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Genesis 19:31

Old Testament Law (Torah) ASV (1901)

What does Genesis 19:31 say?

The American Standard Version records this verse as: “And the first-born said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth:” Read the surrounding verses and the named sources below before drawing broader conclusions.

The verse

And the first-born said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth:
Genesis 19:31 — American Standard Version

Context — Genesis 19

American Standard Version (1901) — public domain. Click any verse for its study page.
28and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the Plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.
29And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the Plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt.
30And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.
31And the first-born said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth:
32come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
33And they made their father drink wine that night: and the first-born went in, and lay with her father; and he knew not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
34And it came to pass on the morrow, that the first-born said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
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What do historical commentaries say?

John Gill's Exposition
John Gill (1697–1771) · Exposition of the Old and New Testament · 18th-century historical commentary
“And the firstborn said unto the younger, etc.] That is, the firstborn of those two, or the elder of them; for, if Lot had other daughters that were married in Sodom, it is probable they were elder than either of these: Aben Ezra intimates, that Lot had another wife, who died first, and these were by his second; the following motion is made by the eldest of them to the youngest, as being bolder, having more authority, and a greater influence to persuade: our father [is] old; if he was fifty years of age when he was taken captive by the kings, as says the Jewish chronologer f1189 he must now be sixty five, since the destruction of Sodom, according to Bishop Usher f1190, was fifteen years after…”
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Barnes' Notes
Albert Barnes (1798–1870) · Notes on the Whole Bible · 19th-century historical commentary
“- The Destruction of Sodom and Amorah 9. גשׁ־הלאה gesh-hāl'âh, “approach to a distant point,” stand back. 11. סנורים sanevērı̂ym, “blindness,” affecting the mental more than the ocular vision. 37. מואב mô'āb, Moab; מאב mē'āb, “from a father.” בן־עמי ben-‛amı̂y, Ben-‘ammi, “son of my people.” עמון ‛amôn, ‘Ammon, “of the people.” This chapter is the continuation and conclusion of the former. It records a part of God’s strange work - strange, because it consists in punishment, and because it is foreign to the covenant of grace. Yet it is closely connected with Abraham’s history, inasmuch as it is a signal chastisement of wickedness in his neighborhood, a memorial of the righteous…”
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Related study paths

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Sources and verification