Image Details

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK / Bridgeman Art Library

Sulfur and fire rain down on the unsuspecting Sodom and Gomorrah as the angels lead Lot and his daughters (far right) out of the city, in this 16th-century painting by Flemish artist Joachim Patinir. After delivering Lot from the rowdy townsfolk of Sodom, the angels warn him of the city’s imminent destruction and urge him to get his family out. Lot tells his sons-in-law: “Get up, go from this city!” (Genesis 19:14)—just as Pharaoh will command Moses: “Get up, go from this place!” (Exodus 12:39).

Lot is instructed to leave immediately, but he “tarries” and is then “seized by the hand” and led out of the city. Similarly, the Israelites are told to go right away during the Exodus. They, however, cannot “tarry” because the Egyptians “seize them” and send them on their way.