And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight?”: their calling or shouting is also threatening, not merely inquiring. Who came to you means who came as your guests, who came home with you, or who came to spend the night with you.

In some languages there are different terms for calling out, including terms that carry the sense of a demand or a threat. Such terms are appropriate in this context. In other languages the sense of threat may be carried by the form of the question; for example, this is expressed in one translation as “Where are those two strangers? You’ve got them inside, eh? Well you bring them out….”

Bring them out to us, that we may know them: the verb know is used in 4.1, 17, 25 meaning to have sexual relations with a spouse. See 4.1 for discussion. However, the same verb is used here for homosexual relations. Translators must determine whether or not the word or phrase used in 4.1 is suitable in the present context. If homosexual relations are unknown or no term is available, translators may have to provide one. This may require a footnote to explain, for example, that the men of Sodom wanted to sleep with these men. One translation, for example, says, “We want to sleep with those two; just like men do to women we want to do to them.” Examples of translations that avoid direct expressions that may be regarded as offensive are Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “We want to lie with them,” Bible en français courant “we want to take our pleasure with them,” Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje “We want to have relations with them.”

In this action the men of Sodom are not only asking to have sex with Lot’s guests; they are also violating the right of a guest to be protected by the host, an equally bad misconduct.

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 .