- In the repast prepared (Genesis 19:3), why matzot (usually associated with a korban)? Did Lot “sense” something – or were the matzot simply a delicacy – or something prepared hurriedly?
- In Genesis 19:5, the JPS translates “veneydah otam” as “we may be intimate with them”. Is this the only possible translation? Has any part of prior text implied/explicated homosexuality? Was it unusual to want “to know” who strangers are? (Vide the king of Jericho and the spies who came to his city in the early chapters of Joshua.)
- If the Sodomites were of a homosexual nature, how explain Lot’s “offer” in Genesis 19:8? In any event, does protective hospitality admit of no limit?
- In Genesis 19:12–14, the preliminary to destruction: are the Sodomites warned? Is there an opportunity for teshuvah?
- In Genesis 19:19–22 what etiology is set forth in this passage; and in Genesis 19:23 – 26?
- If Genesis 19:26 is read poetically, is not total bitterness (i.e. a pillar of salt) the reaction of one who witnesses total destruction?
- In Genesis 19:29 what reason is given for Lot’s being saved – his own virtue or that of another?
- Are Lot’s daughters described as incestuous and/or sexually frustrated or simply desirous of perpetuating the human species, thinking that they are the last humans alive?
- What does this narrative imply as to subsequent Moabite and Ammonite women’s maternal instincts?
