HAYDOCK CATHOLIC BIBLE COMMENTARY ON THE OLD TESTAMENT

GENESIS 19

CHAPTER XIX

Ver. 1. Ground. Thus shewing himself a true relation and imitator of Abraham.

Ver. 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. H.

Ver. 4. Together. The whole city was corrupt; even the children were taught iniquity, as soon as they came to the years of discretion. M.

Ver. 5. Know them. They boldly proclaim their infamous design.

Ver. 7. This evil, so contrary to the rights of hospitality, and the law of nature.

Ver. 8. Known man. They were neglected, while men were inflamed with desires of each other. See Rom. i. H. --- 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. H. --- 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. M.

Ver. 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. M. While they are beginning to offer violence.

Ver. 10. Behold, &c. 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. xix. 16.

Ver. 14. Sons-in-law. Perhaps they also were among the crowd, (v. 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!

Ver. 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. H.

Ver. 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.

Ver. 18. My lord, addressing himself to the angel, who led him and his wife. M.

Ver. 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, v. 30, (H.) on the south-east of the dead sea. C.

Ver. 22. Segor. That is, a little one. Ch. --- In allusion to Lot's words, v. 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. M. --- Hence we may learn, how great a treasure and safeguard the just man is. H.

Ver. 23. Risen. It was morning when he left Sodom; (v. 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.

Ver. 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 C. of Sirmich declares, c. 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. M.

Ver. 25. All the inhabitants, both the body and soul, (Jude v. 7.): even the infants would probably die in original sin, as their parents were unbelievers, and careless of applying the proper remedies. H. --- The women imitated the men in pride and dissolute morals, so that all deserved to perish. M. --- All things; so that even now the environs are barren, and the lake dark and smoking. T.

Ver. 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. Ch. --- 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. xvii. Mat. xxiv. --- A statue of durable metallic salt, petrified as it were, to be an eternal monument of an incredulous soul. Wisd. x. 7. Some say it still exists. H. --- God may have inflicted this temporal punishment on her, and saved her soul. M. --- She looked back, as if she distrusted the words of the angel; but her fault was venial. T.

Ver. 29. Lot. Even he owed his safety to the merits of Abraham.

Ver. 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. H.

Ver. 35. Rose up; being oppressed with grief and wine, which would not excuse him from sin, particularly this second time. M.

Ver. 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. H.