Genesis 14:10

Summary

The verse describes the Valley of Siddim as full of bitumen pits, then narrates that the king(s) of Sodom and Gomorrah fled and fell into that location, while those who survived escaped to the hill country. The Hebrew text contains grammatical features — a doubled construct noun and a singular royal title governing two place names — that later versions resolve differently.

Key words

• 'Emek ("valley of", H6010Q) — masculine singular construct, opening the clause by naming the location before its identifying place name ha-Siddim.
• be'erot ("pits of", H0875) — feminine plural construct, written twice in sequence (be'erot be'erot) before chemar ("bitumen", H2564); this repetition is not a separate noun but the same word doubled in the construct chain.
• melekh ("king of", H4428G) — masculine singular construct, governing both Sedom ("Sodom") and, via the conjunction va-, 'Amorah ("Gomorrah"), so a single grammatically singular title is applied to the two place names together.
• vayipelu ("and they fell", H5307G) — qal narrative form (wayyiqtol), continuing the story sequence begun by vayanusu ("and they fled", H5127); its plural subject is not restated, so it must be inferred from the preceding clause.
• hanish'arim ("those who survived", H7604) — niphal participle, masculine plural, describing an ongoing state ("the ones remaining") rather than a single completed act, contrasted with those who fell.

What the text says

The clause structure moves from a description (the valley full of bitumen pits) to a narrated action introduced by the vav-consecutive verbs vayanusu and vayipelu, both marking sequential events in the story ("and then… and then…"). The subject of vayanusu, "fled", is melekh-Sedom va-'Amorah, literally "king of Sodom and Gomorrah" — a singular construct noun melekh extended over two place names by the conjunction va-, without a second occurrence of "king." This means the Hebrew grammar does not explicitly duplicate the royal title for each city, unlike constructions that would say "king of Sodom and king of Gomorrah."

The final clause names hanish'arim, "those who survived," using a niphal participle, a passive/reflexive verbal form that presents survival as a resulting condition rather than a discrete action, in contrast with the completed qal perfect nasu ("they fled") that closes the verse. Both this final verb and the earlier vayipelu include a directional he suffix (shammah, "to there"; harah, "to the hill country"), a grammatical marker of movement toward a place, which is a feature the English or Spanish glosses render only through prepositions like "there" and "to the hill country."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the singular Hebrew construct melekh ("king of… and…") with two explicit occurrences of βασιλεὺς ("king of Sodom and king of Gomorrah"), where the Hebrew supplies only one royal title for both names. The Vulgate reflects the doubled Hebrew construct be'erot be'erot ("pits, pits of bitumen") with the quantifier "multos" ("many pits"), rather than repeating "puteos." The BSB interprets the unstated subject of vayipelu ("they fell") as "some men," a specification not present in the Hebrew grammar, which leaves the subject of that verb implicit.