Abraham looked down into the valley at what had been, until a short time before, Sodom and Gomorrah.

Toward all the land of the valley: the valley is the Jordan valley, the same as in verses 17 and 25.

And beheld, and lo is an archaic expression meaning “he looked and saw.” In many languages different words or expressions for looking or seeing will naturally be used for the verbs in this verse. At the beginning of the verse Abraham directed his looking toward the two cities: he “looked toward,” or as some translations have it, “looked for” Sodom and Gomorrah. Then here as he looked, his eyes told him the terrible truth: he “saw [and understood]” what had happened.

The smoke of the land went up: smoke in both occurrences translates a Hebrew word having the same root as one meaning “incense.” However, translators are not advised to substitute “incense” for smoke.

The smoke rising from the land is compared with the smoke of a furnace, in which furnace translates a word used in Exo 9.8, 10 and rendered “kiln” by Revised Standard Version. A “kiln” (see also New English Bible, Revised English Bible) is a large oven or furnace made of brick or stone and which is heated to high temperatures for hardening, burning, or drying. If a kiln is unknown, an oven or chimney may be used. Since attention is drawn to the smoke and not to the source of the smoke, it is also possible to say, for example, “like the smoke from a large fire.” In one translation this is “a big smoke went up just like [smoke from] a bushfire.”

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 .