Verse 10 is background information on the setting, to assist the reader.
Full of bitumen pits translates the Hebrew “with pits with pits,” meaning there were very many pits. A pit is a large open hole on the surface of the ground. Bitumen translates the same word used in 11.3. See 11.3 and 6.14 for comments.
As the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled: kings in Hebrew is singular, but the reference is to the king of Sodom and the king of Gomorrah, or kings as in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. The narrator expects us to know that the five kings were being defeated, losing the battle, and that is why these kings were attempting to escape. Accordingly it may be necessary to make this clear; for example, “When the five kings saw they were losing the battle…,” or in the words of one translation, “Those five kings had to run away, because King Chedorlaomer was starting to beat them.”
Interpreters and translators differ in their understanding of the second part of this verse. Revised Standard Version has as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them. Some could mean some kings or some soldiers. Good News Translation makes it clear that it is the kings who fall into the pits, and goes on to say “the other three kings escaped to the mountains.” New English Bible has the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fall into the pits, but “the rest escaped to the hill country,” meaning that the rest of the kings escaped. Revised English Bible, on the other hand, has “When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some of their men fell into them, but the rest….” It is also possible to take the reference as meaning the kings and their soldiers; one translation says, for example, “the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and their soldiers fell into the pits, but the other three kings and their soldiers escaped and hid in the hills.” For translators who require more information, “falling into the pits” means that they died there.
Speiser argues that the verb translated fell often carries a reflexive meaning, as in the phrase “to fall on one’s neck,” which describes a voluntary act, and so translates “The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah flung themselves into these [pits] in their flight; the others escaped….” New Jerusalem Bible follows this rendering. If the translator follows Speiser’s suggestion, it may be clearer to say, for example, “the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah flung themselves into the tar pits to die” or “the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah killed themselves by jumping into the tar pits.”
Speiser’s point of view is consistent with the narrator’s way of telling the story. He never mentions the soldiers; all events are told as if the kings alone perform every act. Translators may follow Speiser or adapt Good News Translation to say, for example, “When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah were losing the battle, they tried to escape, but they fell into the tar pits.”
The rest fled to the mountain may be rendered “the other kings ran away to the mountains” or “the other three kings left the battle and hid in the mountains.” The contrast between the fate of the two kings and the fate of the other three is well brought out by the translation that says “… those two fell into the pits, but the other three got away….” Mountain is singular in the Hebrew but refers to a range of mountains, Moab. Therefore Good News Translation says “to the mountains.”
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .