Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city: Suppose translates a word meaning “perhaps,” in which a condition is expressed. This expression will be repeated in verses 29, 30, 31, 32. This is more commonly expressed in English as “If there are…” (Good News Translation). Righteous is the same word used in the previous verse, referring to innocent people, ones who are not guilty of wrongdoing.

Wilt thou then destroy the place: this repeats the question from verse 23. Place, literally “it,” refers to Sodom. Good News Translation “whole city” means all the people in it, the innocent and the guilty.

And not spare it: spare translates an expression whose meaning in this context is to forgive or pardon. The effect of the combination destroy and not spare is to emphasize the element of destruction. The Hebrew has “not forgive the place.” The plea is that the place or city be spared, saved from destruction because of fifty innocent people. It may not be natural to speak of forgiving or pardoning a city, and so we must sometimes say “Will you still destroy the city if there are fifty innocent people in it? Won’t you avoid destroying it for their sakes?”

In this verse again, the form of the questions will often depend on the answer that Abraham expects the LORD to give. One translation that allows for either a positive or a negative answer is “If there are fifty good people in that town, will you destroy them with the others? Could you think of these fifty and let the town remain standing?” Others that rather expect a negative answer are “If there are fifty good people, will you destroy everybody? I think you will let them all live to save those fifty good ones” and “How can you finish off the whole town if there are fifty good people there? You can’t kill those fifty good people with the bad ones.”

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 .