Genesis 19
PATdispatched his message to Abraham; unto whom he was peculiarly sent. (See xviii. 2.) At even. They had been with Abraham in the heat of the dayr and were now come to the gates of Sodom. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom.’] The,Hebrew doctors will have it, that ho was made a judge in this city; and the prime judge of all: for they adventure to name five (in Bereschith Rabba) and say Lot was the president of the court, which sat in the gate of tho city. But this is only a fancy of theirs: he rather sat in the gate of this city, as Abraham did at his tent door; to invite strangers to his house (according to the hospitality of those days), which was the greater charity, because he knew the city to be so wicked, that (if we may believe the Hebrew doctors) they not only denied them all assistance, but abused them, and were cruel to them, (see Gemara Sanhedrim, cap. 11. and Pirke’Eliezer, cap. 15.) for which last, they quote those words of Ezekiel, (xxii.29.) “they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.” Which arc spoken of Israel, whom (xvi. 49.) he had compared with Sodom: one of whose sins, he says, was, want of compassion to “the poor and needy.” Rose up to meet them, &c] Just as Abraham did; whose civility he imitates, as well as his charity. For the bowing himself so lowly, was a token of the great honour he paid them: who had the appearance of great and noble persons. And therefore he calls them lords’, in the next verse. may be satisfied of tins. The country where these cities stood, being become a pan, or receptacle, (as the forenamed doctor well calls it) of such a strange moisture, that it may be called liquid pitch, rather than water: for it is so stiff that no wind will move it: nor will a camel sink, if thrown into it; nor any fish, or bird, that uses the water, live in it: and therefore called the Dead Sea, and Salt Sea, as Salmasius thinks, (Exerc. Plinian. p. 577. 614.) because no creature can live there, and because the noisome steams that come from it blast all that grows of itself, or is sown in the earth about it. Nor do the rivers that run into it, at all alter it; but it infects all their waters, with the loathsome qualities of those dregs of God’s wrath (to use Doctor Jackson’s words once more) which first settled in it, at this overthrow: just like bad humours, when they settle in any part of our bodies, plant, as it were, a new nature in it, and turn all nourishment into their substance. Ver. 2G. His wife looked back from behind him.’] She not only lagged behind, as we speak, but turned about aud stood still awhile, bewailing perhaps the loss of all there: or, as some of the Jews fancy, to see what would become of her kindred, and whether they would follow her or no. Became a pillar of salt.] Or, as some understand it, an everlasting monument: whence, perhaps, the Jews have given her the name of Adith, (as they call her in Pirke Eliczcr, cap. 25.) because she remained a perpetual testimony of God’s just displeasure. For she standing still too long, some of that dreadful shower, before mentioned, overtook her; and falling upon her, wrapped her body in a sheet of nitro-sulphureous matter: which congealed into^a crust as hard as stone: and made her appear like a pillar of salt, her body being as it were candied in it. Kimchi calls it aheap of salt; which’ the Hebrews say continued for many ages. Their conjecture is not improbable, who think the fable of Niobc was hence derived: who, the poets feign, was turned into a stone, upon her excessive grief for the death of her children.
Genesis 19:1
J±ND there came tu)o angels. There were three at the first, (xviii. 2.) but the chief of them was gone; having
Genesis 19:2
Turn in, I pray you, and tarry all night, &c. It is late, and the night draws on; take up your lodging with me, and refresh yourselves; and go away as early as you please. And they said, Nay, &c] It was as great a civility in strangers, not to be forward to accept, as it was in him to invite: and therefore they refuse him at first, to try his kindness: but intending, no doubt, to embrace his offer, if he pressed them further. So the following words are to be understood. We will abide in the street all night.].Unless you persist in your invitation. In those hot countries, it was not unusual to lie in the open air; especially in summer. And in a city, they were safe from being infested by wild beasts, or robbers. Concerning washing the feet, see xviii. 4.
Genesis 19:3
He pressed upon them greatly. Would not be denied, but was so earnest that they yielded. It is the same word with that verse 9. Bake unleavened bread.] Which would be soonest ready, that so they might, in good time, repose themselves.
Genesis 19:4
And before they lay down. To take their rest. Both old and young.] A manifest token of an universal depravation of manners, and dissolution of government. From every quarter.] Or, as some understand it, from the most extreme parts of the city: as in Psalm xix. 4. One, it seems, told another, what goodly persons were come to Iheir city: and all ran to the house where they heard they were, with the same wicked inclinations. This is a proof there were not ten righteous persons in Sodom.
Genesis 19:5
That we may know them. A modest word for a lewd fact. Some, indeed, will have it understood simply, of their examining what they were, whence they came, and what their business was. Which might perhaps be their pretence: but Lot’s answer to them, (ver. 7, 8.) interprets their meaning to be filthy. Ver. G. Went out at the door.] To try if he could persuade them to depart. From vhence, perhaps, the Jews gathered he was a man of authority among them.
Genesis 19:7
Do not so wickedly. As to break the rights of hospitality, and violate the laws of nature.
Genesis 19:8
Behold now, I have two daughters, &c. This must be understood to have been spoken, in a great perturbation and perplexity of mind; and out of a vehement desire to preserve the men whom he had entertained: which made him say, he had rather they should abuse his own daughters, than those strangers. For therefore came they under the shadow of my roof] He pleads the laws of hospitality, which obliged him to protect them; though he himself suffered by it.
Genesis 19:9
Arid they said, Stand back. Give way to us. This one fellow, &c] Here is one, and he but a sojourner; who takes upon him to be a censor morum, and control the whole city. This shews he was no judge. Now will we deal worse with thee, &c] Abuse thee more than them. For it is the same word with ver. 7. “doing wickedly.”
Genesis 19:11
Smote the men with blindness. Not with atotal blindness, (for then they would not have sought for the door of Lot’s house, but rather have groped for the way home) but such a dimness that they could not see any thing distinctly, or in its right place: but there seemed to be a door, suppose, where there was none: or, there w T as such a confusion in their brain, that all things were turned topsy-turvy (as we speak) in their imagination; and appeared quite otherwise than they were.
Genesis 19:12
Son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters. Here the copulative and, must be expounded or; as it is used in many places: (xiii. 8.) " Let there be no strife between me and thee, or between my herdsmen and thine." And so we translate it, Exod. xii. 5. " Thou shalt take it out of the sheep, or out of the goats:" and, Exod. xxi. 15. " He that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be put to death." And so it should be translated here, “Hast thou any here besides son-in-law, or thy sons, or thy daughters?” As much as to say, wc are desirous to save all that are nearly related to thee for thy sake.
Genesis 19:14
Which married his daughters. Had espoused them for their wives, but had not yet consummated their marriage; as some understand it. Others will have it, that, besides those two virgin daughters at home with him, he had other daughters, who were actually married hi the city. Which they gather from the next verse, " take thy wife and two daughters, which are here:" as if he had more daughters elsewhere. And R. Jelmda (in Pirke Eliezer, cap. 25.) names one of them married to one of the great menof Sodom, and calls her Pclothit. But this seems rather to have been the name of one of them who were saved by the angels, and thence so called: for it signifies delivered, or snatched from destruction. He seemed as one that mocked.] Who was not in earnest; but only made sport with them, and spake in jest. For it is the same word from whence Isaac is derived, which signifies laughter.
Genesis 19:15
And when the morning arose. Atbreakofday: for the sun did not rise, till Lot was got into Zoar, (ver. 23.) Take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here.] These last words, which are here,are not without emphasis: Microsoft ® CHAP. XIX.] UPON GENESIS. and are paraphrased thus by the Chaldee interpreter, " which are found faithful with thee:" are not corrupted by the common wickedness of this place; or, that believe what we threaten.
Genesis 19:16
While he lingered. Being loath to leave his goods, or his sons-in-law, and children; or, as some think, praying God to spare the city. N The men laid hold upon his hand, &c] One of the angels laid hold upon him and his wife; and the other upon his two daughters: whom they pulled out of the house with some kind of constraint; and led them out of the city.
Genesis 19:17
Hesmd. That angel who had a peculiar charge of preserving Lot and his family. (See xviii. 2.) Escape for thy life.] Make haste, if thou lovest thy life. Look not behind thee.]’ To see what becomes ■ of thy goods; or, as if thou wast loath to leave Sodom. Make no delay, no, not so much as to turn about and look back. Neither stay thou in the plain.] Do not rest till thou hast got out of the plain: for everyplace in it is to be destroyed.
Genesis 19:18
And he said unto them, &c. Both the angels were still with him: but he seems particularly to speak to him that led him and his wife out of Sodom; who had spoken before to him, and bid him make haste; (ver. 17.) But there are those (Franzius, for instance,) who would have the word Adonai translated, not my Lord, but my Lords, as if he spake to both.
Genesis 19:19
J cannot escape to the mountains, &c. He that lingered before, (ver. 1G.) now thought he could not make haste enough. Either being crazy, or, tired with sitting up all night; or, fearing the destruction would overtake him, before he could reach the mountain; and desiring, perhaps, to have a better dwelling than that..
Genesis 19:20
My soul shall live. Rejoice, and be exceeding thankful.
Genesis 19:21
See, I have accepted thee. Granted thy request. I will not overthrow, &c] A wonderful instance of the Divine clemency: which in the midst of wrath remembered mercy.
Genesis 19:22
Haste thee. Make no more delays: no, not to make any further petitions. I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither.] Having made thee this promise, I must defer the vengeance till thou art safe there. Called ZoarJ] In aftertimes it had this name; from the smallness of it: which he twice mentions, (ver. 20.)
Genesis 19:24
The Lord rained from the Lord. It cannot be denied that here is an intimation of a plurality of persons in the Deity; yet there are many, both ancient and modern interpreters, who think the meaning is no more, than the Lord sent this rain from himself; it being the manner of the Scripture phrase, to repeat the noun instead of the pronoun (as grammarians speak); of which Cocceius (upon the Gemara of the Sanhedrim, cap. 4.) gives these instances, Gen. ii. 20. 1 Sam. xii. 11. Zech. i. 1G. And there are others, which come nearer to these words, Exod. xxiv. " And he (i.e. the Lord, ver. 3.) said unto Moses, Come up unto the Lord." Hos. i. 7. " I will save them by the Lord their God." Zech. x. 12. " I will strengthen them in the Lord,"&c. The council of Sirmium, indeed, anathematizes those who thus interpret these words, and do not say, " the Son rained from the Father," (Socrat. lib. ii. cap.. 30.) Yet’ St. Chrysostom’didnot fear to say this is an idiom of the Scripture language, which intended only to shew, on Kvptog rrjv rijjLwpiav lirnyayz, that the Lord brought this punishment upon them. Others also have observed, that the Scripture phrase being very concise, by the Lord, (in the beginning of the verse) may be meant, the angel of the Lord. For wheresoever mention is made of the Lord, it is to be understood of him, uh JV2> and his house of judgment (as the Jewish doctors speak); i. e. of the angels which attend his Divine Majesty. And thus I find Arethas (or Andreas Csesariensis), in his Commentaries upon the Revelation/ p. 729, understands these words. For he there compares that captain who was over the locusts, (Rev. ix.ll.) to the angel that was sent to cut off the army of Senacherib, and to this angel, f O tQv SoSo/xojv tov Sicnrvpov SXeOpov linGTfoag; who had the charge of executing the fiery destruction upon Sodom committed to Mm. For all angels^ sqith he, aTe not ministering spirits, tig StaKoviav auTvptov, for men’s preservation, but some serve, tig riubypiav, for punishment. And that they can bring fire from heaven, and raise storms and tempests, appears by the story of Job. Out of heaven.] From the Lord whose seat is in heaven. The like expression we have, Rev. xx. 9. Upon Sodom, and upon Gomorrah.] And the neighbouring cities, Admah and Zebohn; as appears from Deut. xxix. 23. *■■. Brimstone (t?id fire.] A most hideous shower, or rather storm, of nitre, sulphur, or bitumen, mingled with fire, fell upon this country from above; and, as the tradition was among the heathen, accompanied with a dreadful earthquake: which made an irruption of those bituminous waters, whereby this country was turned into the lake called Asphaltites, or the Salt, or Dead Sea. So Strabo, lib. xvi. in his description of that lake. And, indeed, it doth not seem improbable, that the earth quaked while the heavens did so terribly frown, and the Almighty’s voice thundered from the clouds, as Doctor Jackson speaks, book i. on the Creed, chap. 15. For the word Karampocprj, (which St. PeteT uses, 2 Pet. ii. 6.) may be thought to import some such subversion. But itwas his ignorance of the sacred tradition 1 in the Scriptures, which made Strabo wholly ascribe the desolation of that country to the earth; and not at all to the heavens. Whereas Tacitus, who was betteT informed, says these Judaical cities (as he calls them), c< fulminum jactu (or ictu)arsisse,“iwere burnt by the stroke of thunderbolts from heaven: and, a little after, “igne coelesti flagrasse,” were set on fire and consumed by lightning, (lib. v. Histor.) With which fell such abundance of bituminous stuff, that the valley which had only some pits of bitumen in it before, (xiv. 8. 10.) became a lake of it.
Genesis 19:25
And he overthrew those cities, &c. " Super impiumpopulumgehennammisit e coelo,” as Salvian glosses, (lib. i. et lib. iv. de Gubern. Dei.) he sent hell front heaven upon an impious people. Of whose destruction there remains an everlasting monument in the Salt Sea: into which that plain country is turned. The quality of which, and of the soil about it, is so contrary to the nature of all other seas, or inland lakes; that no philosopher can give an account of it, like that which Moses hath given us: as the same Doctor Jackson truly observes. He that will read Tacitus in the place foreraentioned, or Pliny, or Diodorus,
Genesis 19:27
Gat to the place, where he stood before the Lord. Where he prayed, say the Jews, or communed with God,(xviii. 22. 33.) *
Genesis 19:28
Tlie smoke of the country, &c. Some think, the Hebrew word signifies, like thesinoke of a lime-kiln; or, of a boiling cauldron. After the shower was over, the reck or steam of it remained; and made that country look dismally, which before was like " the garden of God,"(xiii.lO.)but now become a stinking puddle of filthy water, Kaff virtpfio- \f\v SwruStc* as Diodorus speaks, noisome beyond expression.
Genesis 19:29
Overthrew the cities, wherein Lot dwelt. In one of which he dwelt: which is an usual manner of speaking in Scripture. Gen. viii.4. “The ark rested on the mountains (i.e. on one of the mountains) of Ararat/’ Judg.xii.7. " Jephthah was buried in the cities (i.e. one of the cities) of Gilcad.” Which explains that of St. Matthew, xxvi. 8. " when his disciples (i.e. one of his disciples, Judas,) saw it, he had indignation," &c.
Genesis 19:30
And Lot went up out of Zoar, &c. It appears from hence, that this good man was very timorous, not having so strong a faith as his uncle Abraham. For he that had lately obtained a pardon for this place, because he was afraid he should not have time enough to get to the mountain, now forsakes it; for fear, I suppose, a new shower should come from heaven and destroy it, after the rest; because the inhabitants, perhaps, continued nnrcformed, though they had seen such a tcrr’blc example of the Divine vengeance upon their wicked neighbours. If his ci fear to dwell in Zoar" proceeded from this cause, it was the more reasonable; because he might think, though God had spared them for the present, yet they, taking no warning by the calamity of their country, would shortly perish as the rest had done. And so Thcodorct, and others, think this city was afterwards destroyed: of which there is no certain record: and if the tradition be true, it was not speedily swallowed up, as they report, but retained for some time the name of Zoar; being before called Bela, (xiv. 2.) Dwelt in the mountain.] It is not said what mountain; but it is probable one of the mountains in the country afterward called Moab; from one of his children, which he here begat. For Epiphanius (Hoercs. liii.) describes the country of Moab as lying ttIquv rr\g aXuKf/e, &c. beyond the Salt, or Dead Sea. (See Salmas. Exerc. Plin. p. G15.)
Genesis 19:31
There is not a man in all the earth. Not one remaining of their kindred, that they knew: for they were not much acquainted, we may suppose, beyond that country which was destroyed; and those of Zoar were so wicked, that they looked upon them as beasts, rather than men.
Genesis 19:32
Let us make him drink wine. Which they brought with them out of Sodom, to support their spirits in their flight; or, else got at Zoar: of which they invited their father to drink liberally, and cheer himself under his extreme great sorrow. That we may preserve seed of our father.] This fact of theirs being objected by Celsus against our religion, Origen gives this account of it, (lib. iv. contra Ccls.) That these two maids having learned something of the conflagration of the world, and seeing their own city and country destroyed by fire, imagined, Zwirvpovrov yivovg rwv avQpwwwv, that the seminary of mankind remained only in their father and them. And if what they did was upon this supposition, that there was no other way to restore the world, they did no worse than the stoics thought their wise man might do,’ if the race of mankind were extinct, so that none but he and his daughter were left alive. Irenoeus makes the same excuse for them, and says they did this innocently, and in their simplicity, believing all mankind were destroyed, (lib. iv. cap. 51.) But I take their conjecture to be highly probable, who conceive that the eager desire, which then possessed the hearts of good people, to fulfil the promise of the Messiah, w r as that which put them upon this, otherwise monstrous crime. For which there are these reasons: first, that they had lived so chastely in the midst of the impurities of Sodom, that one cannot think a spirit of unclcanness now entered into them, and carried them to this action: and indeed, secondly, their joining together in this contrivance (whereas matters of this nature used to bo carefully concealed from the nearest friends, or make them fall out, if they find themselves engaged in the same intrigue), shews that they were acted by counsel and design, and not by brutish lust: and, thirdly, their perpetuating the memory of this fact, in the names of their children, is a demonstration there was something extraordinary in it; and that they were not ashamed of it, but rather gloried in it; desiring it might be remembered that these children were descended from Lot. Who they thought, perhaps, might pretend to fulfil the promise as well as Abraham: being Digitized by microsoft ® CHAP. XX.] UPON GENESIS. the son of Abraham’s elder brother; and called out of Sodom by the ministry of angels, as Abraham was called out of Chaldea.
Genesis 19:33
He perceived not when she lay down, &c. This seems hard to be understood: but it must be noted, that Moses only says he did not perceive when she came to bed to him, and when she got up again: not that he did not perceive w T hen he lay with her, of which he could not but have some perception. Though M. Montaigne, in his Essays, relates a story of a widow, who, being drunk, was abused by a hind in her house, and aftertrard finding herself with child, could not remember how it came to pass. But the fellow at last confessed his fact: of which, whatsoever sense she had then, she had perfectly forgot it when she awaked.
Genesis 19:34
Go thou in, &c. If he had retained any remembrance of w r hat he had done the night before, one cannot think he would have fallen into the same snare so soon again. For which reason, it is probable, he did not think he had been intoxicated, but only drank so freely as to make him sleep soundly, and forget his sorrow.
Genesis 19:37
Moab. Most will have this word to signify, from my father. But Drusius, in Deut. ii. 8. takes the import of it to be, Aqua Patris.
Genesis 19:38
Ben-ammi. This signifies as much as, the son of my people. Which doth not acknowledge so plainly as the other, that this son w r as begotten by her father: but only that he w T as the son of one of her own nation, or kindred, not by a stranger.