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Green's Literal Translation
Genesis 19:25
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He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.
And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
And he overthrew those cities and the whole plain, and the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation of the ground.
and destroyed those cities. He also destroyed the whole Jordan Valley, everyone living in the cities, and even all the plants.
So he overthrew those cities and all that region, including all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation that grew from the ground.
and He overthrew (demolished, ended) those cities, and the entire valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and whatever grew on the ground.
and He overthrew those cities, and all the surrounding area, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
And ouerthrewe those cities and all the plaine, and all the inhabitants of the cities; and that that grewe vpon the earth.
and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
He destroyed those cities and everyone who lived in them, as well as their land and the trees and grass that grew there.
He overthrew those cities, the entire plain, all the inhabitants of the cities and everything growing in the ground.
and overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew upon the ground.
He destroyed the whole valley—all the cities, the people living in the cities, and all the plants in the valley.
And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
And he overthrew those cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the region and that which grew on the ground.
and destroyed them and the whole valley, along with all the people there and everything that grew on the land.
He demolished these cities, the entire plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and whatever grew on the ground.
and ouerthrew those cities, the whole region, and all that dwelt in the cities, and that that grew vpon the earth.
and he overthrew those cities, and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
And he sent destruction on those towns, with all the lowland and all the people of those towns and every green thing in the land.
And ouerthrewe those cities, and all that plaine region, and all that dwelled in the cities, and that that grewe vpon the earth.
and He overthrow those cities, and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
And he ouerthrew those cities, and all the plaine, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew vpon the ground.
And he overthrew these cities, and all the country round about, and all that dwelt in the cities, and the plants springing out of the ground.
and he overthrew those cities, and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
Thus He destroyed these cities and the entire plain, including all the inhabitants of the cities and everything that grew on the ground.
and distriede these citees, and al the cuntrey aboute; he destriede alle enhabiters of citees, and all grene thingis of erthe.
and He overthroweth these cities, and all the circuit, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which is shooting up from the ground.
And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.
So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
He utterly destroyed them, along with the other cities and villages of the plain, wiping out all the people and every bit of vegetation.
He destroyed those cities, and all the valley, and all the people of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
and he overthrew those cities, and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
so he overthrew these cities, and all the circuit, - and all the inhabitants of the cities, and the produce of the ground.
And he destroyed these cities, and all the country about, all the inhabitants of the cities, and all things that spring from the earth.
and he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
and he overthrew those cities, and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.
and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Genesis 13:10, Genesis 14:3, Psalms 107:34
Reciprocal: Genesis 10:19 - Sodom Deuteronomy 29:23 - like the Joshua 12:3 - the sea Joshua 18:19 - the salt Job 36:14 - unclean Jeremiah 20:16 - as Jeremiah 49:18 - in the Jeremiah 50:40 - General Lamentations 4:6 - the punishment Ezekiel 16:46 - thy younger sister Hosea 11:8 - Admah Amos 4:11 - as God Zephaniah 2:9 - as Gomorrah Matthew 11:23 - in Sodom Romans 5:14 - death Romans 9:29 - we had been 2 Peter 2:6 - turning
Cross-References
And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the circuit of Jordan, that it was well-watered before Jehovah destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even like the garden of Jehovah, like the land of Egypt as you come to Zoar.
All these were joined together to the valley of Siddim, which is the Salt Sea.
a fruitful land to a salty desert; because of the wickedness of those who live in it.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
And he overthrew those cities,.... Of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim: very probably at the same time that this fiery tempest was in the heavens, there was an earthquake which overthrew the cities; and so Strabo h makes the lake, which is now the place where they stood, to be owing to earthquakes and eruptions of fire, and of hot bituminous and sulphurous waters; and says nothing of fire from heaven, which yet Tacitus and Solinus do, being unacquainted with the sacred history:
and all the plain; the plain of Jordan, and the cities on it, all but Zoar; not all the five cities, as Josephus i: Egesippus k and other authors mistake, only the four above mentioned. Strabo l speaks of thirteen cities being formerly upon this spot, of which Sodom was the metropolis:
and all the inhabitants of the cities; none were spared, all were destroyed, but Lot, his wife, and two daughters:
and that which grew upon the ground; the trees, herbs, and plants; these were all turned up by the earthquake, and burnt with fire from heaven: Tacitus, in his account of this conflagration, says,
"the fields, which were formerly fruitful, and inhabited by many cities, were burnt up with lightning; and there are traces (he adds) yet remain; the earth itself looks torrid, and has lost its fruitful virtue; for whatsoever grows up of itself, or is sown and rises up in the plant or flower, or grows up to its usual species, becomes black and empty, and vanishes into ashes.''
The place where those cities stood is now a lake, and is sometimes called the salt sea, Genesis 14:3; and sometimes the dead sea, because it is said, no creature can live in it; and sometimes called the Lake Asphaltites, from its bituminous and pitchy quality: though Reland o has attempted to confute the notion that the cities of Sodom, c. stood where this lake now is: and the many things that have been reported of this lake and parts adjacent, by various historians, supposed to be of good credit, are by modern travellers exploded p as those of no living creature being bred in it; of bodies not sinking in it; and of birds being unable to fly over it; and of the cities appearing under water in a clear day; and of the apples of Sodom, which look beautiful to the eye, but when touched fall into ashes; many of which Josephus q himself relates: indeed, Ludovicus Vartomanus r, a traveller in those parts in the beginning of the sixteenth century, says,
"there yet remain the ruins of the destroyed city, as a witness of God's wrath; we may affirm, there are three cities, and each of them situated on the decline of three hills, and the ruins appear about the height of three or four cubits; there is yet seen, I scarce know what, something like blood, or rather like red wax mixed with earth:''
and our countryman Mr. Sandys s, though he questions some of the above things before related, especially concerning the apples, yet says,
"not far from thence grows a tree whose fruit is like a green walnut, which he saw, and which they say never ripens.''
This lake of Sodom, according to Josephus t, is five hundred and eighty furlongs in length unto Zoar, and one hundred fifty broad; but, according to modern accounts, it is twenty four leagues in length, and six or seven in breadth u; the Arabic geographer w says, it is sixty miles in length, and twelve in breadth; it is now called by the Arabs, Bahar Louth, Lot's lake.
h Geograph. l. 16. p. 526. i De Bello Jud. l. 4. c. 8. sect. 4. k De excidio urb. l. 4. c. 18. l Ut supra. (Geograph. l. 16. p. 526.) o Palestina illustrata, tom. 1. l. 1. c. 38. p. 254, &c. p Vid. Universal History, vol. 2. p. 421, &c. See Egmont and Heyman's Travels, vol. 1. p. 341. q De Bello Jud. l. 4. c. 8. sect. 4. r Navigat. l. 1. c. 10. s Travels, l. 3. p. 110, 111. Ed. 5. t Ut supra. (De Bello Jud. l. 4. c. 8. sect. 4.) u Universal History, ib. p. 424. See Egmont, &c. ib, p. 342. w Scherif Ibn Idris, apud Reland. ib. p. 249.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
- The Destruction of Sodom and Amorah
9. גשׁ־<הלאה gesh-hāl'âh, “approach to a distant point,” stand back.
11. סנורים sanevērı̂ym, “blindness,” affecting the mental more than the ocular vision.
37. מואב mô'āb, Moab; מאב mē'āb, “from a father.” בן־עמי ben-‛amı̂y, Ben-‘ammi, “son of my people.” עמון ‛amôn, ‘Ammon, “of the people.”
This chapter is the continuation and conclusion of the former. It records a part of God’s strange work - strange, because it consists in punishment, and because it is foreign to the covenant of grace. Yet it is closely connected with Abraham’s history, inasmuch as it is a signal chastisement of wickedness in his neighborhood, a memorial of the righteous judgment of God to all his posterity, and at the same time a remarkable answer to the spirit, if not to the letter, of his intercessory prayer. His kinsman Lot, the only righteous man in Sodom, with his wife and two daughters, is delivered from destruction in accordance with his earnest appeal on behalf of the righteous.
Genesis 19:1-3
The two angels. - These are the two men who left Abraham standing before the Lord Genesis 18:22. “Lot sat in the gate,” the place of public resort for news and for business. He courteously rises to meet them, does obeisance to them, and invites them to spend the night in his house. “Nay, but in the street will we lodge.” This is the disposition of those who come to inquire, and, it may be, to condemn and to punish. They are twice in this chapter called angels, being sent to perform a delegated duty. This term, however, defines their office, not their nature. Lot, in the first instance, calls them “my lords,” which is a term of respect that may be addressed to men Genesis 31:35. He afterward styled one of them Adonai, with the special vowel pointing which limits it to the Supreme Being. He at the same time calls himself his servant, appeals to his grace and mercy, and ascribes to him his deliverance. The person thus addressed replies, in a tone of independence and authority, “I have accepted thee.” “I will not overthrow this city for which thou hast spoken.” “I cannot do anything until thou go thither.” All these circumstances point to a divine personage, and are not so easily explained of a mere delegate. He is pre-eminently the Saviour, as he who communed with Abraham was the hearer of prayer. And he who hears prayer and saves life, appears also as the executor of his purpose in the overthrow of Sodom and the other cities of the vale. It is remarkable that only two of the three who appeared to Abraham are called angels. Of the persons in the divine essence two might be the angels or deputies of the primary in the discharge of the divine purpose. These three men, then, either immediately represent, or, if created angels, mediately shadow forth persons in the Godhead. Their number indicates that the persons in the divine unity are three.
Lot seems to have recognized something extraordinary in their appearance, for he made a lowly obeisance to them. The Sodomites heed not the strangers. Lot’s invitation; at first declined, is at length accepted, because Lot is approved of God as righteous, and excepted from the doom of the city.
Genesis 19:4-11
The wicked violence of the citizens displays itself. They compass the house, and demand the men for the vilest ends. How familiar Lot had become with vice, when any necessity whatever could induce him to offer his daughters to the lust of these Sodomites! We may suppose it was spoken rashly, in the heat of the moment, and with the expectation that he would not be taken at his word. So it turned out. “Stand back.” This seems to be a menace to frighten Lot out of the way of their perverse will. It is probable, indeed, that he and his family would not have been so long safe in this wicked place, had he not been the occasion of a great deliverance to the whole city when they were carried away by the four kings. The threat is followed by a taunt, when the sorely vexed host hesitated to give up the strangers. “He will needs be a judge.” It is evident Lot had been in the habit of remonstrating with them. From threats and taunts they soon proceed to violence. His guests now interfere. They rescue Lot, and smite the rioters with blindness, or a wandering of the senses, so that they cannot find the door. This ebullition of the vilest passion seals the doom of the city.
Genesis 19:12-23
The visitors now take steps for the deliverance of Lot and his kindred before the destruction of the cities. All that are related to him are included in the offer of deliverance. There is a blessing in being connected with the righteous, if men will but avail themselves of it. Lot seems bewildered by the contemptuous refusal of his connections to leave the place. His early choice and his growing habits have attached him to the place, notwithstanding its temptations. His married daughters, or at least the intended husbands of the two who were at home (“who are here”), are to be left behind. But though these thoughts make him linger, the mercy of the Lord prevails. The angels use a little violence to hasten their escape. The mountain was preserved by its elevation from the flood of rain, sulphur, and fire which descended on the low ground on which the cities were built. Lot begs for a small town to which he may retreat, as he shrinks from the perils of a mountain dwelling, and his request is mercifully granted.
Genesis 19:24-26
Then follows the overthrow of the cities. “The Lord rained brimstone and fire from the Lord from the skies.” Here the Lord is represented as present in the skies, whence the storm of desolation comes, and on the earth where it falls. The dale of Siddim, in which the cities were, appears to have abounded in asphalt and other combustible materials Genesis 14:10. The district was liable to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions from the earliest to the latest times. We read of an earthquake in the days of king Uzziah Amos 1:1. An earthquake in 1759 destroyed many thousands of persons in the valley of Baalbec. Josephus (De Bell. Jud. iii. 10, 7) reports that the Salt Sea sends up in many places black masses of asphalt, which are not unlike headless bulls in shape and size. After an earthquake in 1834, masses of asphalt were thrown up from the bottom, and in 1837 a similar cause was attended with similar effects.
The lake lies in the lowest part of the valley of the Jordan, and its surface is about thirteen hundred feet below the level of the sea. In such a hollow, exposed to the burning rays of an unclouded sun, its waters evaporate as much as it receives by the influx of the Jordan. Its present area is about forty-five miles by eight miles. A peninsula pushes into it from the east called the Lisan, or tongue, the north point of which is about twenty miles from the south end of the lake. North of this point the depth is from forty to two hundred and eighteen fathoms. This southern part of the lake seems to have been the original dale of Siddim, in which were the cities of the vale. The remarkable salt hills lying on the south of the lake are still called Khashm Usdum (Sodom). A tremendous storm, accompanied with flashes of lightning, and torrents of rain, impregnated with sulphur, descended upon the doomed cities.
From the injunction to Lot to “flee to the mountain,” as well as from the nature of the soil, we may infer that at the same time with the awful conflagration there was a subsidence of the ground, so that the waters of the upper and original lake flowed in upon the former fertile and populous dale, and formed the shallow southern part of the present Salt Sea. In this pool of melting asphalt and sweltering, seething waters, the cities seem to have sunk forever, and left behind them no vestiges of their existence. Lot’s wife lingering behind her husband, and looking back, contrary to the express command of the Lord, is caught in the sweeping tempest, and becomes a pillar of salt: so narrow was the escape of Lot. The dashing spray of the salt sulphurous rain seems to have suffocated her, and then encrusted her whole body. She may have burned to a cinder in the furious conflagration. She is a memorable example of the indignation and wrath that overtakes the halting and the backsliding.
Genesis 19:27-29
Abraham rises early on the following morning, to see what had become of the city for which he had interceded so earnestly, and views from afar the scene of smoking desolation. Remembering Abraham, who was Lot’s uncle, and had him probably in mind in his importunate pleading, God delivered Lot from this awful overthrow. The Eternal is here designated by the name Elohim, the Everlasting, because in the war of elements in which the cities were overwhelmed, the eternal potencies of his nature were signally displayed.
Genesis 19:30-38
The descendants of Lot. Bewildered by the narrowness of his escape, and the awful death of his wife, Lot seems to have left Zoar, and taken to the mountain west of the Salt Sea, in terror of impending ruin. It is not improbable that all the inhabitants of Zoar, panic-struck, may have fled from the region of danger, and dispersed themselves for a time through the adjacent mountains. He was now far from the habitations of people, with his two daughters as his only companions. The manners of Sodom here obtrude themselves upon our view. Lot’s daughters might seem to have been led to this unnatural project, first, because they thought the human race extinct with the exception of themselves, in which case their conduct may have seemed a work of justifiable necessity; and next, because the degrees of kindred within which it was unlawful to marry had not been determined by an express law. But they must have seen some of the inhabitants of Zoar after the destruction of the cities; and carnal intercourse between parent and offspring must have been always repugnant to nature. “Unto this day.” This phrase indicates a variable period, from a few years to a few centuries: a few years; not more than seven, as Joshua 22:3; part of a lifetime, as Numbers 22:30; Joshua 6:25; Genesis 48:15; and some centuries, as Exodus 10:6. This passage may therefore have been written by one much earlier than Moses. Moab afterward occupied the district south of the Arnon, and east of the Salt Sea. Ammon dwelt to the northeast of Moab, where they had a capital called Rabbah. They both ultimately merged into the more general class of the Arabs, as a second Palgite element.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Genesis 19:25. And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain — This forms what is called the lake Asphaltites, Dead Sea, or Salt Sea, which, according to the most authentic accounts, is about seventy miles in length, and eighteen in breadth.
The most strange and incredible tales are told by many of the ancients, and by many of the moderns, concerning the place where these cities stood. Common fame says that the waters of this sea are so thick that a stone will not sink in them, so tough and clammy that the most boisterous wind cannot ruffle them, so deadly that no fish can live in them, and that if a bird happen to fly over the lake, it is killed by the poisonous effluvia proceeding from the waters; that scarcely any verdure can grow near the place, and that in the vicinity where there are any trees they bear a most beautiful fruit, but when you come to open it you find nothing but ashes! and that the place was burning long after the apostles' times. These and all similar tales may be safely pronounced great exaggerations of facts, or fictions of ignorant, stupid, and superstitious monks, or impositions of unprincipled travellers, who, knowing that the common people are delighted with the marvellous, have stuffed their narratives with such accounts merely to procure a better sale for their books.
The truth is, the waters are exceedingly salt, far beyond the usual saltness of the sea, and hence it is called the Salt Sea. In consequence of this circumstance bodies will float in it that would sink in common salt water, and probably it is on this account that few fish can live in it. But the monks of St. Saba affirmed to Dr. Shaw, that they had seen fish caught in it; and as to the reports of any noxious quality in the air, or in the evaporations from its surface, the simple fact is, lumps of bitumen often rise from the bottom to its surface, and exhale a foetid odour which does not appear to have any thing poisonous in it. Dr. Pococke swam in it for nearly a quarter of an hour, and felt no kind of inconvenience; the water, he says, is very clear, and having brought away a bottle of it, he "had it analyzed, and found it to contain no substances besides salt and a little alum."
As there are frequent eruptions of a bituminous matter from the bottom of this lake, which seem to argue a subterraneous fire, hence the accounts that this place was burning even after the days of the apostles. And this phenomenon still continues, for "masses of bitumen," says Dr. Shaw, "in large hemispheres, are raised at certain times from the bottom, which, as soon as they touch the surface, and are thereby acted upon by the external air, burst at once, with great smoke and noise, like the pulvis fulminans of the chemists, and disperse themselves in a thousand pieces. But this only happens near the shore, for in greater depths the eruptions are supposed to discover themselves in such columns of smoke as are now and then observed to arise from the lake. And perhaps to such eruptions as these we may attribute that variety of pits and hollows, not unlike the traces of many of our ancient limekilns, which are found in the neighbourhood of this lake. The bitumen is in all probability accompanied from the bottom with sulphur, as both of them are found promiscuously upon the shore, and the latter is precisely the same with common native sulphur; the other is friable, yielding upon friction, or by being put into the fire, a foetid smell." The bitumen, after having been some time exposed to the air, becomes indurated like a stone. I have some portions of it before me, brought by a friend of mine from the spot; it is very black, hard, and on friction yields a foetid odour.
For several curious particulars on this subject, see Dr. Pococke's Travels, vol. ii., part 1, chap. 9, and Dr. Shaw's Travels, 4to. edit., p. 346, &c.
