Discovery BoxGenesis 19:1 
Context19:1 The two angels came to Sodom in the evening while 1 Lot was sitting in the city’s gateway. 2 When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face toward the ground.
Genesis 19:28
Context19:28 He looked out toward 3 Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of that region. 4 As he did so, he saw the smoke rising up from the land like smoke from a furnace. 5
Genesis 24:65
Context24:65 and asked 6 Abraham’s servant, 7 “Who is that man walking in the field toward us?” “That is my master,” the servant replied. 8 So she took her veil and covered herself.
Genesis 31:18
Context31:18 He took 9 away all the livestock he had acquired in Paddan Aram and all his moveable property that he had accumulated. Then he set out toward the land of Canaan to return to his father Isaac. 10
1 tn The disjunctive clause is temporal here, indicating what Lot was doing at the time of their arrival.
2 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).
3 tn Heb “upon the face of.”
4 tn Or “all the land of the plain”; Heb “and all the face of the land of the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.
5 tn Heb “And he saw, and look, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.”
sn It is hard to imagine what was going on in Abraham’s mind, but this brief section in the narrative enables the reader to think about the human response to the judgment. Abraham had family in that area. He had rescued those people from the invasion. That was why he interceded. Yet he surely knew how wicked they were. That was why he got the number down to ten when he negotiated with God to save the city. But now he must have wondered, “What was the point?”
6 tn Heb “and she said to.”
7 tn Heb “the servant.” The word “Abraham’s” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
8 tn Heb “and the servant said.” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
9 tn Heb “drove,” but this is subject to misunderstanding in contemporary English.
10 tn Heb “and he led away all his cattle and all his moveable property which he acquired, the cattle he obtained, which he acquired in Paddan Aram to go to Isaac his father to the land of Canaan.”
