For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the LORD; and the LORD hath sent us to destroy it.
Parallel translations
- WEB for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown so great before Yahweh that Yahweh has sent us to destroy it.”
- BSB because we are about to destroy this place. For the outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that He has sent us to destroy it.”
- NKJV For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”
- NASB for we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before the Lord that the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”
- NLT For we are about to destroy this city completely. The outcry against this place is so great it has reached the Lord, and he has sent us to destroy it.”
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 angels announce they will destroy Sodom because of its great outcry before the LORD.
Overview
The destruction is grounded in the cry of the city's sin reaching God, confirming the earlier verdict (18:20). The angels act as agents of divine justice, not arbitrary force. This sober warning shows that God's patience has limits and his judgment is certain.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Gen 18:20And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;
- Jude 1:7Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
- Matt 13:49–50So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,
- Acts 12:23And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.
- Rev 16:1–12And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.
- Rom 3:8–9And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.
- Matt 13:41–42The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
- Jas 5:4Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
- Isa 37:36Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
- Isa 3:11Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.
- Ezek 9:5–6And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:
- 1 Chr 21:15–16And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
- Isa 36:10And am I now come up without the LORD against this land to destroy it? the LORD said unto me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.
- Gen 13:13But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.
- Ps 11:5–6The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.
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 19:13 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.