Genesis 19:7

Genesis 19:7, in plain English

Lot pleads with the mob, calling them brothers and begging them not to commit this heinous act.

Why it's here

Notice that Lot calls them 'brothers'—he's trying to appeal to their humanity, to the bonds that should tie people together in a city. He's desperate and using what moral leverage he has, even though he knows the city is beyond reason.

Who's speaking

Lot is speaking to the men of Sodom

Where it sits in the story

This plea shows Lot's heart. He hasn't hardened completely despite living in Sodom. His appeal won't work on these men, but it reveals that he knows what righteousness demands.

The scholarly reading

Lot pleads with the mob to abandon their violent intentions, framing the proposed assault as 'wickedness' (רָעָה, rā'āh) of cosmic significance.

Language and setting

Lot addresses the men as 'brothers' (אָחַי, aḥay), employing kinship language in an attempt to appeal to their shared humanity and covenantal obligation—a rhetorical strategy that will prove utterly ineffective, suggesting Sodom's depravity has severed even familial bonds. His characterization of the proposal as 'such a wicked thing' (הַדָּבָר הָרָע הַזֶּה, hadābār hāra' hazze) invokes divine moral law: the deed violates not merely custom but the created order itself. The Reformation commentator Ulrich Zwingli, in his analysis of Sodomite sin, emphasized this point—that the violation registers not as mere preference but as fundamental rebellion against creaturely order.

Voice

Lot, pleading with the mob.

Significance

Lot's invocation of moral law—grounded in divine order rather than mere social convention—establishes the theological framework through which Sodom's sin must be understood. His failed intercession parallels Abraham's more successful plea (18:23-32), suggesting that intercessory prayer carries more spiritual authority than direct moral exhortation when confronting systemic depravity.

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!

8Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them to you, and you can do to them as you please. But do not do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”

9“Get out of the way!” they replied. And they declared, “This one came here as a foreigner, and he is already acting like a judge! Now we will treat you worse than them.” And they pressed in on Lot and moved in to break down the door.

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.