Genesis 19:1 Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground.
"The two angels— "These are the two men who left Abraham standing before the Lord Genesis 18:22.” (Barnes Notes)
"The 'gate' of the city where Lot is at the time is the common resort of all men, especially of the elders of a city. There legal matters are adjudicated, transactions closed, bargains made, and affairs discussed.” (H C Leupold)
"Sat in the gate - Probably, in order to prevent unwary travelers from being entrapped by his wicked townsmen, he waited at the gate of the city to bring the strangers he might meet with to his own house, as well as to transact his own business. Or, as the gate was the place of judgment, he might have been sitting there as magistrate to hear and determine disputes.” (Adam Clarke) We find Lot as an elder and judge of the city. He had been thus elevated. Thus we find God’s children elevated to places of prominence finding favor in the sight of God and man.
2 And he said, “Here now, my lords, please turn in to your servant’s house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.” And they said, “No, but we will spend the night in the open square.3 But he insisted strongly; so they turned in to him and entered his house. Then he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
Lot "courteously rises to meet them, does obeisance to them, and invites them to spend the night in his house. 'Nay, but in the street will we lodge.’ This is the disposition of those who come to inquire, and, it may be, to condemn and to punish." (Barnes Notes) ”But as Lot pressed them vehemently, and they knew him to be a righteous man, not yet willing to make themselves known, they consented to take shelter under his hospitable roof. Our Lord, willing for the time being to conceal his person from the knowledge of the disciples going to Emmaus, made as though he would go farther, Luke 24:13; but at last, like the angels here, yielded to the importunity of his disciples, and went into their lodgings.” (Adam Clarke)
Then he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate— We are not sure of the full contents of this feast, but we know that Lot received the heavenly guest in like manner as Abraham. He even ate unleavened bread with them giving ample evidence of that blessed communion with Yahweh God of Abraham. "Lot‘s invitation; at first declined, is at length accepted, because Lot is approved of God as righteous, and excepted from the doom of the city.” (Barnes Notes)
"They are twice in this chapter called angels, being sent to perform a delegated duty. This term, however, defines their office, not their nature. Lot, in the first instance, calls them 'my lords,’ which is a term of respect that may be addressed to men Genesis 31:35. He afterward styled one of them Adonai, with the special vowel pointing which limits it to the Supreme Being. He at the same time calls himself his servant, appeals to his grace and mercy, and ascribes to him his deliverance. The person thus addressed replies, in a tone of independence and authority, 'I have accepted thee.’… 'I cannot do anything until thou go thither.’…” (Barnes Notes)
4 Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. 5 And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.”
"Wickedness had become universal, and they were unanimous in any vile design. Here were old and young, and all from every quarter, engaged in this riot the old were not past it, and the young had soon come up to it.” (Matthew Henry) "They compass the house, and demand the men for the vilest ends.” (Barnes Notes)
Know them- "Either know who they are; or rather abuse them, as Lot’s answer explains it, and so that word is used, Genesis 4:1 Numbers 31:17 Judges 19:22. And for the sin here committed, see Leviticus 18:22 20:13 Romans 1:26,27 1 Corinthians 6:9 Judges 1:7. They openly and impudently profess their wicked intention, for which they are branded, Isaiah 3:9; and this intention of theirs is the more probable, because of the great beauty which it is likely was in those bodies which the angels assumed, whereby their lust was more inflamed.” (Matthew Poole)
6 So Lot went out to them through the doorway, shut the door behind him, 7 and said, “Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly!
'And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.— They were brethren by community of nature and habitation; see Genesis 9:5 29:4 Leviticus 19:17; and so he calls them, if possibly he might sweeten and restrain them.” (Matthew Poole)
8 See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.”
He was practicing the law of hospitality and offers his daughter in the place of his guests. Yet this is a "most imprudent and sinful motion, whereby he yielded to one sin to prevent another, contrary to Romans 3:8, and exposed his daughters’ chastity, which he was obliged to preserve, and which indeed he had no power to expose, especially seeing they were betrothed to other men, Genesis 19:14. But it is some extenuation of his sin that it proceeded from his great charity and kindness to strangers, and that he was at this time under a great perturbation and discomposure of mind...[Yet heavenly beings were] under the shadow of my roof, i.e. under the protection of my house. Shadow is oft put for protection or defence, as Judges 9:15 Psalm 36:7 Jeremiah 48:45.” (Matthew Poole)
9 And they said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one came in to stay here, and he keeps acting as a judge; now we will deal worse with you than with them.” So they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near to break down the door.
“'Stand back.' This seems to be a menace to frighten Lot out of the way of their perverse will. It is probable, indeed, that he and his family would not have been so long safe in this wicked place, had he not been the occasion of a great deliverance to the whole city when they were carried away by the four kings. The threat is followed by a taunt, when the sorely vexed host hesitated to give up the strangers.” (Barnes Notes) "And he will needs be a judge -"this one man, and he a stranger and sojourner, no freeman or citizen of this city, sets himself against the whole body of the inhabitants, and takes upon him to judge what is right and wrong to be done;” (Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible) In like manner, people of the world have a disdain for biblical advise. They care not for the counsel of Yahweh. If he was a magistrate as some suggest, the people wanted to be judged by their own standards, not Lot’s.
10 But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. 11 And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door.
"The men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door: It must have taken great, perhaps supernatural, strength to do what the angels did at the door. Obviously, the work of striking the men blind was supernatural. Now this mob had a physical blindness appropriate to their moral blindness.” (David Guzik) "Yet these Sodomites, after they were struck blind, continued seeking the door, to break it down... No judgments will, of themselves, change the corrupt natures and purposes of wicked men. If their minds had not been blinded as well as their bodies, they would have said, as the magicians, 'This is the finger of God, and would have submitted.’” (Matthew Henry)
Genesis 19:12 Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city—take them out of this place! 13 For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”
When the angels "had got him into the house again, they began to make themselves known unto him, and to acquaint him with the business they came to do: hast thou here any besides? which they ask not as being ignorant, though angels know not everything relative to men, but to show their great regard to Lot, who had been so kind to them, and so careful of them; that for his sake they would save them all [including any souls he had won], if they would take the benefit of their protection, and in this they doubtless had the mind of God revealed to them…” (John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible) Those under the realm of his influence would get one last chance to respond to the Good News of salvation of Yahweh.
14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, “Get up, get out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city!” But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.
Lot's sons-in-law did not take him seriously. The natural man "does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised."(1 Cor 1:18) "Lot’s error in taking refuge with the wicked in Sodom and forming matrimonial connections there, instead of dwelling in tents, cost him all his substance, and an infinitude of grief and trouble. [Moreover] The prohibition from marrying with unbelievers has often been supported and guarded by signal acts of providence. The males of David’s house were eventually all cut off, by marrying Jezebel’s daughter, except Joash, an infant.” (Sutcliffe)
15 When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, “Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.” 16 And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. 17 So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.”
Lot pleaded all night with those under his influence. As morning dawned, the marching order came to those who had agreed to leave with him . "Every word here is emphatic, Escape for thy Life; thou art in the most imminent danger of perishing; thy life and thy soul are both at stake. Look not behind thee - thou hast but barely time enough to escape from the judgment that is now descending; no lingering, or thou art lost! one look back may prove fatal to thee, and God commands thee to avoid it. Neither stay thou in all the plain, because God will destroy that as well as the city. Escape to the mountain, on which these judgments shall not light, and which God has appointed thee for a place of refuge; lest thou be Consumed. It is not an ordinary judgment that is coming; a fire from heaven shall burn up the cities, the plain, and all that remain in the cities and in the plain. Both the beginning and end of this exhortation are addressed to his personal feelings. 'Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life;' and self-preservation is the first law of nature, to which every other consideration is minor and unimportant.” (Adam Clarke)
18 Then Lot said to them, “Please, no, my lord! 19 Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die. 20 See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one; please let me escape there (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.”
Please no my ’A-ḏō-nāy. (strong 136]. "The angels are still standing there, but they have been joined by Yahweh. This time Lot’s ‘my Lord’ carries its full implication (compare Genesis 18:3 for the sudden move from plural to singular). He is speaking to the Lord of the earth. It is significant that the judgment on Sodom is in the angels’ sphere, but the deliverance of Lot in accordance with God’s covenant with Abraham is Yahweh’s concern. That cannot be left to angels.” (Peter Pett’s Commentary)
The desire for a refuge of a city--"What a picture! He seems like a drowning man, ready to catch even at a floating feather. Though commanded... to flee to the mountain, he refuses, and still fondly clings to the idea of 'a little city,' — some little shred of the world. He feared death in the place to which God was mercifully directing him — yea, he feared all manner of evil, and could only hope for safety in some little city, some spot of his own devising. 'Oh! let me escape thither, and my soul shall live.' How sad. There is no casting himself wholly upon God.” (C. H. Mackintosh's Notes)
21 And he said to him, “See, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken. 22 Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
"The stress of circumstances does not allow time for argument and counter argument: Lot’s request is granted in a spirit of remarkable patience and longsuffering. The small town is exempted from the calamity to which it had been destined.” (H C Leupold) Yet he pleads not for the inhabitants but rather for his own safety. "Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar: Zoar means small or insignificant. It was the little city Lot bargained with the angel about.” (David Guzik)
23 The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens. 25 So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
"Jehovah rained—fire and brimstone from Jehovah. Whole councils of christian fathers have cited this text as demonstrative of the Godhead of Christ, and the distinction of persons in the Holy Trinity. So the early fathers by general consent: all admit Jehovah, the Angel, to be the Christ. Why then should any man accounted orthodox start a difficulty?” (Sutcliffe)
"Concerning this destruction, observe that it is a revelation of the wrath of God against sin and sinners of all ages. Let us learn from hence the evil of sin, and its hurtful nature; it leads to ruin.” (Matthew Henry)
26 But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
Mrs. Lot looked back. "Herein she disobeyed an express command. Probably she hankered after her house and goods in Sodom, and was loath to leave them. Christ intimates this to be her sin, Luke 17:31-32; she too much regarded her stuff. And her looking back spoke an inclination to go back; and therefore our Saviour uses it as a warning against apostacy from our Christian profession.” (Benson Commentary)
And she became a pillar of salt. She was "struck dead at once, either by the immediate hand of God, or by the shower of fire and brimstone; and her body was at once changed into a metallic substance, a kind of salt, hard and durable, such as Pliny speaks of, cut out of rocks, with which houses were built, and hardened with the sun, and could scarcely be cut with an iron instrument; so that she did not fall to the ground, but stood up erect as a pillar, retaining very probably the human form, Josephus (a) says, this pillar continued to his times, and that he saw it…” (Gill's Exposition)
"That she was literally transformed into a pillar of salt (Josephus, Calvin, Rosenmüller, Kalisch, Wordsworth), though not impossible, is scarcely likely. A more probable interpretation is that she was killed by the fiery and sulphurous vapor with which the atmosphere was impregnated, and afterwards became encrusted with salt (Aben Ezra, Keil, Lange, Murphy, Quarry),” (Pulpit Commentary) Either way it was not good.
27 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace. 29 And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt.
"Abraham got up early to the place where he stood before the Lord, and looked--
There was not much sleep that night for this loyal heart. With the spring of day he was where, probably, Lot, years before, had looked on the face of the country, and beheld it as a garden of the Lord. But how great the contrast! The smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace!
Have a place where you stand before God. wit may not always be to speak to Him, but to be spoken to, to be judged, to have the motives and intentions of the heart winnowed and sifted. Well is it to stand each day before the judgment-seat of Christ, and to receive His verdict on our innermost life. Oh that the grass of that trysting-place may be well worn through our frequent intercourse with our beloved Lord!
Follow up your prayers. - Abraham was not content with shooting arrows into the air; he followed them to see how they sped, and where they fell. We do not need to reiterate our petitions with unbelieving monotony, as though they were not safe in God's keeping; but we should remind Him by our upward look that our expectation is from Him.
View the fate of the ungodly from God's standpoint. - We are apt to consider it from that of our own pity, or commiseration, or tolerance of shortcoming. We judge lightly, because we dread too searching a judgment on ourselves. But we need sometimes to see sin as God sees it. Stand on Calvary and learn what sin is, and how much it has cost the Saviour. There, too, you will learn that God goes further than His servants' prayers. Though He may not be able to discover the ten, yet He will deliver the one righteous man. 'His countenance doth behold the upright.'” (F. B Meyers)
Genesis 19:30 Then Lot went up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountains, and his two daughters were with him; for he was afraid to dwell in Zoar. And he and his two daughters dwelt in a cave. 31 Now the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man on the earth to come in to us as is the custom of all the earth. 32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father.”
Critics "label this whole story the outgrowth of a mean prejudice on the part of Israel against these two neighbouring nations, a hostile fabrication and an attempt to heap disgrace upon them. Yet passages like Deut. 2:9 surely indicate that Israel always maintained a friendly spirit toward these brother nations, especially toward the Moabites. David’s history also may serve as an antidote against such slanders. We have here an objective account of an actual historical occurrence.” (H C Leupold)
Lot was allowed to go to Zoar and the city was spared as a result of it, but alas: "He feared to dwell in Zoar — Probably he found it as wicked as Sodom; and therefore concluded it could not long survive it;… He was now glad to go to the mountain, the place which God had appointed for his shelter.” (Benson Commentary) "And he dwelt in a cave,—i.e. in one of those cavernous recesses with which the Moabitish mountains abound, and which already had been converted into dwelling-places by the primitive inhabitants of the region (cf. Genesis 14:6)—he and his two daughters.”
"Our father is old - And consequently not likely to re-marry;...” (Adam Clarke); and there is not a man in the earth - "Not that they imagined the whole human race to have perished in the destruction of the valley of Siddim, but because they were afraid that no man would link himself with them, the only survivors of a country smitten by the curse of God.” (Keil & Delitzsch Commentary) And "there were none left, according to their opinion in all the land of Canaan, of their own family and kindred; and they might think it unlawful to match with others, such as the inhabitants of Zoar, who they knew had been devoted to destruction...” (Adam Clarke)
Abraham, as yet had no children of Sarah, as promised. It would seem more righteous to join themselves to him and his tribe... and wait, along with him, for the promises of God to be fulfilled, but Yahweh had explicitly told Lot to tabernacle in the mountains. So who am I to judge the chosen course of action of these daughters.
They did what they did to "preserve seed" of their father. "Literally, quicken or vivify seed (cf. Genesis 19:34).” (J. F. Montgomery)"They had no brother, nor relative, nor hope out of their own family.” (Sutcliffe Commentary) "After considering all that has been said to criminate both Lot and his daughters in this business, I cannot help thinking that the transaction itself will bear a more favorable construction [on Judgment Day] than that which has been generally put on it. 1. It does not appear that it was through any base or sensual desires that the daughters of Lot wished to deceive their father. 2. They might have thought that it would have been criminal to have married into any other family, and they knew that their husbands elect, who were probably of the same kindred, had perished in the overthrow of Sodom. 3. They might have supposed that there was no other way left to preserve the family, and consequently that righteousness for which it had been remarkable, but the way which they now took. 4. They appear to have supposed that their father would not come into the measure, because he would have considered it as profane; yet, judging the measure to be expedient and necessary, they endeavored to sanctify the improper means used, by the goodness of the end at which they aimed; a doctrine which, though resorted to by many, should be reprobated by all. Acting on this bad principle they caused their father to drink wine... ” (Adam Clarke) and succeeded in propagating sons of him.
“Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Shem.” (Genesis 9:36) They could not just pick up the phone and call Abraham. And if they had they would have discovered his own ill-conceived plot with Hagar. And they would have been given news that, as of yet, no son had been born to Abraham and Sarah. Thus, having been "religiously educated, and having preserved their chastity among such an impure generation as the men of Sodom: wherefore this might rather arise…. from an eager desire after the Messiah, they might hope would spring from them; their father being a descendant of Shem, a son of Abraham's elder brother, and now remarkably saved from Sodom, which they might conclude was for this purpose; and they knew of no way in which it could be brought about but in this they proposed…” (John Gill Exposition)
33 So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. 34 It happened on the next day that the firstborn said to the younger, “Indeed I lay with my father last night; let us make him drink wine tonight also, and you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father.” 35 Then they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
36 Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. 37 The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38 And the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the people of Ammon to this day.
From this sinful act, with perhaps some good intention, Lot's physical children, Moab and Ben-Ammi, were born according to their names: “Moab; that is, the begotten of my father: so, Benammi; that is, begotten of one of my near kindred, viz., her father.” (John Trapp) Some think that a curse was pronounced on the descendants of the perpetrators of this unlawful act, but I believe that the Moabites and Ammonites were not cursed nations, but rather brethern of Israel and friends of God until a generation of them determined to be otherwise, rejecting the oracles of God- to include the Messenger of the Covenant.