# Genesis 19 đź“–: The Destruction of Sodom
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> [!info] Table of Contents
> [[#đź“ś Scripture Text (NET)]]
> [[#đź“– Verse-by-Verse Commentary]]
> [[#🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights]]
> [[#🧠Chapter Summary]]
> [[#✝️ Christ in This Chapter]]
> [[#🔎 Key Observations / 🛟 Life Application]]
> [[#đź’¬ Discussion Questions]]
> [[#✍️ Key Verses to Remember]]
> [[#đź”— Related Passages]]
> [[#🙏 Devotional Reflection]]
> [[#đź“‚ Internal Notes]]
## đź“ś Scripture Text (NET)
#### The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
[[#Verse 01.]] The two angels came to Sodom in the evening while Lot was sitting in the city’s gateway. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face toward the ground.
[[#Verse 02.]] He said, “Here, my lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house. Stay the night and wash your feet. Then you can be on your way early in the morning.”“No,” they replied, “we’ll spend the night in the town square.”
[[#Verse 03.]] But he urged them persistently, so they turned aside with him and entered his house. He prepared a feast for them, including bread baked without yeast, and they ate.Â
[[#Verse 04.]] Before they could lie down to sleep, all the men—both young and old, from every part of the city of Sodom—surrounded the house.Â
[[#Verse 05.]] They shouted to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so we can take carnal knowledge of them!”
[[#Verse 06.]]Â Lot went outside to them, shutting the door behind him.Â
[[#Verse 07.]] He said, “No, my brothers! Don’t act so wickedly!Â
[[#Verse 08.]] Look, I have two daughters who have never been intimate with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do to them whatever you please. Only don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”
[[#Verse 09.]] “Out of our way!” they cried, “This man came to live here as a foreigner, and now he dares to judge us! We’ll do more harm to you than to them!” They kept pressing in on Lot until they were close enough to break down the door.
[[#Verse 10.]] So the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house as they shut the door.Â
[[#Verse 11.]] Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, from the youngest to the oldest, with blindness. The men outside wore themselves out trying to find the door.Â
[[#Verse 12.]] Then the two visitors said to Lot, “Who else do you have here? Do you have any sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or other relatives in the city? Get them out of this placeÂ
[[#Verse 13.]] because we are about to destroy it. The outcry against this place is so great before the Lord that he has sent us to destroy it.”
[[#Verse 14.]] Then Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who were going to marry his daughters. He said, “Quick, get out of this place because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was ridiculing them.
[[#Verse 15.]] At dawn the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get going! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or else you will be destroyed when the city is judged!”
[[#Verse 16.]] When Lot hesitated, the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters because the Lord had compassion on them. They led them away and placed them outside the city.Â
[[#Verse 17.]] When they had brought them outside, they said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look behind you or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape to the mountains or you will be destroyed!”
[[#Verse 18.]] But Lot said to them, “No, please, Lord!Â
[[#Verse 19.]] Your servant has found favor with you, and you have shown me great kindness by sparing my life. But I am not able to escape to the mountains because this disaster will overtake me and I’ll die.Â
[[#Verse 20.]] Look, this town over here is close enough to escape to, and it’s just a little one. Let me go there. It’s just a little place, isn’t it? Then I’ll survive.”
[[#Verse 21.]] “Very well,” he replied, “I will grant this request too and will not overthrow the town you mentioned.Â
[[#Verse 22.]] Run there quickly, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” (This incident explains why the town was called Zoar.)
[[#Verse 23.]] The sun had just risen over the land as Lot reached Zoar.Â
[[#Verse 24.]] Then the Lord rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah. It was sent down from the sky by the Lord.Â
[[#Verse 25.]]Â So he overthrew those cities and all that region, including all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation that grew from the ground.Â
[[#Verse 26.]] But Lot’s wife looked back longingly and was turned into a pillar of salt.
[[#Verse 27.]] Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord.Â
[[#Verse 28.]] He looked out toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of that region. As he did so, he saw the smoke rising up from the land like smoke from a furnace.
[[#Verse 29.]] So when God destroyed the cities of the region, God honored Abraham’s request. He removed Lot from the midst of the destruction when he destroyed the cities Lot had lived in.
[[#Verse 30.]]Â Lot went up from Zoar with his two daughters and settled in the mountains because he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters.Â
[[#Verse 31.]] Later the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man in the country to sleep with us, the way everyone does.Â
[[#Verse 32.]] Come, let’s make our father drunk with wine so we can go to bed with him and preserve our family line through our father.”
[[#Verse 33.]] So that night they made their father drunk with wine, and the older daughter came in and went to bed with her father. But he was not aware of when she lay down with him or when she got up.
[[#Verse 34.]] So in the morning the older daughter said to the younger, “Since I went to bed with my father last night, let’s make him drunk again tonight. Then you go in and go to bed with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.”Â
[[#Verse 35.]] So they made their father drunk that night as well, and the younger one came and went to bed with him. But he was not aware of when she lay down with him or when she got up.
[[#Verse 36.]] In this way both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father.Â
[[#Verse 37.]] The older daughter gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the ancestor of the Moabites of today.Â
[[#Verse 38.]] The younger daughter also gave birth to a son and named him Ben Ammi. He is the ancestor of the Ammonites of today.
## đź“– Verse-by-Verse Commentary
###### Overall.
###### Verse 01.
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###### Verse 10.
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###### Verse 15.
###### Verse 16.
###### Verse 17.
###### Verse 18.
###### Verse 19.
###### Verse 20.
###### Verse 21.
###### Verse 22.
###### Verse 23.
###### Verse 24.
###### Verse 25.
###### Verse 26.
- The verse may be a mistranslation of the Hebrew word "malach" which means vanish. "Melach" is the Hebrew word for salt (similar because salt vanishes in water), but the Hebrew language did not use vowels at the time and so the context of the verse could have been lost. With other uses of "malach" throughout the Bible it seems more reasonable to assume that "salt" is a mistranslation here. ([Lot's Wife: L. Steven Cheairs, Ph.D](https://www.free-ebooks.net/ebook/Lot-s-Wife/html/2)) (Not necessarily true. Interesting thought.)
- this is better—> [Pillar of Salt: Is It Real? - Faith & Science Conversation - The BioLogos Forum](https://discourse.biologos.org/t/pillar-of-salt-is-it-real/40815)
- Super heated water tsunami from the Dead Sea.
###### Verse 27.
###### Verse 28.
###### Verse 29.
###### Verse 30.
###### Verse 31.
###### Verse 32.
###### Verse 33.
###### Verse 34.
###### Verse 35.
###### Verse 36.
## 🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights
1. Lot was sitting in the city gate (19:1), the place of leaders and judges, showing how settled he had become in Sodom.
2. Ezekiel 16:49 describes Sodom's sins as pride, excess, and neglect of the poor, alongside the evil described here.
3. The angels struck the men at the door with blindness (19:11).
4. Lot's sons-in-law thought he was joking (19:14).
5. Zoar means "small," because Lot called it a small city (19:20-22).
6. The area around the southern Dead Sea has natural deposits of sulfur and bitumen.
7. Abraham saw the smoke rising like a furnace from near Hebron (19:28).
8. The Moabites and Ammonites descended from Lot's daughters (19:37-38).
9. Peter calls Lot "righteous" and says he was distressed by what he saw (2 Peter 2:7-8).
10. Jesus uses Sodom's sudden destruction as a warning about His return (Luke 17:28-32).
## 🧠Chapter Summary
> [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way.
## ✝️ Christ in This Chapter
Christ is our rescuer from the coming judgment. The angels took Lot by the hand because the Lord had compassion on him (19:16), and Jesus rescues us from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:10).
## 🔎 Key Observations / 🛟 Life Application
> [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way.
## đź’¬ Discussion Questions
1. Lot hesitated even as judgment was coming (19:16). Why do we sometimes linger near what God tells us to leave?
2. Jesus said, "Remember Lot's wife" (Luke 17:32). What does looking back represent in the Christian life?
3. Lot's sons-in-law thought he was joking (19:14). What does that teach about the cost of compromise on our influence?
## ✍️ Key Verses to Remember
- đź“– verse 16: Because the Lord had compassion on Lot, the angels lead him out.
- đź“– verse 26: Lot's wife looks back and becomes a pillar of salt.
- đź“– verse 29: God remembered Abraham and rescued Lot.
## đź”— Related Passages
- đź”— [[Luke 17#Verse 28.|Luke 17:28-32]] - Remember Lot's wife.
- đź”— [[2 Peter 02#Verse 06.|2 Peter 2:6-9]] - God rescues the godly from trials.
- đź”— [[Jude 01#Verse 07.|Jude 7]] - Sodom as an example of judgment.
- đź”— [[Ezekiel 16#Verse 49.|Ezekiel 16:49-50]] - The sins of Sodom.
- đź”— [[Deuteronomy 23#Verse 03.|Deuteronomy 23:3]] - Moabites and Ammonites excluded from the assembly.
## 🙏 Devotional Reflection
đź“ť SOAP: [[Genesis 19- SOAP|The Amazing Mercy of God]]
## đź“‚ Internal Notes