Bible Strands
Genesis 19:30
Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains—for he was afraid to stay in Zoar—where they lived in a cave.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Lot and his two daughters depart Zoar for the hill country immediately after the destruction of the plain, choosing to dwell in a cave.
The words — The narrative records Lot’s movement with וַיַּעַל (wa.yaʿal, “and he went up”) and his residence with וַיֵּשֶׁב (wa.yēšeḇ, “and he dwelt”) in the hill country.
The thread — Lot’s flight from the plain to the mountains echoes the command to flee without stopping in Genesis 19:17 and contrasts his earlier preference for the well-watered Jordan plain near Zoar in Genesis 13:10.
Why it lands — The text states Lot moved from Zoar to the mountains because he feared to remain there, leaving his family to inhabit a cave.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.
Cross-references
- Genesis 19:17 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!”
- Genesis 19:19 Your servant has indeed found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness by sparing my life. But I cannot run to the mountains; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die.
- Genesis 13:10 And Lot looked out and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan, all the way to Zoar, was well watered like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)
- Genesis 14:22 But Abram replied to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the LORD God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth,
- Genesis 49:4 Uncontrolled as the waters, you will no longer excel, because you went up to your father’s bed, onto my couch, and defiled it.
- Deuteronomy 34:3 the Negev, and the region from the Valley of Jericho (the City of Palms) all the way to Zoar.
- Isaiah 15:5 My heart cries out over Moab; her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath-shelishiyah. With weeping they ascend the slope of Luhith; they lament their destruction on the road to Horonaim.
- Jeremiah 2:36 How impulsive you are, constantly changing your ways! You will be disappointed by Egypt just as you were by Assyria.
- Jeremiah 48:34 There is a cry from Heshbon to Elealeh; they raise their voices to Jahaz, from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah; for even the waters of Nimrim have dried up.
- James 1:8 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.