Gen. 19 Two angels come to Sodom, Gen. 19:1. Lot invites them in; they at first refuse, Gen. 19:2. They enter; he entertains them, and they eat, Gen. 19:3. The men of Sodom demand to know them, Gen. 19:4–5. Lot dissuades them, Gen. 19:6–7; offers his daughters; urges reason, Gen. 19:8.

And there came two angels, even those two which departed from Abraham, Gen. 18:22, and now were come to Lot, the third yet staying and communing with Abraham. Angels they truly were, though they be called men, Gen. 18. At even of the same day on which they departed from Abraham.

Go on your ways, and so this will be no hinderance to your occasions. We will abide in the street all night: this was no untruth, but really intended by them in the present state of things, and upon supposition that Lot should press them no further; but they also intended, if Lot was earnest with…

He did bake unleavened bread, because that was sooner prepared, that so they might eat it, and after that go to bed in due time.

Before they lay down to sleep, of which this word is used, Gen. 28:13, Lev. 14:47, Lev. 26:6. All the people from every quarter; some to exercise villany, and some to please themselves with the contemplation of it, and some out of curiosity, &c.

Either know who they are; or rather abuse them, as Lot’s answer explains it, and so that word is used, Gen. 4:1, Num. 31:17, Judg. 19:22. And for the sin here committed, see Lev. 18:22, Lev. 20:13, Rom. 1:26–27, 1 Cor. 6:9, Jude 7.

They were brethren by community of nature and habitation; see Gen. 9:5, Gen. 29:4, Lev. 19:17; and so he calls them, if possibly he might sweeten and restrain them.

Which have not known man, to wit, carnally. See Gen. 24:16, Num. 31:18, Judg. 11:39. Do ye to them as is good in your eyes, whatsoever your purpose or pleasure is. See the same phrase Gen. 20:15, Gen. 41:37, Num. 24:1;c.

Stand back, or, go further off, i.e. out of our way; stand not between us and the door; or, come hither, that so they might seize him, and proceed in the designed wickedness. This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: q.d.

They smote the men, Heb. with blindness, i.e. with a blindness both of body and mind. It was not a total blindness, as if they quite lost the use of their eyes, for they saw the house, though not the door, but it was a great dimness and confusion of their sight, and a disturbance in their common…

Which married his daughters; Heb. took, or were taking, or about to take, to wit, either to espouse, or to marry. Compare Gen. 6:2, Gen. 24:3, Gen. 28:6, Deut. 7:3. Anciently persons were first espoused, and after some time the marriage was consummated.

Which are here; Heb. which are found; i.e. which are present with thee, as this word is used, 1 Chron. 29:17, 2 Chron. 5:11, 2 Chron. 30:21, 2 Chron. 31:1.

He lingered, either through lothness to part with all his estate, or to lose his sons-in-law; or through astonishment and distraction of mind, which made him both listless and impotent.

Either one of the angels said this, or the third person, the Lord himself, who having parted from Abraham, after some time came to Lot, as appears both by the change of the number; for before this he speaks of them in the plural number, but from hence in the singular number, as Gen. 19:19, Gen.

i.e. Unto one of them, as is manifest from the following words.

I cannot escape to the mountain, because of the infirmity of my age, and the fainting of my spirits. Thus he showeth an unworthy and unreasonable distrust of God’s power and goodness, which he had now experienced and acknowledged.

And it is a little one; therefore as its inhabitants, so its sins are fewer, and it will not be an eminent example of thy vengeance, as the other places will be.

I have accepted thee; Heb. I have lift up thy countenance, i.e. granted thy request. The manner of the expression possibly may be taken from the custom of the eastern parts; where petitioners used not to fall upon their knees as we do, but to prostrate themselves with their face to the ground; and…

I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither, because of God’s decree and promise to save thee from the general destruction.

This phrase may note, either the time of the day when this was done; or rather the nature and quality of the day, that the sun appeared and shone forth that morning in great lustre and glory; which is well noted as a very considerable circumstance of the history, and a great aggravation of the…

And the neighbouring cities, Admah and Zeboim, as appears from Deut. 29:23, Jer. 49:18, Hos. 11:8. Brimstone is added to the fire, either to convey and carry down the fire, which in itself is light and apt to ascend; or to increase it, Isa. 30:33; or to represent the noisomeness of their lusts.

All the plain, to wit, where these cities and their territories lay, called the plain of Jordan, Gen. 13:10; all which then became, and to this day continues, to be a filthy lake, called the Dead Sea, because no fish lives in it.

His wife looked back, through curiosity, or unbelief, or desire of what she left, or from all these causes; from behind her husband, whom she followed.

God remembered Abraham; either, 1. The promise made to Abraham, Gen. 12:3. Or, 2. The prayer made by Abraham, Gen. 18:23–32, who doubtless in his prayers for Sodom would not forget Lot, though his prayer for him be not there mentioned.

He feared to dwell in Zoar, lest he should either suffer from them or with them; perceiving now that though it was a little city, yet there was more wickedness in it than he imagined.

In the earth; either, 1. In the whole earth; for they thought the same deluge of fire which destroyed the four cities had by this time extended itself to Zoar, and all other places, knowing that the whole world did lie in wickedness, and having possibly heard from their father, that the world, as…

Wine they carried with them, amongst other necessary provisions, either from Sodom or Zoar. This, though an incestuous and abominable action, yet they thought was made lawful by the supposed necessity, as in the beginning of the world the marriage of brethren and sisters was lawful because…

They made their father drink wine, to wit, in excess, so as to deprive him of the use of his reason and grace, which was likely to frustrate their project: this was a great sin, not only in them, but also in Lot himself, not to be excused by ignorance of the virtue of wine, which being known to…

Which they might possibly imagine to be an evidence of Divine approbation of their fact; whereas, indeed, it was a design of God to make a lasting monument of their sin and shame.

1807 Called his name Moab, i.e. of my father, begotten upon me by my father. So she had learned from her neighbours to declare her sin as Sodom, Isa. 3:9. The Moabites were a mischievous and infamous people, branded, as their brethren also the Ammonites were, with characters of God’s displeasure.

Called his name Ben-ammi, i.e. the son of my people, or kindred, not of the cursed race of the Sodomites, where I was to be married. This is something more modest than the other in the name she gives, but both impudently glorying in their sin and shame, of which they should have bitterly repented.