Exegesis:

homoiōs kathōs egeneto ‘in the same way, as it was…’ homoiōs may either be taken together with kathōs ‘in the same way as,’ or connect the comparisons of vv. 26f and vv. 28ff, preferably the latter. Hence a rendering like “also” (New English Bible).

ēsthion, epinon, ēgorazon, epōloun, ephuteuon, oikodomoun ‘they ate, drank, bought, sold, planted, built,’ cf. on v. 26. The description is more extensive here and partly different, but no special meaning is to be attached to the differences.

(V. 29) hē de hēmera exēlthen Lōt apo Sodomōn ‘but on the day on which Lot went out of Sodom, or, left Sodom.’

ebrexen pur kai theion ap’ ouranou ‘it rained fire and sulphur from heaven,’ or, ‘he (i.e. God) made it rain fire and sulphur from heaven,’ preferably the latter, and Gen. 19.24. ebrexen is punctiliar aorist after the descriptive imperfects in v. 28.

theion ‘sulphur,’ ‘brimstone.’

kai apōlesen pantas ‘and destroyed all.’ For pantas cf. on v. 27. The subject of apōlesen is the same as that of ebrexen.

(V. 30) kata ta auta estai ‘in the same way,’ or, ‘so it will be,’ taking up kathōs in v. 28.

hē hēmera ho huios tou anthrōpou apokaluptetai ‘on the day on which the Son of man is revealed.’ apokaluptō here of the glorious manifestation of the Son of man at his coming.

Translation:

Likewise (introducing a second comparison), or, ‘similarly,’ ‘or again,’ and cf. “so too, what happened in the time of Lot will be repeated” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation).

The final clause (v. 30) may better be rendered as an independent sentence, e.g. ‘similarly, in the days of Lot everybody ate, …, but on the day when Lot went out of S. fire … destroyed them all. So will it be (or, that will happen also) on the day when the Son of man is revealed’; or, it may be transposed to its original position, ‘or again, when the Son of man is revealed, the situation will be as it was in the time of Lot; people ate….’

They bought, they sold, or, ‘they bought and sold goods’ (cf. Pohnpeian). That the two processes are basically reciprocal is sometimes made explicit, e.g. Navajo; since they view the same process, though from different sides, they may be rendered by one expression, e.g. ‘they traded-with-each-other’ (Yao; similarly in Javanese, lit. a compound form, ‘sold-bought’).

They planted may, again, require an object, e.g. ‘they planted seedlings,’ ‘they sowed seed’; elsewhere it is more idiomatic to use two verbs, ‘(they) sowed planted’ (Thai 1967).

They built, or, ‘they built houses’ (Trukese). Thai 1967, again, uses a double rendering, ‘(they) built made.’

(V. 29) Fire and brimstone rained, preferably, ‘he/God made it rain fire and brimstone,’ ‘he/God caused to fall/descend/come a rain of fire and brimstone (or, fire and brimstone as a rain).’ Brimstone, or, ‘sulphur,’ may be described as ‘fiery stones’ (Dan), ‘burning/inflammable stones (or, stuff).’

(V. 30) Is revealed, or, “is brought into the light” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation), “appears” (An American Translation), ‘shows himself,’ ‘becomes-visible’ (cf. Javanese).

Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.