19:1 The two angels came to Sodom in the evening while 3 Lot was sitting in the city’s gateway. 4 When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face toward the ground.
1 tn The clause introduced by vav (ו) consecutive is translated as a temporal clause subordinated to the following clause.
2 tn The deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) draws attention to the olive leaf. It invites readers to enter into the story, as it were, and look at the olive leaf with their own eyes.
3 tn The disjunctive clause is temporal here, indicating what Lot was doing at the time of their arrival.
4 tn Heb “sitting in the gate of Sodom.” The phrase “the gate of Sodom” has been translated “the city’s gateway” for stylistic reasons.
sn The expression sitting in the city’s gateway may mean that Lot was exercising some type of judicial function (see the use of the idiom in 2 Sam 19:8; Jer 26:10; 38:7; 39:3).