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Lot Proceeds toward Sodom
Genesis 13:10–13 — Lot Proceeds toward Sodom. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
10And Lot looked out and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan, all the way to Zoar, was well watered like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
lō·wṭ ’eṯ- way·yiś·śā- ‘ê·nāw way·yar ’eṯ- kāl- kik·kar hay·yar·dên kî bō·’ă·ḵāh ṣō·‘ar maš·qeh ḵul·lāh kə·ḡan- Yah·weh kə·’e·reṣ miṣ·ra·yim lip̄·nê Yah·weh ’eṯ- ša·ḥêṯ sə·ḏōm wə·’eṯ- ‘ă·mō·rāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
"And-lifted-up Lot his-eyes and-saw all the-circle of-the-Jordan, that all-of-it was well-watered — before YHWH destroyed Sodom and-Gomorrah — like the-garden of-YHWH, like the-land of-Egypt, as-you-come toward Zoar."
Where the English smooths the original
Lot looked to the goodness of the land; therefore he doubted not that in such a fruitful soil he should certainly thrive. But what came of it? Those who, in choosing relations, callings, dwellings, or settlements, are guided and governed by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, or the pride of life, cannot expect God's presence or blessing.
And Lot lifted up his eyes . Circumspexit ; with a look of eager, lustful greed (cf. Genesis 3:6 ).The Latin gloss circumspexit ("he looked around") and the cross-link to Eve's gaze in Gen 3:6 set Lot's look in the register of covetous desire.
this whole country was well watered, "as the garden of Jehovah," the garden planted by Jehovah in paradise, and "as Egypt," the land rendered so fertile by the overflowing of the Nile
This word, Ciccar, literally means the circuit, or, as it is translated in St. Matthew 3:5 , “the region round about Jordan,”Ellicott names the Greek of Matthew 3:5 (perichōros) as the NT equivalent of the Hebrew kikkar.
11So Lot chose the whole plain of the Jordan for himself and set out toward the east. And Abram and Lot parted company.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
lō·wṭ ’êṯ way·yiḇ·ḥar- kāl- kik·kar hay·yar·dên lōw lō·wṭ way·yis·sa‘ miq·qe·ḏem way·yip·pā·rə·ḏū mê·‘al ’îš ’ā·ḥîw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
"And-chose for-himself Lot all the-circle of-the-Jordan, and-Lot journeyed eastward; and-they-parted, a-man from-his-brother."
Where the English smooths the original
Then Lot chose him all the plain—a choice excellent from a worldly point of view, but most inexpedient for his best interests. He seems, though a good man, to have been too much under the influence of a selfish and covetous spirit: and how many, alas! imperil the good of their souls for the prospect of worldly advantage.
This was done by God's providence, that only Abram and his seed might dwell in the land of Canaan.The Geneva marginal gloss (note h) reads the separation as divine providence securing Canaan for Abram's line.
Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan,.... Because of its good pasturage, and because of the plenty of water there; the want of both which was the inconvenience he had laboured under, and had occasioned the strife between his and Abram's servants
Lot journeyed east; Heb. from the east, or eastward, as the Hebrew particle min is sometimes used
12Abram lived in the land of Canaan, but Lot settled in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent toward Sodom.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’aḇ·rām yā·šaḇ bə·’e·reṣ- kə·nā·‘an wə·lō·wṭ yā·šaḇ bə·‘ā·rê hak·kik·kār way·ye·’ĕ·hal ‘aḏ- sə·ḏōm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
"Abram dwelt in-the-land of-Canaan, but-Lot dwelt in-the-cities of-the-circle, and-pitched-tent as-far-as Sodom."
Where the English smooths the original
Not as yet within their walls, but in their neighbourhood, and evidently with a longing “toward Sodom,” where, in Genesis 19, we find him sitting in the gate as a citizen, and with his tent changed to a house.
in contrast to his uncle, who remained a wanderer throughout its borders, sojourning as in a strange country ( Hebrews 11:9 ). And (with this purpose in contemplation), he pitched his tent toward ( i.e. in the direction of, and as far as to) Sodom .
and pitched his tent toward Sodom, or "even unto Sodom" (a); and it may be rendered, as it is by some, "he pitched his tents" (b), for himself, his family, and his servants, his shepherds and his herdsmen, which reached unto Sodom
13But the men of Sodom were wicked, sinning greatly against the LORD.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·’an·šê sə·ḏōm rā·‘îm wə·ḥaṭ·ṭā·’îm mə·’ōḏ Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
"And-the-men of-Sodom were wicked and-sinners against-YHWH exceedingly."
Where the English smooths the original
Sinners before the Lord exceedingly — That is, impudent and daring sinners, who despised and openly defied God. Alas for Lot! He has got into bad company, and will find the beauty and fertility of the country but a poor recompense for the daily grief their wickedness and reproaches will cause him!
Lot thinking to get paradise, found hell.The whole tragedy compressed to a single marginal line (note i).
before the Lord - literally, to Jehovah = before the face of Jehovah; ἐναντίον τοῦ θεοῦ (LXX.), vide Genesis 10:9; an aggravation of the wickedness of the Sodomites - exceedingly . Their vileness was restrained neither in quantity nor quality.
sinners against the Lord ] i.e. by immorality, not idolatry. Jehovah’s supremacy over the heathen world is here impliedCambridge specifies the charge — the Sodomites' sin was moral, not cultic — and reads the verse as quietly asserting Jehovah's lordship over the heathen. The note appears in Cambridge's combined comment carried at the 13:11 source page, where verses 11–17 are treated together.
which is here added as a secret reproof to Lot, who was either careless in his inquiry into the dispositions and manners of those among whom he intended to fix his abode, which for many reasons he should have searched out
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The unit turns on a verb of the eyes. Lot “lifted up his eyes” (way·yiś·śā ʻê·nāw) — the Hebrew names the organ, and the narrator means us to notice. The Pulpit Commentary catches the register exactly: it was a look “with a look of eager, lustful greed,” and it points us back, by the same verb, to Eve seeing that the tree was good for food (Genesis 3:6). Matthew Henry draws the moral straight from the eye: those “guided and governed by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, or the pride of life, cannot expect God's presence or blessing.” What Lot sees is a land “well watered everywhere,” doubly praised — “like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt.” Keil & Delitzsch read the first simile as Eden itself: “the garden planted by Jehovah in paradise.” But the narrator has already buried a verb of doom in the praise — ša·ḥêṯ, “destroyed,” the same root the Flood account uses for the ruin of all flesh. The plain looks like paradise on the very page that names it for fire.
Offered first choice by his uncle, Lot does not return it. He “chose him all the plain” — way·yiḇ·ḥar … lōw, chose for himself. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown weigh it justly: “a choice excellent from a worldly point of view, but most inexpedient for his best interests… too much under the influence of a selfish and covetous spirit.” Gill names the pull plainly — the plain’s “good pasturage” and “plenty of water.” Then Lot “journeyed east” — and the Hebrew preposition is debated: Poole notes it reads literally “from the east, or eastward.” Either way the direction is freighted. In Genesis, to move east is to move away from the garden, the way of Cain and of Babel (Genesis 3:24; 4:16; 11:2). The brothers part — ʼîš ʼāḥîw, “a man from his brother” — and the Geneva Bible reads providence in the rupture: “that only Abram and his seed might dwell in the land of Canaan.”
Now the same verb settles them both: Abram yāšaḇ in Canaan, Lot yāšaḇ in the cities of the Circle — identical act, divergent fate. The contrast the Pulpit Commentary frames it: Abram “remained a wanderer throughout its borders, sojourning as in a strange country (Hebrews 11:9),” while Lot sought a settled, walled life. The drift is measured by a rare verb: Lot “pitched his tent” — way·ye·ʼĕhal, a denominative “to tent” that occurs in only three verses in all of Scripture — “as far as Sodom” (ʻaḏ-sə·ḏōm). Ellicott traces the trajectory the verb implies: “evidently with a longing ‘toward Sodom,’ where, in Genesis 19, we find him sitting in the gate as a citizen, and with his tent changed to a house.” The same rare tent-verb describes Abram in v. 18 — but Abram tents by the oaks of Mamre and builds an altar; Lot tents toward Sodom.
The unit closes with the one thing Lot’s eyes never measured. The land was paradise; the people were hell. “The men of Sodom were wicked and sinners against the LORD exceedingly” — two adjectives, rāʻîm and ḥaṭṭāʼîm, crowned by mə·ʼōḏ. The Pulpit Commentary reads the phrase “before the Lord” as “before the face of Jehovah” — an aggravation, sin flaunted in God’s open sight. Poole hears the verse as “a secret reproof to Lot,” who never “searched out” the manners of those among whom he settled. Benson’s lament gathers the movement: “Alas for Lot! He has got into bad company, and will find the beauty and fertility of the country but a poor recompense.” And the Geneva Bible stamps the whole tragedy in one line: “Lot thinking to get paradise, found hell.”
Read under the rule that Scripture alone judges, this small narrative is a parable of seeing, and it is offered as a reading to be tested, not a verdict to be trusted. First: sight without the fear of God is blindness. Lot weighed everything the eye can weigh — water, pasture, beauty — and missed the one fact Scripture puts last and heaviest: “the men of Sodom were wicked… exceedingly.” The text deliberately withholds that verdict until v. 13, letting us choose with Lot before it shows us what he could not see. Second: the narrator sees what the actor cannot. The parenthesis of v. 10 — “before the LORD destroyed Sodom” — sets the whole choice under a future judgment already fixed. The Word knows the end of the plain before Lot reaches its gate; faith reads by that Word, not by the watered view. Third: nearness is not the same as residence — until it is. The slow grammar of the tent (toward… as far as… in the gate) is the anatomy of compromise: Lot never decides to live in Sodom; he simply keeps pitching closer. Fourth: God divides to preserve. The same separation that looks like Lot’s gain (v. 11) is the providence by which the land is kept for Abram’s seed (so the Geneva note) — and immediately after, the LORD enlarges Abram’s view (vv. 14–17). The man who let God choose for him was given more than the man who chose for himself.
Lot lifted up his eyes and saw everything but the men of Sodom — and the one thing he did not see was the only thing that mattered.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The geographic name kikkar (the “Circle” of the Jordan) and the doomed-city triad bind this unit to the catastrophe of Genesis 19. The same place-names — Sodom, Gomorrah, and the relatively rare Zoar (in only 9 verses) — recur down the chain: the well-watered Circle Lot chooses becomes the Circle God overthrows, and Zoar is the one corner spared for Lot’s escape (Genesis 19:23). The recurrence is the same narrative naming the same ground from choice to ruin to refuge — not one text quoting another.
Genesis 13:10 · Genesis 14:2 · Genesis 19:23 · Genesis 19:28
basis: Verifier-computed shared lexemes: H6820 Tsôʻar (9 vv) + H6017 ʻĂmôrâh (19 vv) + H5467 Çᵉdôm (38 vv) co-occur across Gen 13:10 and Gen 14:2; H3603 kikkâr + H6017 + H5467 across Gen 19:28. Although the Verifier mechanically promotes this to 'verbal' on Zoar's low frequency, EDITOR DOWNGRADE to structural/thematic: the shared words are recurring PROPER PLACE-NAMES inside one continuous narrative (Gen 13→14→19), which is narrative continuity, not a quotation of one text by another. Held at structural.
The denominative verb ʼāhal, “to tent” (H167) — built straight from ʼōhel, “tent” — occurs in only three verses in the entire Hebrew Bible, and two of them sit in this very chapter. In v. 12 Lot “pitches his tent as far as Sodom”; in v. 18 Abram “pitches his tent” by the oaks of Mamre and builds an altar to the LORD. Within Genesis 13 the rare verb is the narrator’s deliberate hinge: same act, opposite vectors — one tent leans toward the doomed city, the other rises beside an altar. The third occurrence, Isaiah 13:20, turns the same rare verb to judgment — in fallen Babylon “neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there”; the word is genuinely shared, but the register is desolation rather than the choice-of-dwelling motif of Genesis 13.
Genesis 13:12 · Genesis 13:18 · Isaiah 13:20
basis: Verifier-computed shared lexeme H167 ʼâhal — a RARE verb occurring in only 3 verses total (Gen 13:12, 13:18, Isa 13:20). Gen 13:12↔13:18 also share H87 ʼAbrâm and H3427 yâshab (yâshab is very common, 973 vv, and carries no weight). The verbal tier rests on the rarity of ʼâhal: a 3-verse verb shared within one chapter is a deliberate verbal echo. The Isaiah 13:20 leg is the same rare verb in a different sense (Babylon's desolation), so the verbal link is real there too but the thematic continuity is not.
The naming of Sodom and Gomorrah here is the seed of a refrain that runs through the Law and the Prophets: the twin cities become Scripture’s fixed byword for total, deserved overthrow. Moses’ Song calls apostate Israel’s vine “of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah” (Deuteronomy 32:32); Isaiah warns that but for a remnant Judah “should have been as Sodom” (Isaiah 1:9). The shared place-names are the recorded verbal thread.
Genesis 13:13 · Deuteronomy 32:32 · Isaiah 1:9 · Genesis 18:20
basis: Verifier-computed shared lexeme H5467 Çᵉdôm (in 38 vv), and with Gen 18:20 / Deut 32:32 also H6017 ʻĂmôrâh (in 19 vv). Çᵉdôm alone is moderately frequent (38 vv), so the link is tiered structural/thematic — a shared motif and proverb, not a unique quotation.
Lot “journeyed east” (qedem) toward a plain compared to Eden — yet in Genesis, eastward movement is the direction of exile from Eden. Adam is driven out and the cherubim are stationed “at the east of the garden” (Genesis 3:24); the builders of Babel migrate eastward (Genesis 11:2). Lot’s choice of an Eden-like plain by moving east is a quiet structural irony: he travels toward a counterfeit paradise along the very road that leads away from the true one.
Genesis 13:11 · Genesis 3:24 · Genesis 11:2
basis: Verifier-computed shared lexeme H6924 qedem (in 83 vv) across Gen 13:11, Gen 3:24, Gen 11:2; with Gen 11:2 also H5265 nâçaʻ (to journey/pull up). qedem is common (83 vv), so this is a motif-level structural link — the recurring 'eastward = away from Eden' pattern — not a quotation.
This unit plants Lot in the Circle that chapter 19 will burn — and the rescue that follows is credited not to Lot’s choosing but to Abraham’s intercession: “God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow” (Genesis 19:29). The thread runs from the choice (13:11–12) to the destruction (the kikkar overthrown, Lot’s name, and the verb shâchath, “to destroy,” first heard in 13:10) to the deliverance — Lot is saved through another’s righteousness, not his own sight.
Genesis 13:10 · Genesis 13:11 · Genesis 19:29
basis: Verifier-computed shared lexemes for Gen 19:29: H3603 kikkâr (in 55 vv) + H3876 Lôwṭ (in 30 vv) + H7843 shâchath (in 135 vv) — the verb shâchath of 'destroy' first appears in this unit at 13:10. All three are moderately/highly frequent, so the link is structural/thematic, tracing the narrative arc, not a quotation.
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
Christ Himself made the days of Lot a sign of His coming: “Likewise as it was in the days of Lot… in the day when the Son of Man is revealed” (Luke 17:28–30). Lot lifting up his eyes to a doomed paradise, eating and drinking, buying and selling on the edge of fire, becomes the Lord’s own picture of a world that sees everything but its judgment. Held honestly: this is a Greek-NT reading set over a Hebrew narrative — there is no shared Strong’s lexeme to anchor it (the Verifier returns no verbal link), so the connection is typological and structural, resting on Jesus’ explicit citation of the Lot account, not on word-overlap.
Genesis 13:10 · Genesis 13:13 · Luke 17:28–30
The New Testament looks back on this very settlement and calls Lot “righteous,” his soul “vexed” day by day among the Sodomites (2 Peter 2:7–9) — the same grief Benson foresaw in the commentary on v. 13. Peter draws the gospel point: “the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment.” The deliverance of Lot prefigures the salvation of the elect through Christ, who is Himself the righteous one who bore being vexed by sinners. Held honestly: a cross-Testament link (Hebrew↔Greek) with no shared lexeme — tiered typological/structural, grounded in the NT’s own use of the Lot story.
Genesis 13:12 · Genesis 13:13 · 2 Peter 2:7–9
The plain is twice called “the garden of the LORD” (gan-YHWH) — Eden recalled (so Keil & Delitzsch and the Geneva note, citing Genesis 2). But this Eden-double is on the eve of ruin: a paradise of water that becomes a sea of salt. Scripture’s hope is not a garden Lot can choose by sight but the garden God restores — “the LORD will comfort Zion… he will make her wilderness like Eden” (Isaiah 51:3) — consummated in the paradise of God with its river of life (Revelation 22:1–2), opened by the second Adam in whom the curse of Genesis 3 is undone. Held honestly: the Hebrew↔Hebrew tie to Isaiah 51:3 rests on the shared word gan (garden), but the line to Revelation is cross-Testament and figural — typological, not verbal.
Genesis 13:10 · Isaiah 51:3 · Revelation 22:1–2
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). The Hebrew is the Masoretic tradition; transliterations, parsings, literal renderings, and the divergence notes are this tool’s own work (⚙) — careful but fallible; check them against a lexicon (BDB, HALOT) and a grammar. The named voices are quoted verbatim from public-domain commentaries (Ellicott, Benson, Henry, Barnes, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Poole, Gill, Geneva Study Bible, Cambridge Bible, Pulpit Commentary, Keil & Delitzsch), each attributed in place. Note that the Matthew Henry, Barnes, JFB, and Keil & Delitzsch entries in the source set are block notes covering Genesis 13:10–13 as a whole rather than single verses; excerpts are pointed to the verse they best serve. The Cambridge note on v. 13 (“sinners against the Lord… by immorality, not idolatry”) is drawn from Cambridge’s combined comment, which the source carries on the 13:11 page where it treats vv. 11–17 together — hence its source_url.
On the cross-references: every badge carries the Verifier’s computed basis. Hebrew↔Hebrew links cite shared Strong’s lexemes; the tier rises to verbal / quotation — confirmed only where a RARE lexeme carries a deliberate echo — here, the tent-verb ʼāhal (H167, only 3 verses), shared within this single chapter. The place-name chain Sodom/Gomorrah/Zoar/kikkar, though it includes the relatively rare Zoar (H6820, 9 verses), is held at structural / thematic by editorial judgment: recurring proper place-names inside one continuous narrative (Genesis 13→14→19) are narrative continuity, not the quotation of one text by another, so we overrode the Verifier’s mechanical promotion of that thread to verbal. Links resting on the moderately common Sodom/Gomorrah/qedem/kikkar words are likewise held at structural / thematic. The three Christ-readings reach into the New Testament; because a Greek↔Hebrew pair shares no Strong’s number, none of them is called verbal — each is tiered typological/structural and rests on the NT’s own explicit use of the Lot narrative (Luke 17; 2 Peter 2), not on word-overlap. Nothing here is asserted beyond what the text and the index will bear. “Test all things; hold fast to what is good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21)
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)