Genesis 19:14

וַיֵּצֵא לוֹט וַיְדַבֵּר׀ אֶל־חֲתָנָיו׀ לֹקְחֵי בְנֹתָיו וַיֹּאמֶר קוּמוּ צְּאוּ מִן־הַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה כִּֽי־מַשְׁחִית יְהוָה אֶת־הָעִיר וַיְהִי כִמְצַחֵק בְּעֵינֵי חֲתָנָֽיו׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַיֵּצֵ֨א ל֜וֹט וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר׀ אֶל־חֲתָנָ֣יו׀ לֹקְחֵ֣י בְנֹתָ֗יו וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙ ק֤וּמוּ צְּאוּ֙ מִן־הַמָּק֣וֹם הַזֶּ֔ה כִּֽי־מַשְׁחִ֥ית יְהוָ֖ה אֶת־הָעִ֑יר וַיְהִ֥י כִמְצַחֵ֖ק בְּעֵינֵ֥י חֲתָנָֽיו׃

Greek (Septuagint)

ἐξῆλθεν δὲ Λὼτ καὶ ἐλάλησεν πρὸς τοὺς γαμβροὺς αὐτοῦ τοὺς εἰληφότας τὰς θυγατέρας αὐτοῦ, καὶ εἶπεν Ἀνάστητε καὶ ἐξέλθατε ἐκ τοῦ τόπου τούτου, ὅτι ἐκτρίβει Κύριος τὴν πόλιν. ἔδοξεν δὲ γελοιάζειν ἐναντίον τῶν γαμβρῶν αὐτοῦ.

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

Latin (Vulgate)

Egressus itaque Lot, locutus est ad generos suos qui accepturi erant filias ejus, et dixit: Surgite, egredimini de loco isto: quia delebit Dominus civitatem hanc. Et visus est eis quasi ludens loqui.

Spanish

Lot salió y habló con sus futuros yernos, los que iban a casarse con sus hijas, y les dijo: “¡Levántense y salgan de este lugar, porque Yehová va a destruir la ciudad!” Pero sus yernos pensaron que estaba bromeando.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Entonces salió Lot, y habló á sus yernos, los que habían de tomar sus hijas, y les dijo: Levantaos, salid de este lugar; porque Jehová va á destruir esta ciudad. Mas pareció á sus yernos como que se burlaba.

English

So Lot went out and spoke to the sons-in-law who were pledged in marriage to his daughters. “ Get up,” he said. “ Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

✦ What the text says

Summary

Lot goes out and speaks to the men who were about to marry his daughters, urging them to leave the city because Yehovah is about to destroy it. The verse closes by describing how his words appeared to these men: like joking.

Key words

chatanai ("sons-in-law", H2860) — masculine plural construct with pronominal suffix "his"; appears twice (word 7 and word 33), framing the scene around these men.
loqechei ("[who were] about to take", H3947I) — qal participle, construct, describing the sons-in-law as men in the process/verge of taking (marrying) Lot's daughters, not yet completed husbands.
mashchit ("[is] about to destroy", H7843) — hiphil (causative) participle, singular, presenting Yehovah's destruction as an imminent, ongoing action rather than a simple future verb.
va-yehi ("and he was", H1961) — narrative qal verb opening the final clause, setting up the comparison that follows.
metzachek ("[one] jesting", H6711) — piel participle, masculine singular, describing the perceived manner of Lot's speech, introduced by the preposition khi ("like", H9004).

What the text says

The verse is built from a chain of narrative vav-consecutive verbs (va-yetze, "he went out"; va-yedaber, "he spoke"; va-yomer, "he said"; va-yehi, "he was") that move the action forward in sequence: Lot exits, speaks, says his message, and then a reaction is recorded. The identity of the addressees is qualified by the participial phrase loqechei venotav ("the ones taking his daughters", H3947I + H1323G), a construct chain indicating men in the process of becoming sons-in-law through marriage to Lot's daughters — the participle form suggests the marriages were pledged but not yet finalized.

Lot's message itself uses two qal imperatives, qumu ("arise", H6965B) and tze'u ("go out", H3318G), giving the command urgency, followed by the causal particle ki ("for", H3588A) introducing the reason: mashchit YHWH et-ha'ir ("Yehovah is about to destroy the city"). The hiphil participle mashchit (H7843) casts the destruction as imminent and in progress rather than a completed or simple future event.

The final clause uses va-yehi ("and he was", H1961) followed by the preposition khi ("like", H9004) and the piel participle metzachek ("jesting", H6711), together with be'einei chatanav ("in the eyes of his sons-in-law", H5869I + H2860) — a construct phrase literally meaning "in the eyes of," expressing how Lot's speech was perceived by them, rather than describing his actual intent.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew participle loqechei venotav ("the ones taking his daughters") is rendered in the LXX as τοὺς εἰληφότας τὰς θυγατέρας αὐτοῦ ("the ones who had taken his daughters," perfect participle), and in the Vulgate as qui accepturi erant filias ejus ("who were about to take his daughters," future participle). The LXX's perfect form suggests completed marriages, while the Vulgate's future form matches the Hebrew qal participle's sense of an action not yet completed.

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