So the Lord said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the entire place on their account.”
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
- KJV And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.
- BSB So the LORD replied, “If I find fifty righteous ones within the city of Sodom, on their account I will spare the whole place.”
- NKJV So the Lord said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.”
- NLT And the Lord replied, “If I find fifty righteous people in Sodom, I will spare the entire city for their sake.”
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
The LORD promises to spare all Sodom if fifty righteous are found in it.
Overview
God's willingness shows his mercy and his readiness to relent for the sake of the righteous. The dialogue reveals a God who delights to spare rather than to destroy. It teaches that God's judgments are tempered by patience and that he honors the prayers of his people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Jer 5:1“Run back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in its wide places, if you can find a man, if there are any who does justly, who seeks truth; and I will pardon her.
- Matt 24:22Unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved. But for the sake of the chosen ones, those days will be shortened.
- Isa 65:8Yahweh says, “As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, ‘Don’t destroy it, for a blessing is in it:’ so will I do for my servants’ sake, that I may not destroy them all.
- Ezek 22:30“I sought for a man among them, who should build up the wall, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.
- Isa 6:13If there is a tenth left in it, that also will in turn be consumed: as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remains when they are felled; so the holy seed is its stock.”
- Isa 19:24In that day, Israel will be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing within the earth;
- Isa 10:22For though your people, Israel, are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 18:26 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.