Gen 19.1-39 will tell us about the deliverance of Lot and his family out of Sodom; the destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim; Lot’s wife looks back; Abraham sees the smoke from the destruction; Lot comes out of Zoar to a mountain cave; Lot’s drunken union with his daughters and the birth of Moab and Ammon.
v 1…Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting there in the gate of Sodom (he may have been a civil leader there and tried to do something about it because Lot was a righteous man oppressed and tormented by the evil he saw there-2 Pet 2.6-8; dignitaries met in the gate of the city-Ruth 4.1; Est 2.19; Prov 31.23). When Lot saw them, he arose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground (he knew they were not common visitors).
v 2…And he said, “Now behold, my lords (he took them for people of quality and dignity based on their appearance), please turn aside into your servants house, and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may arise early and go on your way (ke learned hospitality from Abraham).” They said however, “No (rather abruptly), but we shall spend the night in the square.”
v 3…Yet he urged them strongly, so they turned aside to him (consented) and entered his house; and he prepared a feast for them, and baked unleavened bread (made rapidly), and they ate.
v 4…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 (their depravity was everywhere; the ten righteous ones could not be found, and the Lord could now justify rejecting Abraham’s intercession; the vice of Sodom became an expression in Isa 1.10, 3.9, 13.19; Jer 49.18; Ezek 16.46-57; Amos 4.11; Lam 4.6);
v 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 have relations with them.
v 6…But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him,
v 7…and said, “Please, my brothers (neighbors of the community), do not act wickedly.
v 8…Now behold, I have two daughters who have not had relations with man (they were betrothed-v 14); please let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you like, only do nothing to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the shelter of my roof (this was an evil offer; maybe he hoped they would decline because they liked men but his hospitality went to far).”
v 9…But they said, “Stand aside (keep away from us).” Furthermore, they said, “This one came in as an alien (to sojourn), and already he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them.” So they pressed hard against the man, even Lot (but he refused) and came near to break the door.
v 10…But the men (the angels) reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door (and rescued him and his daughters).
v 11…And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness (the word for blindness is only used one other time in 2 Kings 6.18, and denotes a temporary loss of vision to find Lot’s door), both small and great, so that they wearied to find the doorway.
v 12…The the men (angels) said to Lot, “Whom else have you here? A son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters (if you have any of these), and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place;
v 13…for we are about to destroy this place because their outcry has become so great before the Lord that the Lord has sent us to destroy it (and three other cities-Zoar was spared).”
v 14…And Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters (who were at home with him), and said, “Up, get out of this place, for the Lord will destroy the city.” But he appeared to his sons-in-law to be jesting.
v 15…And when morning dawned, the angel urged lot, saying, “Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here (present so you can take them), lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.”
v 16…But he hesitated (frozen with fear and couldn’t move). So the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his daughters, for the compassion of the Lord was upon him (Lot), and they brought them out and put him outside of the city (Lot’s name means “hidden, concealed, covering” and the “covering” had to be removed before judgment could fall).
v 17…And it came about when they had brought them outside that one said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you (showing concern for his sons-in-law and his property; they could have suffered the same fate if not for Abraham-v 29), and do do not stay anywhere in the plain; escape to the mountains, lest you be swept away (the whole plain was going to be destroyed).
v 18…But Lot said, “Oh, my lords!
v 19…Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your lovingkindness, which you have shown me by saving my life, but I cannot escape to the mountains (fast enough), lest the disaster overtake me and I die (from the fallout, etc);
v 20…now behold (see), this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small (the town of Bela, afterwards called Zoar). Please, let me escape there, is it not small (a small request) that my life may be saved?”
v 21…And he said to him, “Behold (see), I grant you this request also, not to overthrow the town of which you have spoken.
v 22…Hurry, escape there, for I can do nothing until you are there.” Therefore the name of that town was called Zoar (small).
v 23…The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
v 24…The the Lord (Yehovah) rained on Sodom and Gomorrah (plus Admah and Zeboiim-Deut 29.23) brimstone (sulphur) and fire from the Lord out of heaven (not a natural phenomenon).
v 25…And he overthrew those cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
v 26…But his wife from behind him looked (back) and she became a pillar (word used for a statue; a watchman; a military station; a garrison-see Gesenius Lexicon) of salt (her body encrusted with salt which descended with the sulphur-Deut 29.23; Josephus said this pillar could be seen in his day; 2 Pet 3.6).
v 27…Now Abraham arose early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord (18.22);
v 28…and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the plain and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace.
v 29…Thus it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow (confirming that Lot was spared because of his uncle), when he overthrew the cities (an idiom meaning “in one”) in which Lot lived (Yehovah did find Messiah and the roots of the Jewish monarchy in Sodom because he will come through both of Lot’s daughters; one will have a son called Moab, and Ruth was a Moabitess-Ruth 2.2; 4.13-22; and the other had a son named Ammon, and Solomon married Naamah, who was from Ammon, and the mother of Rehoboam-1 Kings 14.21; circumstances aren’t always what they seem).
v 30…And Lot went up from Zoar and stayed in the mountains (where he was told to go in the first place), and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to stay in Zoar (the smoke was still rising from the four cities; thinking it was going to be included in the destruction originally planned for all five cities); and he stayed in a cave, he and his two daughters.
v 31…Then the first-born said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to go into us after the manner of the earth (perhaps they thought the whole earth was destroyed like in the flood, and leaving Zoar, that too would be destroyed; or there were none in Canaan; or they were true daughters of Sodom; but any of these reasons was not an excuse for what they were planning to do; all they had to do is ask their father about what was going on).
v 32…Come, let us make our father drink wine (to excess), and let us lie with him that we may preserve the seed of our father.”
v 33…So they made their father drink wine (wine was stored in caves by the people of the plain because it was in abundance) that night, and the first born went in and lay with her father; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
v 34…And it came about on the morrow, that the first biorn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink tonight also; then you go and lie with him that we may preserve seed of our father.”
v 35…So 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.
v 36…Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father.
v 37…And the first born bore a son and called his name “Moab” (meaning “seed of father” and immodestly claiming that her son came from her father); he is the father of the Moabites to this day.
v 38…And as for the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name “Ben-Ammi” (meaning “son of my people”); he is the father of the sons of Ammon to this day (a more discreet name; both sisters gave birth to royalty).
Gen 20.1-18 tells us that Abraham is going to lie about Sarah again to Abimelech; God threatens Abimelech for taking Sarah; Abraham is rebuked again by a foreign king and his excuse; Abimelech gives gifts to Abraham and Abraham prays for him;.
v 1…And Abraham journeyed from there (Hebron) toward the Negev (south) and settled between Kadesh and Shur; then sojourned in Gerar (capital city of the Philistines).
v 2…And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister” (v 12- a distant relative perhaps) and Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah (into his house to be a wife).
v 3…But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night , and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man, because of the woman you have taken, for she is married.”
v 4…But Abimelech had not come near her ; and he said, “Lord, will you slay a nation though it is blameless (righteous)?
v 5…Did he not say to me,m ‘She is my sister?’ And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.”
v 6…Then God said to him in the dream, ” Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done thes; and I also kept you from sinning against me, therefore I did not let you touch her.
v 7…Now, therefore, restore the man’s wife, for he is a prophet (first time used in the Scriptures; this is how the Lord saw him, even though he exposed Sarah), and he will pray for you , and you will live. But if you do not restore her, know that you will surely die, you and all who are yours (family and accessories to the crime).”
v 8…So Abimelech arose early in the morning and called all his servants, and told them all these things in their hearing; and the men were greatly frightened.
v 9…Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us (he had a point)? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and on my nation great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.”
v 10…And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What have you encountered (in me or my people), that you have done this thing (that gave him the impression that they were lustful people and would do anything to satisfy that lust, that he had to go to such lengths)?
v 11…And Abraham said, “Because I thought surely there is no fear of God in this place (nothing to restrain you), and they will kill me because of my wife.
v 12…Besides, she actually is my sister (possibly a granddaughter of Terah, but not of Abraham’s mother; used in the sense of a relative; he never said she wasn’t his wife), but not the daughter of my mother and she became my wife;
v 13…and it came about, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, ‘This is the kindness which you will show to me (showing that this was an old agreement and it did not start with Sarah); everywhere we go say of me, “He is my brother (a relative).”
v 14…Abimelech then took sheep and oxen and male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham (remember Abimelech could avoid the death penalty if Abraham prayed for him) and restored his wife Sarah to him.
v 15…And Abimelech said, “Behold (see), my land is before you; settle where you please.”
v 16…And to Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother (relative) a thousand pieces of silver; behold, it is for you a covering of the eyes to all that are with you (a vindication; to make them blind to the wrong that was done to her), and before all men you are cleared (of having a hand in this).”
v 17…And Abimelech prayed to God and God healed Abimelech, and his wife and his maids, so that they bore children (God made them incapable of cohabitation and conception-v 6).
v 18…For the Lord has closed fast all the wombs of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife (could not cohabit with their husbands and conceive).
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