Behold, yonder city is near enough to flee to: Lot offers another possibility that will both keep him in the valley and in a city. By now Lot is no longer regarded as a pastoral nomad but a city dweller. Behold in this context is a means of drawing attention to something, which may be translated “Look” or “Do you see…?” Yonder city is “that city” or “that city over there.” It is near enough that Lot believes he would reach it before the destruction of Sodom begins.

The Hebrew word translated city may be used to refer to a large metropolis or a small settlement. The reference here is to a small town probably enclosed by a wall. In many parts of the world the term for “village” may be more appropriate for this small settlement than “town” or “city.” The first part of the verse may be rendered, for example, “Look, sir, that town over there is near enough for us to reach in time.” One translation expresses it like this: “Do you see that village over there? It’s quite close, and I can go there.”

And it is a little one describes the town as being small; accordingly Good News Translation says “that little town.”

Let me escape there: Lot speaks in the first person, but in many languages it will be necessary in this context to use the plural, since he is accompanied by his family members. Escape translates a different word than the one used repeatedly since verse 17, although the sense does not change here.

Is it not a little one?: this expression is inserted into Lot’s plea to the angels. This is the second time he calls attention to the small size of the town, and is the narrator’s way of emphasizing the wordplay between Hebrew mitsʿar “small” in this verse and tsoʿar “Zoar” in verse 22. Most translations cannot produce an equivalent play on these words. However, translators may help their readers understand it by adding a note at verse 22 such as that in Good News Translation, “ZOAR: This name sounds like the Hebrew for ‘small.’ ”

And my life will be saved is literally “that my soul [Hebrew nefesh] may live.” For a similar use of nefesh, see 12.13. If the plural is used in Lot’s plea to the angels, we may often translate “Let us go there to save our lives,” “Let us escape to that place to be safe,” “… so we won’t die.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .