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Lot and Sodom
Read the cited context and compare 10 documented textual points.
Comparison 15 of 34
Lot and Sodom
The two accounts at a glance
Bible
World English BibleLot receives visitors in Sodom; the city is judged, Lot's wife becomes a pillar of salt, and the narrative includes his daughters.
Qur'an
Sahih InternationalLot warns his people; the town is destroyed and his wife is among those left behind.
These are concise account summaries with exact references. Open the complete texts at these passages →
10 documented comparison points
The comparison covers the arrival of the messengers, the city's assault, Lot's household, destruction, and aftermath in Genesis and every substantial Qur'anic retelling. Labels use one standard: agreement means both texts state the point; additional detail means one adds a non-conflicting detail; omission means one is silent; ambiguity means an identity or meaning is not explicit; contradiction means both texts state mutually exclusive claims. Stylistic wording alone is not counted.
How the place is identified
The narrative names Sodom and Gomorrah and locates Lot at Sodom's gate.
The retellings normally call them Lot's people or the overturned cities rather than naming Sodom and Gomorrah in the verses.
Lot's hospitality
Lot bows, urges the visitors into his house, serves a meal with unleavened bread, and initially does not know they are angels.
Lot is distressed by the messengers and fears he cannot protect them; the meal and unleavened bread are not narrated.
The mob's demand
Men from every part of the city demand that Lot bring out the male visitors so they may know them sexually.
The people rush toward Lot's guests. The wider retellings condemn their lust for men, highway wrongdoing, and public indecency.
Lot offers his daughters
Lot offers his two virgin daughters to the mob instead of the guests.
Lot says, "Here are my daughters; they are purer for you." The text does not specify their number or call them virgins.
How the attackers are stopped
The angels pull Lot inside and strike the men at the door with blindness, so they cannot find the entrance.
Q 54 says the people seek Lot's guests and God obliterates their eyes, but most retellings move directly to warning and destruction without the doorway rescue details.
Who is warned to leave
Lot warns his sons-in-law, who think he is joking. He leaves with his wife and two daughters after the angels seize their hands.
Lot is told to depart by night with his family except his wife. Sons-in-law and angels physically seizing the family are not narrated.
The fate of Lot's wife
Lot's wife leaves the city but looks back and becomes a pillar of salt.
She is decreed to remain with those destroyed or is described as an old woman left behind; no look back or pillar of salt is narrated.
How the cities are destroyed
Yahweh rains sulfur and fire from heaven, overthrows the cities and plain, and smoke rises like a furnace.
The cities are turned upside down and struck by a rain or marked stones of baked clay; some retellings emphasize a blast at sunrise.
Lot's escape to Zoar
Lot negotiates permission to flee to the small city Zoar before later living in a cave.
No negotiation over Zoar, later cave residence, or fear of living in Zoar is narrated.
Lot and his daughters after the destruction
Genesis narrates Lot's daughters intoxicating him, conceiving Moab and Ben-ammi, and becoming ancestors of Moab and Ammon.
The account ends with rescue and destruction and contains no cave incest narrative or ancestry of Moab and Ammon.
What do both texts share?
- Lot addresses people who reject his appeal or warning.
- Visitors and a threatened household precede divine judgment.
- Lot is saved while his wife is not.