It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, “Escape for your life! Don’t look behind you, and don’t stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed!”
Parallel translations
- KJV And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.
- BSB As soon as the men had brought them out, one of them said, “Run for your lives! Do not look back, and do not stop anywhere on the plain! Flee to the mountains, or you will be swept away!”
- NKJV So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.”
- NASB When they had brought them outside, one said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the surrounding area; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away.”
- NLT When they were safely out of the city, one of the angels ordered, “Run for your lives! And don’t look back or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away!”
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 command Lot to flee for his life, not look back, and escape to the mountains.
Overview
The instruction to flee without looking back demands a decisive break from the doomed city. Looking back would signal a heart still clinging to Sodom. Jesus later invokes this very scene ('Remember Lot's wife') to warn against turning back when his day comes (Luke 17:31-32).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Matt 24:16–18then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
- Phil 3:13–14Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do. Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,
- Luke 9:62But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for God’s Kingdom.”
- Gen 19:26But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
- Gen 19:22Hurry, escape there, for I can’t do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
- Matt 3:7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
- Luke 17:31–32In that day, he who will be on the housetop, and his goods in the house, let him not go down to take them away. Let him who is in the field likewise not turn back.
- Jer 48:6Flee! Save your lives! Be like the juniper bush in the wilderness.
- 1 Kgs 19:3When he saw that, he arose, and ran for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
- Gen 13:10Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well-watered everywhere, before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of Yahweh, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar.
- Gen 19:14–15Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up! Get out of this place, for Yahweh will destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking.
- Ps 121:1A Song of Ascents. I will lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from?
- 1 Sam 19:11Saul sent messengers to David’s house, to watch him, and to kill him in the morning. Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, “If you don’t save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.”
- Gen 18:22The men turned from there, and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before Yahweh.
- Heb 2:3how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation — which at the first having been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard;
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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 19:17 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
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