Genesis 19:30
וַיַּעַל לוֹט מִצּוֹעַר וַיֵּשֶׁב בָּהָר וּשְׁתֵּי בְנֹתָיו עִמּוֹ כִּי יָרֵא לָשֶׁבֶת בְּצוֹעַר וַיֵּשֶׁב בַּמְּעָרָה הוּא וּשְׁתֵּי בְנֹתָֽיו׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיַּעַל֩ ל֨וֹט מִצּ֜וֹעַר וַיֵּ֣שֶׁב בָּהָ֗ר וּשְׁתֵּ֤י בְנֹתָיו֙ עִמּ֔וֹ כִּ֥י יָרֵ֖א לָשֶׁ֣בֶת בְּצ֑וֹעַר וַיֵּ֙שֶׁב֙ בַּמְּעָרָ֔ה ה֖וּא וּשְׁתֵּ֥י בְנֹתָֽיו׃
Καὶ ἐξῆλθεν Λὼτ ἐκ Σήγωρ, καὶ ἐκάθητο ἐν τῷ ὄρει καὶ αἱ δύο θυγατέρες αὐτοῦ μετ’ αὐτοῦ· ἐφοβήθη γὰρ κατοικῆσαι ἐν Σήγωρ· καὶ ᾤκησεν ἐν τῷ σπηλαίῳ αὐτὸς καὶ αἱ δύο θυγατέρες αὐτοῦ μετ’ αὐτοῦ.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Ascenditque Lot de Segor, et mansit in monte, duæ quoque filiæ ejus cum eo (timuerat enim manere in Segor) et mansit in spelunca ipse, et duæ filiæ ejus cum eo.
Lot tenía miedo de quedarse a vivir en Zoar; por eso se fue a la montaña y se instaló en una cueva con sus dos hijas.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Empero Lot subió de Zoar, y asentó en el monte, y sus dos hijas con él; porque tuvo miedo de quedar en Zoar, y se alojó en una cueva él y sus dos hijas.
Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains — for he was afraid to stay in Zoar —where they lived in a cave.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse narrates Lot's departure from Zoar to settle in the hill country with his two daughters, explaining that he did so out of fear of remaining in Zoar. It then repeats that he dwelt in a cave, again specifying his two daughters were with him.
Key words
- ya'al ("he went up", H5927G) — qal narrative verb marking the first action in the sequence: Lot's movement away from Zoar, framed as ascending.
- yeshev ("he dwelt", H3427) — this same qal narrative root appears twice in the verse (once for the hill country, once for the cave), creating a structural repetition around the explanation of fear.
- ki ("for", H3588A) — a subordinating particle introducing the causal clause that explains Lot's relocation.
- yare' ("he was afraid", H3372G) — qal perfect, denoting a completed state of fear that motivates the preceding and following actions.
- shtei venotav ("[the] two daughters his", H8147 + H1323G) — a construct numeral phrase with pronominal suffix, appearing twice in identical form, anchoring the daughters' presence at both stages of the narrative.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of narrative (vav-consecutive) verbs: ya'al ("he went up"), yeshev ("he dwelt"), and a second yeshev ("he dwelt"), each advancing the storyline. Between the first and second occurrence of yeshev, a causal clause introduced by ki ("for") interrupts the narrative flow to explain why Lot left Zoar: yare' ("he was afraid") followed by the infinitive la-shevet ("to dwell"), repeating the same root yashev in a different grammatical form (infinitive rather than finite verb). This creates a wordplay in Hebrew: the reason Lot does not "dwell" (shevet) in Zoar is stated using the very verb that describes where he does end up dwelling (yeshev) — first in the hill country, then specifically in a cave.
The phrase shtei venotav ("his two daughters"), a construct numeral with a possessive suffix, is repeated verbatim at the end of the verse, framing the unit: the daughters are with Lot both when he settles in the hill country and when he settles in the cave.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders the opening verb as exelthen ("he went out") where the Hebrew has ya'al ("he went up", H5927G); the Vulgate's ascendit ("he ascended") aligns more closely with the Hebrew sense of upward movement. Additionally, the LXX uses two different Greek verbs for the two Hebrew occurrences of yeshev (H3427) — ekatheto ("he sat/settled") and okesen ("he dwelt") — where the Hebrew and the Vulgate (mansit... mansit) both repeat the same verb root in both instances.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.