I will go down to see if their actions fully justify the outcry that has reached Me. If not, I will find out.”
Parallel translations
- WEB I will go down now, and see whether their deeds are as bad as the reports which have come to me. If not, I will know.”
- KJV I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.
- NKJV I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.”
- NASB I will go down now and see whether they have done entirely as the outcry, which has come to Me indicates; and if not, I will know.”
- NLT I am going down to see if their actions are as wicked as I have heard. If not, I want to know.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God speaks of 'going down' to verify the cities' guilt before acting.
Overview
This anthropomorphic language stresses that God judges justly, on the basis of true knowledge, not hasty rumor. It echoes the same divine 'coming down' to assess Babel (Genesis 11:5). The point is the perfect righteousness of the Judge, who never condemns unfairly.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Exod 3:8I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
- Gen 11:5Then the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building.
- Josh 22:22“The LORD, the Mighty One, is God! The LORD, the Mighty One, is God! He knows, and may Israel also know. If this was in rebellion or breach of faith against the LORD, do not spare us today.
- Ps 139:1–24For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
- Jer 17:10I, the LORD, search the heart; I examine the mind to reward a man according to his way, by what his deeds deserve.
- Deut 8:2Remember that these forty years the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments.
- Zeph 1:12And at that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men settled in complacency, who say to themselves, ‘The LORD will do nothing, either good or bad.’
- Luke 16:15So He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is prized among men is detestable before God.
- Mic 1:3For behold, the LORD comes forth from His dwelling place; He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth.
- Gen 11:7Come, let Us go down and confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”
- Exod 33:5For the LORD had said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I should go with you for a single moment, I would destroy you. Now take off your jewelry, and I will decide what to do with you.’”
- Deut 13:3you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. For the LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
- Job 34:22There is no darkness or deep shadow where the workers of iniquity can hide.
- John 6:38For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but to do the will of Him who sent Me.
- 1 Th 4:16For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise.
- 2 Cor 11:11Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!
- Jer 17:1“The sin of Judah is written with an iron stylus, engraved with a diamond point on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars.
- Ps 90:8You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence.
- Heb 4:13Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 18:21 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.