Old Testament · Law

Genesis 19:15

Sodom Destroyed

At daybreak the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.” Genesis 19:15 · Berean Standard Bible

What It Means

Genesis 19:15, in plain English

At dawn, the angels pressure Lot to hurry, telling him to grab his wife and daughters and leave or he'll be destroyed with the city. Time has run out.

Why it's here

The angels shift from warning to urgent action. They're not giving Lot time to pack or say goodbye or convince more people. The destruction is about to begin, and anyone still in Sodom will die. Lot's hesitation—his unwillingness to move quickly—is about to cost him his son-in-law and nearly cost him everything.

Who's speaking

The angels

Where it sits in the story

This is the point of no return. God's judgment is being executed now, not someday. For Lot, there's no more negotiating or hoping things will change. He has to act or die.

A Closer Look

The scholar's commentary

As dawn breaks, the angels urgently compel Lot to leave immediately with his wife and two daughters, warning that delay will result in being swept away with the city's destruction.

Language and setting

The angels' urgency intensifies dramatically; the Hebrew פִחַד (pachad, fear/haste) combined with imperative language marks this as no longer negotiation but command. The mention of daybreak (שַׁחַר, shachar) is temporally significant: morning light reveals Sodom's vulnerability and makes destruction imminent. The specification that Lot take 'your wife and your two daughters who are here' (אִשְׁתְּךָ וְאֶת־שְׁתֵּי־בְנוֹתֶ֖יךָ הַנִּמְצָאֹ֣ת, istecha ve-et shete bnotecha ha-nimtza'ot)—the phrase 'who are here' excludes the sons-in-law who have rejected salvation. The narrative signals that one's household becomes divided by response to divine call; this anticipates the New Testament theme of eschatological division (Luke 17:34-36).

Voice

The two angels, employing urgent imperative language

Significance

This marks the beginning of the actual exodus from Sodom; it mirrors Noah's entry into the ark and prefigures later redemptive narratives where timing and obedience determine survival versus destruction.

In context

Genesis 19:13–17

13because 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.”

14So Lot went out and spoke to the sons-in-law who were pledged in marriage to his daughters. “Get up,” he said. “Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

15At daybreak the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.”

16But when Lot hesitated, the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters. And they led them safely out of the city, because of the LORD’s compassion for them.

17As 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!”

Read all of Genesis 19 — Fire falls from the sky. A city is erased. And Lot's wife looks back — a small act of longing with permanent consequences.

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