What Does Genesis 19:23 Mean in the King James?
The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into 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
At sunrise Lot reaches Zoar, whose name means “smallness,” and a little refuge becomes the place where a new day begins.
THE MEANING
Light opens over the earth as Lot enters the small refuge he has reached. For you, safety can begin in a modest place while the danger behind you is still real.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that rescue only counts when it is complete and impressive gives way here: a modest refuge can hold life in a crisis.
THE ROOT
צֹעַר
Tso'ar
GROWS FROM
צער
ṣ-ʿ-r
To be small; smallness or insignificance.
Zoar’s name carries the same smallness Lot asks for in the preceding verse. The refuge he reaches already holds the modest scale of his plea: at sunrise, this little place is where arrival and shelter meet.
ALSO GROWS
miṣʿār: A little one; a small thing.
מִצְעָר
Lot uses this word for the nearby city in Genesis 19:20, linking his request for refuge directly to Zoar’s name.
tsa'ir: Small or young.
צָעִיר
This related form carries the same sense of smallness, showing how the root can describe both limited size and youth.
THE PATTERN
A small or fragile refuge can hold life in the middle of danger.
To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A Song upon Alamoth. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.THE THREAD
Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.The phrase “a little one” is מִצְעָר (miṣʿār), from the same root as Zoar (צֹעַר, Tso’ar). The name in verse 23 carries Lot’s description of the refuge into its arrival scene: what he calls little becomes the place where his life continues.
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