Genesis 19:28

Summary

The verse describes an unnamed observer (Abraham, per the surrounding narrative) looking down over Sodom, Gomorrah, and the whole valley region, then seeing smoke rising from the land like the smoke of a furnace. The passage uses two different verbs of perception in sequence: looking down and then seeing.

Key words

• yashkef ("he looked down", H8259) — Hiphil (causative) stem, narrative form; describes a downward, deliberate gaze, distinct from ordinary "seeing."
• penei ("face of", H6440G) — masculine plural construct, used twice; literally "face of" Sodom/Gomorrah and "face of" the land, an idiom for the visible surface or expanse of a place.
• yar' ("he saw", H7200G) — Qal (simple) narrative verb; marks the shift from the act of looking to the perception of what was there.
• qitor ("smoke of", H7008) — masculine singular construct, repeated twice in the comparison "smoke of the land" / "smoke of the furnace," forming the simile.
• kikkar ("valley", H3603H) — feminine singular noun with definite article ha ("the", H9009), designating the specific region (the "circle" or plain) encompassing Sodom and Gomorrah.

What the text says

The sentence chain begins with the narrative vav on yashkef ("and he looked down"), a Hiphil form of a root suggesting a gaze directed downward or outward over a distance. The object of this gaze is expressed through two parallel prepositional phrases: 'al-penei Sedom va-'Amorah ("upon the face of Sodom and Gomorrah") and ve-'al-kol-penei 'eretz ha-kikkar ("and upon all the face of the land of the valley"). The repeated use of penei ("face of", H6440G) in construct form treats both the cities and the broader region as surfaces being surveyed, giving the verse a spatial, panoramic quality.

The narrative then shifts with a second vav-consecutive verb, yar' ("and he saw", H7200G), in the Qal stem — a plain, non-causative form of perception, contrasting with the intensive/directed yashkef. This second verb introduces the interjection hinneh ("there!", H2009), which in Biblical Hebrew narrative marks a sudden or vivid discovery presented to the observer's eyes. What is seen is described using the perfect verb 'alah ("it went up", H5927G), indicating a completed rising action: qitor ha-'aretz ("the smoke of the land") rising ke-qitor ha-kivshan ("like the smoke of the furnace", H3536). The double use of qitor ("smoke of", H7008) in construct chains creates the comparative structure of the simile without needing an explicit verb "to be."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders qitor ("smoke of", H7008) as φλόξ ("flame") in the first instance but as ἀτμίς ("vapor/steam") in the second, where the Hebrew uses the same noun qitor both times. The Vulgate similarly varies its vocabulary, using favillam ("ash/cinder") for the first qitor and fumum ("smoke") for the second, where the Hebrew maintains lexical repetition across the simile.