So they made their father drink wine that night: So introduces the action that follows from the proposal made in verse 32. Made … drink wine is the same as in verse 32. Here again it will be necessary in some languages to say clearly that the wine made Lot drunk; for example, one translation says “they gave him wine, and that wine made him very drunk.” That night refers to the night of the proposal; thus the daughters immediately put the plan into action.

Went in, and lay may be considered a single event, that is “spent the night,” “slept with,” “had sex with.”

He did not know when she lay down or when she arose: Lot not being party to the scheme, and being heavily drunk, is described as being unaware of what has happened. If the Revised Standard Version wording is unclear, we may also say, for example, “Being drunk he did not know when his daughter laid down with him or when she left him.” In some languages the detail of this statement seems like unnecessary repetition of the previous clause, and translators just say, for example, “he didn’t know what she [his daughter] did because he was very drunk.”

The narrator’s description of the older daughter’s night with her father is repeated almost exactly for the second daughter in verse 35.

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 .