Genesis 19:5

Genesis 19:5, in plain English

The men demand that Lot send out the visitors so they can sexually assault them—revealing the specific sin that Sodom became known for throughout Scripture.

Why it's here

The Hebrew word here (yada) can mean 'to know,' but in this context it clearly means sexual violence. This wasn't lust in isolation; it was about domination, violation, and power. The men wanted to humiliate the strangers, which was the worst possible breach of hospitality laws.

Who's speaking

The men of Sodom are calling out to Lot

Where it sits in the story

This is the breaking point. Sodom's sin—sexual violence and the violation of covenant protection—is why this city became a symbol throughout Scripture for God's judgment against evil. Jude 1:7 connects this directly to eternal judgment.

The scholarly reading

The men of Sodom demand that Lot produce his guests so that they may engage in sexual violence against them—using language ('have relations with them,' יָדַע, yāda') that unmistakably signifies coercive homosexual assault.

Language and setting

The verb יָדַע (yāda') in this context means 'to know sexually,' a euphemism pregnant with aggressive intention amplified by the collective, coercive context. This is not consensual intimacy but what we would identify as gang rape. The demand itself violates every code of hospitality-sanctity known in the ancient world: attacking a host's guests represented not merely criminal violence but cosmic transgression—a violation of divinely-ordained social order. The Deuteronomic historian and the prophets (notably Ezekiel 16:49-50, which identifies Sodom's sin as arrogance, fullness, and idleness alongside sexual transgression) understood Sodom's sin as multivalent: sexual violence emerges from a broader posture of pride and contempt for the vulnerable.

Voice

The assembled men of Sodom, collectively demanding.

Significance

This moment crystallizes Sodom's characterization established in Genesis 13:13 ('greatly wicked and sinful'). The sexual violence is not incidental to Sodom's depravity but symptomatic of a society that has rejected the created order and covenantal norms. The narrative indicts not merely a sexual practice but a violence-based culture that treats the vulnerable—especially foreign guests—as commodities for exploitation.

3But Lot insisted so strongly that they followed him into his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

4Before they had gone to bed, all the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, surrounded the house.

5They called out to Lot, saying, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have relations with them!”

6Lot went outside to meet them, shutting the door behind him.

7“Please, my brothers,” he pleaded, “don’t do such a wicked thing!

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.