פירוש על בראשית 19:30

כי ירא לשבת בצוער FOR HE FEARED TO DWELL IN ZOAR, because it was near to Sodom.

כי ירא לשבת בצוער, seeing the angel had spared the town only because there had not been time enough for Lot to escape to the mountain. Now that Lot could climb the mountain at his leisure, he was afraid to stay there longer than necessary.

FOR HE FEARED TO DWELL IN ZOAR. Rashi wrote, “Because it was near to Sodom.”
This is not so.²⁶²For since the angel had assured Lot, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city [Zoar], (Verse 21), Zoar would no longer be in danger of destruction even though it was near Sodom. (Mizrachi.) Rather, since it was one of the places upon which destruction had originally been decreed and it was only by Lot’s supplication that the angel exempted it because Lot could not make his escape to the mountain on that day,²⁶³Verse 19 here. Lot now thought that the angel would no longer extend his request, for he now had sufficient time to make the escape to the mountain.²⁶⁴This was why he feared to dwell in Zoar. This was why his daughter said, And there is not a man in the earth,²⁶⁵Verse 31 here. for she thought that with her father’s departure from Zoar the city was destroyed.

וישב בהר, because he thought that the entire valley would be destroyed, excluding the surrounding mountains.

ויעל, as soon as he had the opportunity, after all that was to be destroyed had already been destroyed. He left Tzoar being afraid that Tzoar might face the same fate as Sodom, even though a little later, seeing that he was well aware that its inhabitants were also wicked people.

כי ירא לשבת בצוער, “for he was afraid to dwell permanently in Tzoar. According to Rashi he was afraid to live in a town so close to Sodom. Nachmanides disagrees, writing that his fear was based on the fact that the decree of destruction had included Tzoar, though the timing had been amended. He felt that the angel would not extend the grace period much longer. This is also why the daughters were convinced that there would be no other men left on earth as possible marriage partners for them. (compare 31) Some say that Lot’s daughters definitely did not think that what had happened in Sodom had been worldwide. They only thought that there would not be any men willing to marry them, seeing they had been part of the condemned population of Sodom. They assumed that such men would feel they had been genetically harmed so that they could not bear healthy children, if at all. As a result, they would die without children unless they would be impregnated by their father.

כי ירא לשבת בצוער, “for he was afraid of taking up residence in Tzoar.” The angel had saved Tzoar only temporarily until Lot would recover sufficiently to escape to the mountain. As soon as he would have done so, he became afraid that the angel would complete the task of destroying it.

וישב בהר, this was the mountain which the angel had originally told him to go to. (verse 17)

וישב במערה, a cave in the side of the mountain