Old Testament · Law

Genesis 19:35

Sodom Destroyed

So again that night they got their father drunk with wine, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him; he was not aware when she lay down or when she got up. Genesis 19:35 · Berean Standard Bible
What It Means

Genesis 19:35, in plain English

The next night, they repeat the exact same scheme with the younger daughter. Lot, drunk again, remains completely unaware of what's happening to him.

Why it's here

History repeats itself. The daughters have committed to this plan and they execute it methodically. Lot is again rendered helpless by intoxication. The text's repetition—'he was not aware when she lay down or when she got up'—emphasizes the violation and Lot's complete lack of agency in what's being done to him.

Who's speaking

The narrator (Moses)

Where it sits in the story

The pattern now extends to both daughters, meaning both will bear children from this act. This isn't an isolated incident; it's become systematic. In the larger biblical story, this passage continues to show the consequences of spiritual isolation and the moral confusion that results from being cut off from God's community and guidance.

A Closer Look

The scholar's commentary

The younger daughter executes the same plan the following night, again intoxicating Lot and lying with him while he remains unconscious.

Language and setting

The narrative's repetition of the formula 'they got their father drunk with wine, and the younger daughter...slept with him; he was not aware when she lay down or when she got up' creates what literary scholars call 'doubling'—the structural repetition that intensifies thematic significance. The mirrored structure (verses 32-33 paralleled by 34-35) signals that this is not spontaneous but systematic, moving from desperate expedient to established routine.

Voice

The narrator reporting the second incestuous act

Significance

The duplication emphasizes that Lot's dissolution into unconsciousness occurs not once but repeatedly—a pattern suggesting not just drunkenness but possible substance abuse or psychological withdrawal. The older Moabite genealogy and the younger Ammonite genealogy will carry forward this dualistic ambiguity about origins and legitimacy. The repetition also suggests that both daughters' conceptions are equally intentional and equally productive of legitimate heirs by their own logic.

In context

Genesis 19:33–37

33So that night they got their father drunk with wine, and the firstborn went in and slept with her father; he was not aware when she lay down or when she got up.

34The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Look, I slept with my father last night. Let us get him drunk with wine again tonight so you can go in and sleep with him and we can preserve our father’s line.”

35So again that night they got their father drunk with wine, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him; he was not aware when she lay down or when she got up.

36Thus both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father.

37The older daughter gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites of today.

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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