Bible Commentaries

Sodom and Gomorrah (19:1-38)

Meanwhile the two messengers arrived in Sodom. Lot, knowing the danger that strangers faced in the streets of Sodom at night, welcomed them into his house (19:1-3). Although Lot did not agree with the immoral practices of Sodom (2 Peter 2:7-8), he apparently did not have the courage to oppose them. He was even prepared to allow the sexual perverts of the city to rape his daughters, in order to protect his two guests from homosexual assault. In a blinding judgment, God showed his hatred of sexual violence and perversion (4-11; cf. Leviticus 18:22; Leviticus 20:13; Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; 1 Timothy 1:10).

God's messengers then told Lot and his family to escape, because Sodom was about to be destroyed (12-14). Yet Lot had become so much at home in Sodom that God's messengers had almost to drag him from the city. Even then he asked a special favour from God that would allow him to carry on his former way of life in another city (15-22).

The region around the Dead Sea where Sodom and Gomorrah were situated contained tar pits, sulphur and natural gases (cf. 14:10). A combination of an earthquake and lightning could have caused an explosion similar to that of a volcano, resulting in burning sulphur raining down over the cities (and over Lot's wife). At the same time it was a direct judgment by God, happening at the time and in the place God had announced (23-29).

So horrifying was the destruction, that Lot decided he could no longer live in safety inside the city. So he took his family out to the hills and lived in a cave. But his two daughters, still affected by the evil influences of Sodom, forced their father into immoral sexual relations with them. The two children that were born through this immorality produced respectively the Ammonites and the Moabites, peoples who later became a source of trouble to Israel (30-38).