Genesis 18:24

24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare^[a] the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?

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Genesis 18:24 in Other Translations

KJV

24 Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?

ESV

24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it?

NLT

24 Suppose you find fifty righteous people living there in the city—will you still sweep it away and not spare it for their sakes?

MSG

24 What if there are fifty decent people left in the city; will you lump the good with the bad and get rid of the lot?

CSB

24 What if there are 50 righteous people in the city? Will You really sweep it away instead of sparing the place for the sake of the 50 righteous people who are in it?

Genesis 18:24 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 18:24

Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city
Within the Pentapolis, which consisted of five cities; and so ten righteous persons are supposed to be in each, as Jarchi observes, agreeably to the Targum of Jonathan;

``perhaps there may be fifty righteous persons in the city who pray before thee, ten for every city, answerable to the five cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar:''

wilt thou also destroy, and not spare the place for the fifty
righteous that [are] therein?
here Abraham becomes an advocate and intercessor for all the inhabitants of the place, even the wicked, that they might not be destroyed, but spared and be delivered from impending ruin, for the sake of the fifty righteous among them; before he seemed only concerned for the righteous, lest they should perish with the rest, and that some method might be found out and taken to distinguish them from them; but here he expresses himself in favour of the wicked also, that they might be spared, provided such a number of righteous ones was found among them.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Genesis 18:24 In-Context

22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD.

23 Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?

25 Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

26 The LORD said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

Cross References 1

1. ver 26; Jeremiah 5:1

Footnotes 1

[a]. Or "forgive" ; also in verse 26