Dominic Bnonn Tennant (the B is silent)

Genesis 19

1

And the two angels came into Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom, and Lot saw, and ·he rose to meet them, and prostrated, nose to the land.

2

And he said, “Lo, pray, my lords, ‹turn aside›, pray, to the house of your servant, and overnight, and wash your feet, and ‹shoulder up› and go to your way.” And they said, “No, in that we shall overnight in the broad place.”

3

And he pressed on them very much, and they ‹turned aside› unto him, and ‹came into› his house, and he made for them a ‹drinking party›,1 and baked matzah,2 and they ate.

The men of Sodom attack the house

4

They had yet to lie down and the men of the city, the men of Sodom, went around against3 the house, from lad and unto old, all the people, from the ends,4

5

and they called unto Lot and ·they said to him, “Where are the men that ‹came in› unto thee this night? ‹Bring them forth› unto us, and we shall know them.”

6

And Lot ‹went forth› unto them at the opening, and the door ·he ‹shut up› after him,

7

and ·he said, “Do not, pray, my brothers, ‹do badness›.

8

Lo, pray, to me are two daughters that have not known a man. Let me ‹bring forth›, pray, them unto you, and work ·ye unto them as good in your eyes; only unto these men work not this thing, in that upon so they ‹came in› within the shadow of my beams.”5

9

And they said, “‹Draw near› yonder!”6 And they said, “This one ‹came in› to sojourn, and he judging judgeth! Now we shall do more bad with thee than with them!” And they pressed on the man, on Lot, very much, and ·they ‹drew near› to break the door.

The angels rescue Lot

10

And the men ‹sent forth› their hand and ‹brought in› Lot unto them to the house, and the door ·they ‹shut up›,

11

and the men that were at the opening of the house they smote with dazzlement,7 from littlest and unto biggest, and they tired8 themselves to find the opening.

12

And the men said unto Lot, “Whom still is to thee here? Thy son-in-law and sons, and thy daughters and all that is to thee in the city, ‹bring forth› from this place,

13

in that we, we are destroying this place, in that the outcry of them hath ‹become big› before the face of Yahweh, and Yahweh hath ‹sent us forth› to destroy it.”

14

And Lot ‹went forth› and spoke unto his sons-in-law who were taking his daughters, and said, “Rise, ‹come ye forth› from this place, in that Yahweh is destroying the city.” And he was as entertainment9 in the eyes of his sons-in-law.

15

And as the dawn ascended, and the angels ‹pressed in›10 with Lot, to say, “Rise, take thy woman and thy two daughters found here, lest thou be ‹swept away› in the wrongdoing of the city.”

16

And he dallied, and the men gripped onto his hand, and onto the hand of his woman, and onto the hand of his two daughters in the pity of Yahweh upon him, and they ‹brought him forth›, and ·they reposed him outside of the city,

17

and it was, as they ‹brought them forth› outside,11 and he said, “Escape upon thy lifebreath, and gaze12 not after thee, and stand not in all the plain; escape to the mountain lest thou be ‹swept away›.”

Footnotes

  1. drinking party (mishteh). See note on Jdg 14:10. ↩

  2. matzah. I.e., unleavened bread. I leave this untranslated as my sense is that multiculturalism has made it a well-recognized word. ↩

  3. against (’al). Lit. “upon.” ↩

  4. from the ends. I.e., from the ends of the town—everyone to the last man. ↩

  5. beams (qora). Not “roof,” gag; this word refers specifically to joists. Cf. e.g., 2 Ki 6:5; 2 Chron 3:7; Song 1:17. ↩

  6. draw near yonder. Or “draw near beyond.” This is an odd phrase, since the term “draw near” (nagash) is often used of approaching God for worship. It seems out of place here, and awkwardly constructed. It may simply be idiomatically equivalent to “stand back” (as most translations render it), but this is not obvious to me. ↩

  7. dazzlement (sanwrim). Not “blindness,” ’iuer; this perhaps derives from nir, “lamp.” It only appears here and 2 Ki 6:18, and clearly refers to a supernatural dazzling, as seems fitting given that angels often have the appearance of lightning. ↩

  8. tired (la’ah). The word refers most basically to laboring, but with the connotation of becoming either exhausted or impatient. ↩

  9. entertainment (tsachaq). Literally “as one entertaining,” or “as one laughing,” or perhaps “as one sporting,” however the sense is better preserved by nominalization here. ↩

  10. pressed in (utz). Not the same word as “pressed” in verse 9. It has a similar meaning, but with a connotation of haste or urgency. ↩

  11. brought them forth outside. The same phrase used in Gen 15:5. This allusion seems too obvious to be accidental; it is a recapitulation of God’s covenant devotion to Abraham. ↩

  12. gaze (navat). Trad. “look,” but this is too weak a word; the Hebrew indicates an ongoing, searching look. The head is Genesis 15:5: “Gaze, pray, at the heavens, and count the stars” (where, significantly, the same phrase translated “brought forth outside” is also used). There is no English word quite like what is required for looking with such concentration as to count or investigate. “Study” comes close but lacks the explicit sense of looking. “Gaze” is imperfect also, but at least gets the point across less ineffectively than “look.” ↩