Genesis 19:11

The scene opens on the evening the two angels reach Sodom. Lot was sitting in the gate, the place where a city gathered for business and for judgment, and he urged the strangers to spend the night in his house (Genesis 19:1–3). The LORD had told Abraham, “the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous,” and that he would go down and see (Genesis 18:20–21). Before the household can even lie down, the city gives its answer.

Verse 4 names the crowd with care: “the men of the city, even the men of Sodom”. The whole city was at Lot’s door, “both old and young, all the people from every quarter”. The word for old, zâqên, is used of aged men and of the elders, the very people who ought to have held the rest in check. The word for young, naʻar, covers a boy from infancy to youth. The wickedness ran through every age and every part of the town, and the older men were passing it down to the boys beside them. They “compassed the house round”, from çâbab, to turn about or surround, so that Lot and his guests were hemmed in on every side.

Then they call to Lot: “Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.” The guests are called ʼĕnôwsh, the ordinary Hebrew word for men, for the angels came looking like any other travellers. “Bring them out” uses yâtsâʼ, to go or come out, and here to bring someone out. The mob wants the strangers handed over into the street.

The verb yâdaʻ, “know”, is the common word for knowing in every sense, and used of a man and a woman it means sexual union, as in “Adam knew Eve his wife” (Genesis 4:1). Here the meaning is plain from everything that follows. Lot calls the demand wickedness, offers in its place daughters “which have not known man”, and the men threaten worse when he refuses. The men of Sodom were demanding to rape Lot’s guests together, men upon men, and the polite word hides nothing from anyone who hears it.

In Lot’s day, taking in a traveller was a sacred duty. A host owed his guests shelter and protection, at his own risk if need be, and to harm a guest under someone’s roof was among the worst of wrongs. That is why Lot pleads, “therefore came they under the shadow of my roof” (verse 8). Once the strangers were under his roof, he was bound to keep them safe.

The chapter before shows the duty well kept, when Abraham welcomes the LORD’s visitors and serves them (Genesis 18:1–8). Sodom turns it upside down. A single household takes the strangers in, and the whole city comes to seize them. The letter to the Hebrews looks back to these welcomes when it says, “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2).

Lot “went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him”. The verb is yâtsâʼ again, the same verb the mob used when they told him to bring his guests out. They wanted the guests out, and Lot came out himself. The word for door here, pethach, means an opening, doorway or entrance, the threshold between his house and the street. To shut, çâgar, is to shut or close. With the door shut, the crowd is kept from those inside, and Lot stands alone among them with his retreat cut off. He puts himself between the mob and his guests at real risk to his own life, and that much of what he does is brave.

Then he speaks: “I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.” The verb “said”, ʼâmar, is the everyday word for saying, and the weight lies in Lot’s words. He calls the men brethren, ʼâch, the word for a brother, used for kin and widely for those who share a bond of any kind. Lot was a newcomer living among them, and he appeals to whatever neighbourliness and decency remain in them. He also names their purpose for what it is. The verb râʻaʻ means to be bad or to do evil, and Strong’s ties it to the picture of spoiling a thing by breaking it to pieces. Their plan would violate the guests, trample the duty owed to strangers and defy God, and Lot calls it wickedness to their faces.

Then Lot does a dreadful thing. “Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes.” The word for daughters, bath, is the feminine of the word for son, and Strong’s derives it from bânâh, to build. “Have not known man” uses yâdaʻ, the same verb the mob used in verse 5, so Lot answers their demand in its own terms and offers his girls to be violated in place of his guests. “As is good in your eyes” uses ṭôwb, the broad word for what is good, pleasant or right. What was good in the eyes of these men was evil in the sight of God, and Lot was ready to hand his daughters over to their pleasure.

His reason comes at the end: “only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.” He holds to the duty of a host so tightly that he would give up his own children to keep it.

The crowd answers Lot’s plea with “Stand back” and then with scorn: “This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge”. To sojourn, gûwr, is to turn aside from the road for lodging, to stay somewhere as a guest. To the men of Sodom, Lot was an incomer with no rights among them. To judge, shâphaṭ, is to pronounce sentence for or against someone, and so to rule. They heard “do not so wickedly” as a verdict passed on them by a foreigner, and they resented it. Their hatred of the outsider was joined to a contempt for any restraint at all, and they accused a sojourner of playing judge on the very night God’s messengers had come to see their deeds.

Their threat grows worse: “now will we deal worse with thee, than with them.” The men who came for the guests now mean to do even greater harm to their host. “They pressed sore upon the man, even Lot”, from pâtsar, to press or urge, pushing hard against him, “and came near to break the door”. The door was the last thing standing between the mob and those inside.

“But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door.” These men are the two angels who came to Sodom that evening (Genesis 19:1–3), and they are called ʼĕnôwsh, the same word used of them in verse 5. The mob had called for these men to be brought out, and now these men reach out and bring Lot in. The word for hand, yâd, is used very widely in Scripture for a person’s power and action, and here it is a real hand taking hold of Lot. The verb behind “pulled ... into” is bôwʼ, to come or go, here in the sense of bringing Lot inside.

Then they “shut to the door”, with çâgar, the same verb as verse 6. Lot shut the door to protect his guests, and now his guests shut it to protect him. God was guarding his servant through his messengers, as the psalm says, “he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways” (Psalm 91:11), and as Hebrews calls the angels “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation” (Hebrews 1:14). Lot was flawed and had just failed badly, and God still kept him.

“And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.” To smite, nâkâh, is the ordinary word for striking a blow, light or heavy. The word for blindness, çanvêr, is a rare word of uncertain origin, plural in form, and it comes again when the LORD strikes the Syrian army at Elisha’s prayer (2 Kings 6:18–20). The end of the verse shows what kind of blindness it was. The men were standing at the door and could no longer find it, so it confused them as well as darkening their eyes. They “wearied themselves”, lâʼâh, to tire or grow weary, a word that can also mean to be disgusted.

“Both small and great” takes in every man at the door, from the least to the greatest, and answers the “old and young” of verse 4. The whole city that came against the house was struck down together.

The men of Sodom wore themselves out looking for a door they could not find. Jesus says, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9). Lot’s door kept the wicked out for one night, and Christ’s door stands open to sinners who come to him. “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17), and he calls, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28–30).

Lot tried to save his guests by giving up his daughters. Christ saves by giving himself: “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). He is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), who died for us “while we were yet sinners” (Romans 5:8), and through him “we shall be saved from wrath” (Romans 5:9–10). The angels drew Lot inside and shut the door, and those Christ brings in are kept the same way: “neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:28–29).

The same Christ is the judge. He will “judge the quick and the dead” (2 Timothy 4:1), and he warned the towns that heard him and turned away that “it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee” (Matthew 11:23–24). In his parable the door of the wedding is shut once the bridegroom has come (Matthew 25:10–12). Sodom’s blindness is a picture of what John describes: “light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). Yet “the light shineth in darkness” (John 1:5), and he came to open blind eyes.

This passage shows us a God who hears the cry of the wronged and goes down to see. He judges justly, and the night at Lot’s door proves that the sentence on Sodom was deserved before the fire ever fell. Scripture is honest about that city, and it is just as honest about Lot, telling us both his courage and his sin.

It also shows the LORD’s care for those under his hand. Lot went out to protect his guests and could not finish what he began, and God’s messengers brought him in and shut the door. The psalm says, “The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore” (Psalm 121:7–8). Lot’s roof was a poor shelter on that night. God’s is better: “under his wings shalt thou trust” (Psalm 91:4), and the door he opens in Christ is open still.