The same word in Hebrew **"yada"** means *"To Know",* but the Context tells us that "To Know" means to have sexual intercourse-with or without permission.

In Gen. 4:1, Adam "**yada**" his wife, and she conceived. You don't get 'conception' by cognitive knowledge-something else had to happen.

In Jdgs 19:22-26, we see a simular passage as Gen. 19:4-8, but in this particular instance, there is no question of what **"Yada"** meant:

> 22 Now as they were making their hearts merry , behold, the men of the
> city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about , and beat
> at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying
> , **Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know
> him.**  23 And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, and
> said unto them, **Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you, do not so wickedly
> ; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly**.  24
> Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will
> bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good
> unto you: but unto this man do not so vileth a thing.  25 But the men
> would not hearken to him: **so the man took his concubine, and brought
> her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night
> until the morning:** and when the day began to spring , they let her go
> .  26 Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at
> the door of the man's house where her lord was, till it was light.  27
> And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the
> house, and went out to go his way: and, behold, the woman his
> concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, and her hands were
> upon the threshold.

There is no question that the men of the town intended to "Sodomize" the visitor, and when the old man who had given him hospitality objected, they 'accepted' the substitute of the man's concubine, who they abused until she was dead.

God did not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah over some "gross misunderstanding" they had; He destroyed them because of their "Yada" ing, which in both the Gen. 19:4-8 and Jdgs. 19:22-26 meant attempting to force themselves sexually on those who visited their village or city. God called it "Abomination"(Lev. 18:22) and in vs 25, the land 'vomited out' it's inhabitants. In the Judges 19 account, the men of Israel rallied together and so destroyed the "Men of Belial" that there were none left of Benjamin to claim an inheritance in the land God gave them(Jdgs. 21:3).

Lot's offering of his daughters was a last ditch attempt to preserve the dignity of the travelers who were being threatened with homosexual rape. Unlike the traveler of Judges 19, the angels were well equipt to handle the Sodomites-striking them with physical blindness for their moral perversity. In both instances, the moral depravity reached the point where not only the perpetrators but also those complicit with them were destroyed.