Genesis 19:7 - Printer Friendly

ESV: and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.

NIV: and said, 'No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing.

NASB: and said, 'Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly.

CSB: He said, "Don't do this evil, my brothers.

NLT: Please, my brothers,' he begged, 'don’t do such a wicked thing.

KJV: And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.

NKJV: and said, “Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly!

Lot is attempting to save two traveling strangers staying with him from a violent mob of men who have surrounded his house. These men—all the young and old men of Sodom—are intent on gang raping the visitors. Lot does not yet seem to know these two visitors are actually angels disguised as humans, nor that they have come to investigate Sodom's sins in preparation for God's judgment on the city. Still, the culture of the day demands that good men protect those to whom they have offered shelter. In fact, Lot's motive from the start seems to have been to protect these strangers.

Lot has gone out of his house to address the mob, closing the door behind him. He begins by calling them brothers, acknowledging his relationship with them as a leader of their town. He begs them not to do such a wicked thing, which removes all doubt about the meaning of the crowd's demand in verse 5.

Next he will offer them a terrible alternative.

Genesis 19:1–22 describes what happens following the Lord's assurance to Abraham that He will not destroy Sodom if He finds ten righteous people there. Despite such a low standard, Sodom fails the test. Every man in the city attempts to rape two of the Lord's angels who are in human form. The angels intervene, eventually removing Lot and his family from the city by force, and out of God's mercy. The angels instruct the family to run to the hills, but Lot asks if they can flee to the tiny town of Zoar instead. The angels allow this.

Two angels, disguised as men, visit Abraham's nephew, Lot, in the city of Sodom. After the men of Sodom attempt to rape the angels in Lot's home, the angels rescue Lot and his family, forcibly removing them from the city. Then God sends fire and sulfur from heaven. This destroys all of the land and people in and around the cities. As stated in earlier verses, this is the result of their great and ongoing wickedness. Lot's wife is turned to a pillar of salt when she disobeys the angels by looking back on the destruction. Lot and his daughters flee first to Zoar, then to a cave in the hills. There, Lot's confused and frightened daughters get him drunk, have sex with him, and each become pregnant.

In the previous chapter, Abraham had bargained with God on behalf of his nephew Lot and the people of Sodom. The Lord assured Abraham He would not destroy the cities if He found ten righteous people there. Chapter 19 immediately demonstrates no righteous people are to be found. Every man of Sodom attempts to attack two visitors, who are God's angels in human form. As the angels rescue Lot, God's judgment falls, utterly destroying everything in the area around Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot and his daughters end up in a cave in the hills, where the daughters scheme to conceive children by making their father drunk. This ends Lot's role in the story of Genesis, with future chapters focusing exclusively on the life and descendants of Abraham.

The book of Genesis establishes fundamental truths about God. Among these are His role as the Creator, His holiness, His hatred of sin, His love for mankind, and His willingness to provide for our redemption. We learn not only where mankind has come from, but why the world is in its present form. The book also presents the establishment of Israel, God's chosen people. Many of the principles given in other parts of Scripture depend on the basic ideas presented here in the book of Genesis. Within the framework of the Bible, Genesis explains the bare-bones history of the universe leading up to the captivity of Israel in Egypt, setting the stage for the book of Exodus.

Accessed 5/6/2024 8:19:32 PM