Tanakhתנ״ך

Sodom's Wickedness in Parshat Lech Lecha

The Torah's identification of Sodom's inhabitants as wicked and sinful in Genesis 13 is not incidental but deliberately foreshadows the destruction to come. Classical commentators explain that the verse functions as a spiritual warning about Lot's chosen destination, linking the material attractiveness of the Jordan plain with the moral corruption of its inhabitants.

וְאַנְשֵׁי סְדֹם רָעִים וְחַטָּאִים לַיהֹוָה מְאֹד

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What the sources say

The pasuk itself flags the timing explicitly: it tells us the plain was lush "before GOD had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah" (Bereishit 13:10-13), which is why Lot was drawn there in the first place — the foreshadowing is built into the text's own explanation of why the land looked so appealing.

Rashi (Bereishit 13:10) reads this clause as explaining that the plain resembled the garden of God in its trees, accounting for its allure at the very moment Lot made his choice (Rashi (Bereishit 13:10)), and the Ramban (Bereishit 13:10) elaborates that the Plain had both rivers for trees and pools for crops, making it uniquely drought-resistant and therefore irresistible to Lot (Ramban (Bereishit 13:10)).

The foreshadowing is not incidental scenery but a moral indictment of Lot's choice: Rashi (Bereishit 13:13) stresses that Lot knew the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners against God, yet he did not refrain from settling among them (Rashi (Bereishit 13:13)), and the Ramban (Bereishit 13:13) explains that the text blames Lot precisely because he chose to dwell there despite the wickedness, since the righteous should not share a portion with the wicked (Ramban (Bereishit 13:13)). Bereshit Rabbah 41:7 preserves the dispute over whether Sodom was in fact the most beautiful of the cities of the plain, underscoring how tempting and dangerous Lot's choice was (Bereshit Rabbah 41:7), and the Sforno (Bereishit 13:11) adds that Lot deliberately chose this territory to distance himself from Avraham and claim it for himself alone (Sforno (Bereishit 13:11)).

The Kli Yakar on the quarrel between the herdsmen (Bereishit 13:7) notes the strangeness of the juxtaposition between the Canaanite and Perizzite dwelling peacefully in the land while Avraham's and Lot's shepherds could not get along, framing the separation of Avraham and Lot as itself significant before Sodom's fate unfolds (Kli Yakar on Bereishit 13:7).

The Meshekh Chokhmah connects the earlier placement of Sodom's destruction to Hashem's later promise to give Avraham the land and destroy the Canaanites: by showing that Sodom, already wicked and condemned, was nonetheless granted miracles and salvation until its appointed time arrived, the Torah teaches that the Canaanite nations likewise will not be uprooted before their sin is complete, resolving the apparent difficulty of a sudden promise to dispossess them (Meshekh Chokhmah, Lekh Lecha 27).

Later in the narrative, Hashem states that He has singled out Avraham precisely so that he will instruct his descendants to keep the way of the Lord doing righteousness and justice, in order to bring about what He had spoken concerning him (Bereishit 18:19), tying Avraham's selection in Lech Lecha to the moral reckoning that follows with Sodom.

Additional sources on the sheet develop the theme of Sodom's wickedness and its reckoning without bearing directly on why the Lech Lecha narrative anticipates it: Bereshit Rabbah 50:5 describes the townspeople's hostility toward Lot's guests (Bereshit Rabbah 50:5), Rabbeinu Bahya (Bereishit 18:20) details the specific sin of withholding charity that sealed Sodom's judgment (Rabbeinu Bahya, Bereishit 18:20), Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 19 lists the eight behaviors through which Sodom was uprooted (Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah:19), Midrash HaGadol recounts Avraham's merit in saving Lot from the overthrow (Midrash HaGadol), the Abarbanel (Bereishit 19:23) discusses Avraham's prophetic state at the time of the upheaval (Abarbanel on Torah, Bereishit 19:23), the Sefat Emet on Lech Lecha reflects on Avraham's receptivity to the call of "Lech Lecha" itself (Sefat Emet, Bereishit, Lech Lecha 1:5), and the Maharzu on Bereshit Rabbah 39:7 raises the chronological difficulty that the Lech Lecha narrative precedes Sodom's destruction by some twenty-five years, resolving it by noting that Avraham's compassionate intercession was characteristic of him throughout his life (Perush Maharzu on Bereshit Rabbah 39:7:1).

Source 1 · Tanach

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Genesis 13:10-13

בראשית י״ג:י׳-י״ג

Genesis 13:10-13

Lech Lecha

The Torah first presents the fertile Jordan plain and Lot's choice of it, then explicitly identifies Sodom's inhabitants as exceptionally wicked. This juxtaposition makes Lot's separation from Abraham and his attraction to Sodom the narrative hinge leading toward the later destruction.

וַיִּשָּׂא־ל֣וֹט אֶת־עֵינָ֗יו וַיַּרְא֙ אֶת־כׇּל־כִּכַּ֣ר הַיַּרְדֵּ֔ן כִּ֥י כֻלָּ֖הּ מַשְׁקֶ֑ה לִפְנֵ֣י ׀ שַׁחֵ֣ת יְהֹוָ֗ה אֶת־סְדֹם֙ וְאֶת־עֲמֹרָ֔ה כְּגַן־יְהֹוָה֙ כְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם בֹּאֲכָ֖ה צֹֽעַר׃ וַיִּבְחַר־ל֣וֹ ל֗וֹט אֵ֚ת כׇּל־כִּכַּ֣ר הַיַּרְדֵּ֔ן וַיִּסַּ֥ע ל֖וֹט מִקֶּ֑דֶם וַיִּפָּ֣רְד֔וּ אִ֖ישׁ מֵעַ֥ל אָחִֽיו׃ אַבְרָ֖ם יָשַׁ֣ב בְּאֶֽרֶץ־כְּנָ֑עַן וְל֗וֹט יָשַׁב֙ בְּעָרֵ֣י הַכִּכָּ֔ר וַיֶּאֱהַ֖ל עַד־סְדֹֽם׃

Lot looked about him and saw how well watered was the whole plain of the Jordan, all of it—this was before GOD had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah—all the way to Zoar, like the garden of GOD, like the land of Egypt. So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward. Thus they parted from each other; Abram remained in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in the cities of the Plain, pitching his tents near Sodom.

Genesis 13:10-13

Genesis 18:16-33

Bereshit Rabbah 41:7

Bereshit Rabbah 50:5

Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah:19

Ramban on Genesis 13:13

Rashi on Genesis 13:13

Rashi on Genesis 13:10

Ramban on Genesis 13:10

Sforno on Genesis 13:13

Rabbeinu Bahya, Bereshit 18:20

Midrash HaGadol

Abarbanel on Torah, Genesis 19:23

Kli Yakar on Genesis

Meshekh Chokhmah on Genesis

Perush Maharzu on Bereshit Rabbah 39:7:1

Sefat Emet, Genesis, Lech Lecha

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