Then Abraham drew near: that is, Abraham approached, came close to the LORD. This may suggest that he is using the fact of a close relationship to make a bold request. The speech that Abraham now makes in verses 23-25 is in fact a very bold request. Although it includes questions in Hebrew, these are rhetorical questions; and the whole speech is really a strong plea, based on the LORD’s righteous nature, for the people of Sodom to be spared on account of the minority of good, that is to say, innocent, people in it. Translators should aim to maintain a consistent tone and a consistent line of argument through the whole speech, as far as possible.
Wilt thou indeed destroy…?: the word translated indeed is as in verse 13 and has the sense of “really, truly.” Destroy is literally “sweep away,” used also in verse 24 (see New English Bible, Revised English Bible). See also 19.15, 17, “consumed,” where a different Hebrew verb is used but with the same sense as here. Destroy with people as the object means “to cause them to die,” “to kill them.”
The righteous with the wicked: Abraham’s question is whether God will spare the righteous people who may be in Sodom. Both nouns are singular, but their sense is collective. Righteous is as used in 6.9; 7.1.
It should be kept in mind that the LORD is preparing to make an investigation as to the wickedness of the people of Sodom. He is about to judge them, and accordingly the two classes of people are not simply the morally good and the morally evil, but the legal categories of the innocent and the guilty. Bible en français courant translates “Lord are you going to cause the innocent and the guilty to perish together?” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch says “Will you really destroy the guilty and the innocent without distinction?” Both of these are suitable models for translating. We may also say, for example, “Lord, are you going to kill those who have done no wrong, along with those who are guilty of wrongdoing?” or “… kill those who are not guilty, the same as the guilty ones?”
This first question is not an easy one to translate. One basic difficulty is that in many languages the form of the question will depend on the answer that is anticipated: is it “No” or “Yes”? In the light of what follows, particularly in verse 25, many translators assume that the answer anticipated is “No” and translate as follows, for example: “You won’t finish off all the good [innocent] people along with the guilty ones, will you?”
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .