (“shadow, care”): A host’s roof was like a shadow of shelter over the guests, and he was bound to defend them.

Hebrew: צֵל (tsēl, H6738) — “shadow, shade.” Lot says the men have come ‘under the shadow of my roof.’ It is a picture of covering and shelter, the same picture the Psalms use for God’s own care.

See also: Judges 19:22-24.

Genesis 19:9

The mob rejects Lot with contempt. They resent a newcomer, a resident foreigner, who dares to call their behavior wrong. They threaten him with worse treatment and rush the door. Evil often hates the voice that names it.

BSA: judge (“ruler”): They sneer that Lot has no right to act as an authority over them. foreigner (“temporary resident, sojourner”): Lot lived among them but was never one of them, and they used that against him.

Genesis 19:10-11

The visitors show their true nature. They pull Lot to safety and strike the crowd with blindness. The men are so confused that they keep groping for a door they cannot find. Even then they do not give up their purpose.

BSA: blindness (“lack of sight”): The attackers were left helpless, unable to see what stood right in front of them.

Hebrew: סַנְוֵרִים (sanwērîm, H5575) — “sudden blindness, dazzling.” This is a rare word, used only here and in one other story of sudden blinding. It points to a swift, God-given confusion of sight.

Genesis 19:12-13

The angels now say why they have come. Sodom’s sin has cried out to God, and He has sent them to destroy it. Even so, mercy goes first: they tell Lot to bring out every family member he has.

BSA: outcry (“cry of distress, lamentation”): The suffering of the wronged rose up to God like a loud call for justice.

See also: Genesis 18:20-21.

Genesis 19:14

Lot warns the men engaged to his daughters, but they think he is joking. He has lived among them so long that his warning sounds like a laugh. A warning that is not believed cannot save anyone.

BSA: joking (“mocking, ridiculing”): They did not simply doubt him; they treated his warning as something to laugh at.

Hebrew: מְצַחֵק (metsacheq, H6711) — “laughing, jesting.” This is from the same root as Isaac’s name, ‘he laughs.’ Here the laughter is scorn, and it will soon be silenced.

Genesis 19:15-16

At dawn the angels press Lot to go, but he lingers. They take hold of the hands of Lot, his wife and daughters and lead them out. The rescue rests on God’s mercy, not on Lot’s readiness.

BSA: hesitated (“lingered, delayed”): Lot hung back, reluctant to leave his home even though judgment was near. compassion (“mercy, pity”): The rescue came from God’s tender pity, not from anything Lot had earned.

Hebrew: חֶמְלָה (chemlah, H2551) — “pity, sparing compassion.” This word describes the tender feeling that holds back harm. It names the reason Lot was saved.

See also: 2 Peter 2:6-8.

Genesis 19:17

Once outside, the command is urgent: escape, do not look back, do not stop, and head for the mountains. The call is to leave completely, with no longing for what is left behind.

BSA: Run for your lives (“escape for your soul, flee to safety”): The word for ‘soul’ reminds us that what is at stake is the whole person.

Hebrew: נַפְשֶׁךָ (nafshekha, H5315) — “your life, your soul.” The Hebrew says ’escape for your nefesh,’ meaning your whole living self, not only your body.

See also: Luke 17:32.

Genesis 19:18-20

Lot protests that the mountains are too far and asks to go to a small nearby town. He admits he has received kindness, yet he bargains with the rescuer. Even so, his plea shows a man who knows he cannot save himself.

BSA: favor (“graciousness, kindness”): Lot knows that his rescue is a gift of grace, not something he has earned. small (“little, insignificant”): He argues that such a tiny place can hardly matter, so it may be spared.

Genesis 19:21-23

The angel grants even this half-hearted request and spares the little town. It is named Zoar, meaning ‘small.’ Lot reaches it as the sun rises, and judgment waits until he is safe.

Hebrew: צֹעַר (tsoʿar, H6820) — “small, little.” The name recalls Lot’s own words, ‘a small place.’ It stood as a reminder of how God showed patience to a hesitant man.

Genesis 19:24-25

Fire and burning sulfur fall on Sodom and Gomorrah. The whole plain, its people and its plants, is wiped out. The wording stresses that this is the LORD’s own act, a just judgment, not simply a natural accident.

BSA: rained down (“sent pouring, caused to fall”): The fire fell like a downpour, a sudden and total judgment. sulfur (“brimstone, a highly flammable substance”): Burning sulfur pictures judgment that is fierce and impossible to put out.

Hebrew: גָּפְרִית (gofrit, H1614) — “sulfur, brimstone.” Throughout the Bible, burning sulfur stands as a sign of God’s judgment, and this is the first time it appears.

See also: Luke 17:28-29; 2 Peter 2:6.

Genesis 19:26

Lot’s wife looks back and becomes a pillar of salt. Her glance showed where her heart still was, in the city God was judging. Her short story stands as a lasting warning against longing for what God has condemned.

BSA: looked back (“to see what was happening”): Her look was more than curiosity; it showed her heart was still tied to Sodom.

Hebrew: נְצִיב (netsiv, H5333) — “pillar, standing post.” The word describes something that stands fixed in place. She who would not keep moving was left standing.

See also: Luke 17:32.

Genesis 19:27-28

Abraham returns to the spot where he had pleaded with the LORD. From there he looks over the plain and sees smoke rising like smoke from a furnace. His prayer on the heights meets the terrible silence of judgment below.

BSA: stood (“been standing, remained”): Abraham had stayed in the LORD’s presence to pray for the cities. furnace (“kiln, hot oven”): The smoke looked like that of a great kiln, thick and heavy.

See also: Genesis 18:22-33.

Genesis 19:29

The writer gives the deeper reason Lot was saved: God remembered Abraham. Lot was rescued because of Abraham’s prayer and God’s promises to him. In Scripture, God’s remembering is not forgetfulness ending; it means He acts on His word.

BSA: remembered (“recalled, kept in mind”): God kept Abraham in mind and acted for the good of Abraham’s family.

Hebrew: וַיִּזְכֹּר (vayizkor, H2142) — “and He remembered.” When God ‘remembers’ in Scripture, He steps in to help. It is the same word used when He remembered Noah in the ark.

See also: Genesis 8:1.

Genesis 19:30

Lot soon fears even Zoar, the town he begged for. He ends up living in a cave in the hills, the very place he had refused earlier. The man who once lived in a city gate is now a frightened man in a cave, and his choices have cost him dearly.

BSA: afraid (“to fear, to revere”): His fear drove him from the place he had said was safe, and the plain showed how little he trusted God’s promise.

Genesis 19:31-32

The daughters, shaped by Sodom and cut off from any husband, decide that their father is their only way to have children. Their plan is deceitful and wrong. It comes from fear and from the moral habits of the city they escaped.

BSA: line (“seed, offspring, descendants”): Their stated goal was to carry on the family through children.

Genesis 19:33-35

Two nights in a row they make their father drunk and lie with him. The text says plainly that he did not know what happened, but it is still a story of shame, drink and sin. Nothing here is held up as an example.

BSA: drunk (“intoxicated, in a state of stupor”): Lot was so dulled by wine that he was unaware of what was done.

See also: Proverbs 20:1.

Genesis 19:36-38

Both daughters conceive. Their sons, Moab and Ben-ammi, become the fathers of the Moabites and Ammonites, nations that later lived beside Israel. Their names remind the reader of the shameful origin. Yet God’s mercy later reaches even this line, as in Ruth the Moabite.

BSA: Ben-ammi (“son of my people, Ammi meaning my kinsman”): The name means ‘son of my people,’ and it marks him as one of the family, born from within it.

Hebrew: מוֹאָב (Moʼav, H4124) — “Moab, often read as ‘from father’.” The name is commonly understood as ‘from father,’ openly recording how the boy was conceived.

See also: Deuteronomy 2:9; Ruth 1:4; Matthew 1:5.