What Does Genesis 13:10 Mean in the King James?
And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Lot sees Eden-like abundance, while the verse makes clear that fertility is not the same as wholeness or safety.
THE MEANING
You see a plain that is richly watered, like the garden of the LORD. Yet the verse sets that beauty beside the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, showing that visible abundance does not guarantee lasting wholeness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A flourishing appearance means a place is whole and secure.
THE ROOT
מַשְׁקֶה
mashqeh
GROWS FROM
שקה
To give drink; to water or irrigate.
“well watered” in this verse is mashqeh. The Hebrew word points to land being given water, not merely looking lush. The same root describes a river watering Eden’s garden, so the comparison to Eden is tied to the act that makes the landscape flourish.
ALSO GROWS
lehashqot: To water; to cause to drink.
לְהַשְׁקוֹת
Genesis 2:10 uses this form for the river watering the garden of Eden, linking Lot’s well-watered plain with Eden through the same act.
mashqeh: A drink or beverage; in some contexts, a cupbearer.
מַשְׁקֶה
The word carries the sense of giving drink, making the plain’s fertility a form of provision even as the verse sets it beside coming destruction.
THE PATTERN
Visible plenty and ordinary life do not keep a landscape from standing on the edge of sudden ruin.
And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.THE THREAD
And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.Genesis 2:10 uses the same root, שקה (shaqah), when the river waters Eden’s garden. Lot’s plain looks garden-like through that same act of watering, while Genesis 13:10 places its beauty beside the destruction to come.
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