Genesis 19:12

Summary

The men (angels) address Lot and ask him who else belongs to him in the city — son-in-law, sons, daughters, and all he has — instructing him to bring them out of the place.

Key words

• ha'anashim ("the men", H0582) — definite plural noun, referring back to the visitors already introduced in the narrative; marked with the article ha (H9009).
• mi ("who?", H4310) — interrogative pronoun opening a rhetorical question about who belongs to Lot in the city, combined with od ("yet", H5750) to convey "who else."
• lekha ("to you / belonging to you", H9031 + H9005) — preposition with second-person masculine suffix, repeated twice (once after chatan, once after kol asher), marking possession — "who is yours."
• chatan ("a son-in-law", H2860) — masculine singular noun, singular in form even though the list continues with plural "sons" and "daughters."
• hotze' ("bring out", H3318H) — hiphil (causative) imperative, second-person masculine singular, the command verb of the sentence: causing someone else to go out.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav on va-yomeru ("and they said", H0559), continuing the sequence of action from the preceding verses. The subject is ha'anashim ("the men", H0582), the same figures introduced earlier in the account, speaking el-Lot ("to Lot", H0413 + H3876).

Their speech is structured as a question followed by a command. The question, od mi-lekha foh ("yet who to you here", H5750 + H4310 + H9031/H9005 + H6311), asks about anyone additionally belonging to Lot in the location. This is followed by a list joined by the conjunction u ("and", H9002): chatan ("a son-in-law", H2860, singular), vaneikha ("your sons", H1121A construct + suffix), u-venoteikha ("and your daughters", H1323G construct + suffix), and finally ve-khol asher-lekha ba'ir ("and all that is yours in the city", H3605 + H0834A + H9031/H9005 + H9003/H5892B). The list moves from a single relation (chatan) to plural relations (sons, daughters) to a totalizing clause covering anyone else in the city belonging to Lot.

The command itself, hotze' min-hamaqom ("bring out from the place", H3318H + H4480A + H9009/H4725), is a hiphil imperative, expressing causation — Lot is told to cause these people to go out, not merely to leave himself.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the list with γαμβροὶ ("sons-in-law", plural) where the Hebrew chatan (H2860) is singular, and adds the phrase "ἢ εἴ τίς σοι ἅλλος ἐστὶν" ("or if anyone else is yours") as an explicit alternative clause not present as a separate clause in the Hebrew syntax, though it corresponds to ve-khol asher-lekha. The Vulgate's "quempiam tuorum" ("anyone of yours") functions similarly as an introductory question before listing generum ("son-in-law," singular, matching the Hebrew chatan), filios, and filias. Some translations (BSB, SBLIBRE) render the opening as a direct question ("Do you have anyone else here?") followed by the list as further specification, restructuring the single Hebrew question-plus-list into a question-plus-command sequence more explicitly than the Hebrew's continuous list format.