Genesis 13:10

וַיִּשָּׂא־לוֹט אֶת־עֵינָיו וַיַּרְא אֶת־כָּל־כִּכַּר הַיַּרְדֵּן כִּי כֻלָּהּ מַשְׁקֶה לִפְנֵי׀ שַׁחֵת יְהוָה אֶת־סְדֹם וְאֶת־עֲמֹרָה כְּגַן־יְהוָה כְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם בֹּאֲכָה צֹֽעַר׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַיִּשָּׂא־ל֣וֹט אֶת־עֵינָ֗יו וַיַּרְא֙ אֶת־כָּל־כִּכַּ֣ר הַיַּרְדֵּ֔ן כִּ֥י כֻלָּ֖הּ מַשְׁקֶ֑ה לִפְנֵ֣י׀ שַׁחֵ֣ת יְהוָ֗ה אֶת־סְדֹם֙ וְאֶת־עֲמֹרָ֔ה כְּגַן־יְהוָה֙ כְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם בֹּאֲכָ֖ה צֹֽעַר׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ ἐπάρας Λὼτ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτοῦ τὴν περίχωρον τοῦ Ἰορδάνου, ὅτι πᾶσα ἦν ποτιζομένη πρὸ τοῦ καταστρέψαι τὸν θεὸν Σόδομα καὶ Γόμορρα ὡς ὁ παράδεισος τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ὡς ἡ γῆ Αἰγύπτου, ἕως ἐλθεῖν εἰς όγορα.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Elevatis itaque Lot oculis, vidit omnem circa regionem Jordanis, quæ universa irrigabatur antequam subverteret Dominus Sodomam et Gomorrham, sicut paradisus Domini, et sicut Ægyptus venientibus in Segor.

Spanish

Lot miró a su alrededor y vio que todo el valle del Jordán, hasta llegar a Zoar, era tierra de regadío, como el jardín de Yehová o como la tierra de Egipto. Esto fue antes de que Yehová destruyera a Sodoma y Gomorra.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y alzó Lot sus ojos, y vió toda la llanura del Jordán, que toda ella era de riego, antes que destruyese Jehová á Sodoma y á Gomorra, como el huerto de Jehová, como la tierra de Egipto entrando en Zoar.

English

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.)

✦ What the text says

Summary

Lot lifts up his eyes and sees the entire plain of the Jordan, observing that it was well-watered everywhere, comparable to the garden of Yehovah or the land of Egypt, as far as Zoar — this is noted before Yehovah destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

Key words

va-yyisa' ("and he lifted up", H5375M) — qal narrative verb, opens the sequence of Lot's action with the vav-consecutive pattern typical of Hebrew narrative chains.
kikkar ("[the] valley of", H3603H) — feminine singular construct noun, grammatically bound to ha-Yarden ("the Jordan", H3383), producing the phrase "the valley/circle of the Jordan."
mashqeh ("[was] well-watered", H4945B) — masculine singular noun functioning predicatively after the particle ki ("that", H3588A), describing the state of the land.
shachet ("destroyed", H7843) — piel infinitive of the intensive stem, used with lifney ("before", H6440G) to form the temporal clause "before Yehovah's destroying."
bo'akhah ("going", H0935I) — qal infinitive with second-person suffix -khah ("your", H9041), literally "your going," marking the geographic extent "as far as Zoar."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence chains two main verbs with narrative vav: va-yyisa' ("and he lifted up") and va-yyar' ("and he saw", H7200G), both qal forms describing Lot's sequential actions — lifting his eyes, then seeing. The object of sight is introduced by the construct chain kol-kikkar ha-Yarden ("all the valley of the Jordan"), with kol (H3605) in construct state binding to kikkar, which is itself construct to the proper name "the Jordan."

The clause introduced by ki ("that/because", H3588A) explains what Lot observed: khullah mashqeh ("all of it well-watered"), where khullah (H3605 + suffix "her/it") refers back grammatically to kikkar (feminine noun). The temporal clause lifney shachet Yehovah uses the infinitive construct shachet ("destroyed", H7843, piel) governed by the preposition lifney ("before"), literally "before the destroying of Yehovah," a common Hebrew construction for expressing anteriority without a finite past-tense verb.

The final phrase bo'akhah Tzo'ar uses the infinitive bo'akhah ("your going", H0935I) with a second-person suffix, an idiomatic construction meaning "as one goes/until one reaches" — here marking the geographic limit "as far as Zoar" (H6820).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the closing phrase as ἕως ἐλθεῖν εἰς Ζόγορα ("until coming to Zoar"), matching the Hebrew infinitive construction bo'akhah Tzo'ar. The Vulgate's venientibus in Segor ("for those coming to Segor") shifts to a dative participle construction, altering the syntactic frame from the Hebrew's infinitive-with-suffix form while preserving the same referential meaning of reaching Zoar/Segor.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.