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The two angels came to Sodom at evening. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them. He bowed himself with his face to the earth,
Verse 1. Ground. Thus shewing himself a true relation and imitator of Abraham.
and he said, “See now, my lords, please come into your servant’s house, stay all night, wash your feet, and you can rise up early, and go on your way.” They said, “No, but we will stay in the street all night.”
Verse 2. My lords. He took them to be men.—No. They refuse at first, that he may have the merit of pressing them to accept the invitation. Bible.
He urged them greatly, and they came in with him, and entered into his house. He made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter.
Verse 4. Together. The whole city was corrupt; even the children were taught iniquity, as soon as they came to the years of discretion. Menochius.
They called to Lot, and said to him, “Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them.”
Verse 5. Know them. They boldly proclaim their infamous design.
Lot went out to them through the door, and shut the door after himself.
He said, “Please, my brothers, don’t act so wickedly.
Verse 7. This evil, so contrary to the rights of hospitality, and the law of nature.
See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof.”
Verse 8. Known man. They were neglected, while men were inflamed with desires of each other. See Romans 1. Bible.—Abuse. Lot tries by every means to divert them from their purpose; being well assured, that they would have nothing to do with his daughters, who were promised to some of the inhabitants. He endeavours to gain time, hoping perhaps that his guests would escape by some back way, while he is talking to the people. Bible.—Some allow that, under so great a perturbation of mind, he consented to an action which could never be allowed, though it was a less evil. Menochius.
They said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one fellow came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself a judge. Now we will deal worse with you than with them!” They pressed hard on the man Lot, and came near to break the door.
Verse 9. Thither; from whence thou camest, or into the house. Dost thou pretend to tell us what is wrong? We will treat thee more shamefully. Menochius. While they are beginning to offer violence.
But the men reached out their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door.
Verse 10. Behold, and so forth the angels not only secure Lot, but strike the whole people with blindness, so that they could neither find Lot’s door nor their own homes. Indeed, if they had been able to get back into their own houses, it would have been but a small consolation to them; since in a few minutes, the whole city was buried in sulphur and flame. Wisd. 19:16.
They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.
The men said to Lot, “Do you have anybody else here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place:
for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown so great before the LORD that the LORD has sent us to destroy it.”
Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up! Get out of this place, for the LORD will destroy the city!” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking.
Verse 14. Sons-in-law. Perhaps they also were among the crowd, (verse 4,) and therefore deserved to be abandoned to their incredulity; though, if they would have consented to follow Lot, the angels would have saved them for his sake.—In jest. So little did they suffer God’s judgments to disturb them!
When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city.”
But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and his two daughters’ hands, the LORD being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city.
Verse 16. He lingered, intreating the Lord to save the city; and loath, perhaps to lose all his property, for the sake of which he had chosen that abode.—Spared him, and his wife and two daughters, for his sake. These four were all that were even tolerably just: for we find them all soon giving signs of their weakness, and of the danger to which even the best are exposed by evil communications. Bible.
It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, “Escape for your life! Don’t look behind you, and don’t stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed!”
Verse 17. Look not back. Flee with all expedition; let no marks of pity for the wretched Sodomites, nor of sorrow for the lose of your property, be seen.
Lot said to them, “Oh, not so, my lord.
Verse 18. My lord, addressing himself to the angel, who led him and his wife. Menochius.
See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can’t escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die.
Verse 19. The mountain above Segor. He is faint-hearted, and does not comply with readiness and exactitude; though, when he had obtained leave to remain in Segor, he still fears, and flees to the mountain, verse 30, ( Bible.) on the south-east of the dead sea. Calmet.
See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn’t it a little one?), and my soul will live.”
He said to him, “Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.
Hurry, escape there, for I can’t do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
Verse 22. Segor. That is, a little one. Challoner.—In allusion to Lot’s words, verse 20. As it was small, fewer sinners would of course be contained in it. God had resolved to spare it, and therefore inspired Lot to pray for its preservation. Menochius.—Hence we may learn, how great a treasure and safeguard the just man is. Bible.
Zoar means “little”.
The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
Verse 23. Risen. It was morning when he left Sodom; (verse 15) so this city must not have been very distant. It was before called Bala, or swallowed up, and afterwards Salissa. Theodoret supposes it was destroyed as soon as Lot had left it; and it seems Lot’s daughters thought so, since they concluded all men, except their father, had perished.
Then the LORD rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of the sky.
Verse 24. The Lord rained … from the Lord, in a miraculous manner. Sodom and the other cities did not perish by earthquakes and other natural causes only, but by the divine wrath exerting itself in a visible manner. Here is an insinuation of a plurality of persons in God, as the Calmet. of Sirmich declares, chapter 14.—And Gomorrha, and the other towns which were not so large, nor perhaps so infamous.—Brimstone and fire; to denote the bad odour and violence of their disorders. Menochius.
He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.
Verse 25. All the inhabitants, both the body and soul, (Jude verse 7): even the infants would probably die in original sin, as their parents were unbelievers, and careless of applying the proper remedies. Bible.—The women imitated the men in pride and dissolute morals, so that all deserved to perish. Menochius.—All things; so that even now the environs are barren, and the lake dark and smoking. Tirinus.
But Lot’s wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
Verse 26. And his wife. As a standing memorial to the servants of God to proceed in virtue, and not to look back to vice or its allurements. Challoner.—His, Lot’s wife. The two last verses might be within a parenthesis.—Remember Lot’s wife, our Saviour admonishes us. Having begun a good work, let us not leave it imperfect, and lose our reward. Lu. 17. Matthew 24.—A statue of durable metallic salt, petrified as it were, to be an eternal monument of an incredulous soul. Wisd. 10:7. Some say it still exists. Bible.—God may have inflicted this temporal punishment on her, and saved her soul. Menochius.—She looked back, as if she distrusted the words of the angel; but her fault was venial. Tirinus.
Abraham went up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD.
He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.
When God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.
Verse 29. Lot. Even he owed his safety to the merits of Abraham.
Lot went up out of Zoar, and lived in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his two daughters.
The firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on the earth to come in to us in the way of all the earth.
Verse 31. No man. If this had been true, Lot might have had children by them, without any fault. But they ought to have consulted him. Bible.
Come, let’s make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.”
They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she arose.
It came to pass on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let’s make him drink wine again tonight. You go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.”
They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger went and lay with him. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she got up.
Verse 35. Rose up; being oppressed with grief and wine, which would not excuse him from sin, particularly this second time. Menochius.
Thus both of Lot’s daughters were with child by their father.
The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day.
Verse 37. Elder. She first proposes: she is not ashamed to call her child Moab, “from father.” The younger is rather more modest, and calls her son Ammon, “my people,” not born of the Sodomites. Many reasons might be alleged to extenuate, or even to excuse the conduct of Lot and his daughters, as many of the fathers have done. But the Scripture barely leaves it upon record, without either commendation or blame. Bible.
The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.