And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
25. and he overthrew ] The word used is the one regularly employed elsewhere in the O.T. where the overthrow of the cities is mentioned. Like the word mabbul for the Flood, so this word, “overthrow” ( mahpkah, “overturning”), used here and in Gen 19:29, became the technical term for this catastrophe. It suggests an earthquake.
“The Korn frequently refers to Sodom and Gomorrah by the title of al mutafikt ‘the overturned’ (Sur. ix. 71, liii. 54, lxix. 9)” (Cheyne).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 25. And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain] This forms what is called the lake Asphaltites, Dead Sea, or Salt Sea, which, according to the most authentic accounts, is about seventy miles in length, and eighteen in breadth.
The most strange and incredible tales are told by many of the ancients, and by many of the moderns, concerning the place where these cities stood. Common fame says that the waters of this sea are so thick that a stone will not sink in them, so tough and clammy that the most boisterous wind cannot ruffle them, so deadly that no fish can live in them, and that if a bird happen to fly over the lake, it is killed by the poisonous effluvia proceeding from the waters; that scarcely any verdure can grow near the place, and that in the vicinity where there are any trees they bear a most beautiful fruit, but when you come to open it you find nothing but ashes! and that the place was burning long after the apostles’ times. These and all similar tales may be safely pronounced great exaggerations of facts, or fictions of ignorant, stupid, and superstitious monks, or impositions of unprincipled travellers, who, knowing that the common people are delighted with the marvellous, have stuffed their narratives with such accounts merely to procure a better sale for their books.
The truth is, the waters are exceedingly salt, far beyond the usual saltness of the sea, and hence it is called the Salt Sea. In consequence of this circumstance bodies will float in it that would sink in common salt water, and probably it is on this account that few fish can live in it. But the monks of St. Saba affirmed to Dr. Shaw, that they had seen fish caught in it; and as to the reports of any noxious quality in the air, or in the evaporations from its surface, the simple fact is, lumps of bitumen often rise from the bottom to its surface, and exhale a foetid odour which does not appear to have any thing poisonous in it. Dr. Pococke swam in it for nearly a quarter of an hour, and felt no kind of inconvenience; the water, he says, is very clear, and having brought away a bottle of it, he “had it analyzed, and found it to contain no substances besides salt and a little alum.”
As there are frequent eruptions of a bituminous matter from the bottom of this lake, which seem to argue a subterraneous fire, hence the accounts that this place was burning even after the days of the apostles. And this phenomenon still continues, for “masses of bitumen,” says Dr. Shaw, “in large hemispheres, are raised at certain times from the bottom, which, as soon as they touch the surface, and are thereby acted upon by the external air, burst at once, with great smoke and noise, like the pulvis fulminans of the chemists, and disperse themselves in a thousand pieces. But this only happens near the shore, for in greater depths the eruptions are supposed to discover themselves in such columns of smoke as are now and then observed to arise from the lake. And perhaps to such eruptions as these we may attribute that variety of pits and hollows, not unlike the traces of many of our ancient limekilns, which are found in the neighbourhood of this lake. The bitumen is in all probability accompanied from the bottom with sulphur, as both of them are found promiscuously upon the shore, and the latter is precisely the same with common native sulphur; the other is friable, yielding upon friction, or by being put into the fire, a foetid smell.” The bitumen, after having been some time exposed to the air, becomes indurated like a stone. I have some portions of it before me, brought by a friend of mine from the spot; it is very black, hard, and on friction yields a foetid odour.
For several curious particulars on this subject, see Dr. Pococke’s Travels, vol. ii., part 1, chap. 9, and Dr. Shaw’s Travels, 4to. edit., p. 346, &c.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And he overthrew those cities,…. Of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim: very probably at the same time that this fiery tempest was in the heavens, there was an earthquake which overthrew the cities; and so Strabo h makes the lake, which is now the place where they stood, to be owing to earthquakes and eruptions of fire, and of hot bituminous and sulphurous waters; and says nothing of fire from heaven, which yet Tacitus and Solinus do, being unacquainted with the sacred history:
and all the plain; the plain of Jordan, and the cities on it, all but Zoar; not all the five cities, as Josephus i: Egesippus k and other authors mistake, only the four above mentioned. Strabo l speaks of thirteen cities being formerly upon this spot, of which Sodom was the metropolis:
and all the inhabitants of the cities; none were spared, all were destroyed, but Lot, his wife, and two daughters:
and that which grew upon the ground; the trees, herbs, and plants; these were all turned up by the earthquake, and burnt with fire from heaven: Tacitus, in his account of this conflagration, says,
“the fields, which were formerly fruitful, and inhabited by many cities, were burnt up with lightning; and there are traces (he adds) yet remain; the earth itself looks torrid, and has lost its fruitful virtue; for whatsoever grows up of itself, or is sown and rises up in the plant or flower, or grows up to its usual species, becomes black and empty, and vanishes into ashes.”
The place where those cities stood is now a lake, and is sometimes called the salt sea, Ge 14:3; and sometimes the dead sea, because it is said, no creature can live in it; and sometimes called the Lake Asphaltites, from its bituminous and pitchy quality: though Reland o has attempted to confute the notion that the cities of Sodom, c. stood where this lake now is: and the many things that have been reported of this lake and parts adjacent, by various historians, supposed to be of good credit, are by modern travellers exploded p as those of no living creature being bred in it; of bodies not sinking in it; and of birds being unable to fly over it; and of the cities appearing under water in a clear day; and of the apples of Sodom, which look beautiful to the eye, but when touched fall into ashes; many of which Josephus q himself relates: indeed, Ludovicus Vartomanus r, a traveller in those parts in the beginning of the sixteenth century, says,
“there yet remain the ruins of the destroyed city, as a witness of God’s wrath; we may affirm, there are three cities, and each of them situated on the decline of three hills, and the ruins appear about the height of three or four cubits; there is yet seen, I scarce know what, something like blood, or rather like red wax mixed with earth:”
and our countryman Mr. Sandys s, though he questions some of the above things before related, especially concerning the apples, yet says,
“not far from thence grows a tree whose fruit is like a green walnut, which he saw, and which they say never ripens.”
This lake of Sodom, according to Josephus t, is five hundred and eighty furlongs in length unto Zoar, and one hundred fifty broad; but, according to modern accounts, it is twenty four leagues in length, and six or seven in breadth u; the Arabic geographer w says, it is sixty miles in length, and twelve in breadth; it is now called by the Arabs, Bahar Louth, Lot’s lake.
h Geograph. l. 16. p. 526. i De Bello Jud. l. 4. c. 8. sect. 4. k De excidio urb. l. 4. c. 18. l Ut supra. (Geograph. l. 16. p. 526.) o Palestina illustrata, tom. 1. l. 1. c. 38. p. 254, &c. p Vid. Universal History, vol. 2. p. 421, &c. See Egmont and Heyman’s Travels, vol. 1. p. 341. q De Bello Jud. l. 4. c. 8. sect. 4. r Navigat. l. 1. c. 10. s Travels, l. 3. p. 110, 111. Ed. 5. t Ut supra. (De Bello Jud. l. 4. c. 8. sect. 4.) u Universal History, ib. p. 424. See Egmont, &c. ib, p. 342. w Scherif Ibn Idris, apud Reland. ib. p. 249.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(25) Overthrew.This does not mean submerged, and the agent in the destruction was fire and not water. The plain (Heb., the Ciccar) still existed, and when Abraham saw it, was wrapped in smoke.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
25. Overthrew those cities plain inhabitants that which grew Note the fourfold destruction . This sudden and awful ruin is referred to repeatedly as an example of God’s fearful judgments upon the wicked . Comp . Deu 29:23; Jer 49:18; Jer 40:40; Zep 2:9; 2Pe 2:6. It is interesting to notice in this connexion the remarks of the old geographer Strabo, who was born about half a century before Christ . Near Masada, he says, “are to be seen rocks bearing the marks of fire; fissures in many places; a soil like ashes; pitch falling in drops from the rocks; rivers boiling up and emitting a fetid odor to a great distance; dwellings in every direction overthrown; whence we are inclined to believe the common tradition of the natives, that thirteen cities once existed there, the capital of which was Sodom, but that a circuit of about sixty stadia around it escaped uninjured. Shocks of earthquakes, however, eruptions of flames and hot springs, containing asphaltus and sulphur, caused the lake to burst its bounds, and the rocks took fire. Some of the cities were swallowed up; others were abandoned by such of the inhabitants as were able to make their escape.” Book 16: 2, 44. Bohn’s Ed. Comp. Tacitus, Hist., 5: 7, and Josephus, Ant., 1: 11, 4, and Wars, 4: 8, 4.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Gen 19:25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
Ver. 25. And he overthrew, &c. ] Some footsteps of this overthrow are to be read of in Solinus and Tacitus. Josephus a tells us of the mock-apples of Sodom, and saith, that an ox, having all his legs bound, will not sink into the lake of Sodom, the water is so dense.
a Lib. v., De Bello, Jud.: – Omne carens vita in profundum mergitur; siquid vivum arte aliqua immerseris super exibit .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
overthrew. These cities are not in the Dead Sea, but their ruins have been discovered by M. de Saulcy (called to-day Kharbet-Goumran), about 4 miles square (Journey round the Dead Sea, vol. ii, pp. 42-46). Note the parallelism (Alternation). a | cities. b | plain. a | cities (inhabitants). b | plain (produce).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Gen 13:10, Gen 14:3, Psa 107:34
Reciprocal: Gen 10:19 – Sodom Deu 29:23 – like the Jos 12:3 – the sea Jos 18:19 – the salt Job 36:14 – unclean Jer 20:16 – as Jer 49:18 – in the Jer 50:40 – General Lam 4:6 – the punishment Eze 16:46 – thy younger sister Hos 11:8 – Admah Amo 4:11 – as God Zep 2:9 – as Gomorrah Mat 11:23 – in Sodom Rom 5:14 – death Rom 9:29 – we had been 2Pe 2:6 – turning
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Where Lookest Thou
Gen 13:8-11; Gen 18:20-22; Gen 19:25-28
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
Our Scripture today presents four looks toward Sodom. 1. There was the look of Lot, or the look of worldly advantage. 2. There was the look of the Lord, or the look of coming judgment. 3. There was the look of Lot’s wife, or the look of folly and of pride. 4. There was the look of Abraham, or the look of compassionate submission. Let us examine these four looks, one at a time.
1. The look of Lot. There had been a strife betwixt Abraham’s herdsmen, and the herdsmen of Lot. Abraham realized that the time for separation had come.
There are some who may feel that Lot had a keen business vision, and that he could see a dollar a long way off. We agree, but we add that Lot’s vision was circumscribed by his own personal advantage, and that, in reality, he was blinded and could not see afar.
2. The look of the Lord. This was the look of judgment. The Lord saw everything that Lot saw, but he saw more than Lot saw. The Lord beheld in Sodom a city that reeked with sin. He beheld the wreckage that would come to Lot and his family by reason of Lot’s foolish choice.
“The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward Him.” Those same eyes, however, look in judgment upon all whose heart wanders from the Lord.
3. The look of Lot’s wife. As they fled from Sodom, Lot’s wife turned, and looked back. We can hardly wonder at her folly. Everything she loved was in Sodom. She had left the daughters, who had married Sodomites, and her sons-in-law behind her. She had left her friends of fashion and of pomp behind her. She had left her beautiful home and its luxuries behind her. She had left more than all of this-she had left the affections of her own heart behind her.
When Lot’s wife looked toward Sodom, she looked toward her treasures, and toward those things which were dearer to her than life. Let us fear lest we, too, become entangled again in a yoke of bondage, and begin to long after the “flesh pots of Egypt,” and thus look back.
4. The look of Abraham. Abraham had prayed earnestly for Lot. The result of Abraham’s prayer was that Lot and his two daughters were saved. God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out.
I. PRAYER, AND THE UPWARD LOOK (2Ch 20:12)
Moab and Ammon came against Jehoshaphat to battle. They were a great multitude, and Jehoshaphat was afraid. Then Jehoshaphat prayed unto the Lord and said, “O our God, wilt Thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon Thee.”
In answer to Jehoshaphat’s prayer, the enemy was overthrown. We need to place our eyes upon God. God has said, “Fret not thyself because of evil doers.” To the contrary, we must learn to “rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.” When everything seems against us, it is only God’s opportunity to show His strength. Sometimes, in earnest prayer, we need to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.
“Men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” Habakkuk came to the place where the fig tree did not blossom, neither was there fruit in the vine; the labour of the olive failed, and the fields yielded no meat; the flock was cut off from the fold, and no herd was found in the stall: yet, the Prophet said, “I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”
It was the clinging prayer of Jacob that made him a victor. It is when we come to the end of ourselves, and lift up our face with beseeching unto God, that He comes to our help.
God has said, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” It is sufficient everywhere. What we must do is to lift up our eyes unto the Lord, and get in touch with His power. We will. always find that there is a larger balance to the credit of faith when we draw upon Heavenly resources.
II. SERVICE, THE OUTWARD LOOK (Joh 4:35-36)
The Lord told the disciples to lift up their eyes, and to look, for the fields were white unto the harvest. When our eyes were upon the fields for service, His eyes would be upon us for blessing. When the Children of Israel faced the land of Canaan, God told them to enter in, and to possess the land. Then, said God, “I will be with thee.”
We fail to receive from God, because we refuse to undertake for God. He who sits still, and never ventures, in faith, will find God waiting for him to step out, instead of working for Him.
The eyes of the Lord are looking for men ready to leave father, mother, brother, sister, houses and lands, that they may go forth to reap.
Do you see the ripened fields? Do you hear the voice of God saying, “Who will go and reap?” God grant that you may say, “Here am I, Lord, send me.”
When the Lord commanded Joshua, saying, “Arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people,” there was no time for fear, no time to weigh the difficulties of the wilderness. What mattered if there were difficulties ahead; God had commanded, “Go!” They dared not hesitate.
The Lord told Philip to go in the road which was desert. Immediately Philip arose and went. Can we not even now hear the voice of God saying to us, even as He said to Israel of old, “Go forward”?
The Lord Himself has promised, “I will be with thee.” We must not cease to go until we have preached the Gospel to every creature; until every stock of ripened grain has been harvested home.
If barriers lie across our way, they will disappear before our march of faith.
‘Tis the voice of the Master, “Press forward today,
The fields are all ripened with grain”;
‘Tis the voice of the servant, ‘I’ll haste to obey,
Not counting the cost, but the gain.”
III. CONFLICT, THE INWARD LOOK (Rom 7:18-24)
When we look within and view our human heart, in its sinful estate, we are crushed, even to despair. Paul said, “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” Do you marvel that Paul then cried, “O wretched man that I am”? The vision of his own sinful self was enough to cause him to bemoan himself.
It is always true that when we look within and see the contumely of our old man, we are disturbed and disheartened. What then shall we do? Let us reckon the old man as dead. Let us refuse to listen to its voice, to walk in its ways, or to fulfil its desires.
On the contrary, let us look away to the Holy Spirit, remembering that He, likewise, dwells within. If we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. If we walk in the Spirit, our moans of despair will be changed into paeans of victory. Instead of self-condemnation, we will have “no condemnation.” Instead of the works of the flesh being made manifest, we will bear the fruit of the Spirit.
The believer must guard against being overwhelmed by introspection. He must remember that Jesus Christ is stronger than self, that the Holy Spirit will give deliverance from the dominion of the self-life.
It is unwise for the Christian to boast in the flesh, or to walk by the flesh, or to pamper the flesh. Paul said, “I die daily.” There is only one place for the self-life and that is on the Cross, to be crucified with Christ. It we live the life of victory, we must not walk by the old man, but by the new man.
Christ has said, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself.” In the Christian experience Christ must be All, and in all, and the old man nothing at all.
IV. RETROSPECTION, THE BACKWARD LOOK (2Ti 4:8)
As Paul looked backward over a fruitful ministry, and a faithful life, he could say, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” Here is a retrospective that was worth the while.
We need to look backward now and then, not with the spirit of boastfulness, but with the spirit of honest contemplation.
At the end of every day it will profit us to study what has been done, and said, and thought. Thus we can profit by our mistakes, and increase our victories. The first will cause us to be more careful; and the second will bring us encouragement by the way.
In retrospection, however, we must never be overwhelmed or discouraged by reason of our failure; nor, must we be satisfied with our successes. We must watch against resting upon our past accomplishments. We should use what God has done through us in the past, as an incentive to renewed and enlarged undertakings in the future.
If we would make our final retrospective, at the close of life’s day, a cause for thanksgiving and praise, we must be very careful to fill in each day, as it passes, with faithful service; with fidelity to the faith; and with holy living.
When the Lord Jesus approached the end of His earthly ministry, He said, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.”
V. THE PERSPECTIVE, THE ONWARD LOOK (Hab 2:3)
We like the word spoken by Habakkuk: “For the vision is yet for an appointed time * * though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”
As we look at present world-conditions we are disheartened. We are walking through a valley of the shadow of death. Sin and sorrow are wreaking out misery everywhere. Satan is renewing every effort against the race.
The Word of God promises no relief. Unto the end wars are determined. Evil men are to wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Iniquity will abound. God paints no roseate picture of the last days. He tells us, rather, that “perilous times shall come.”
What Habakkuk saw, however, was a vision that looked on far beyond the present hour, far beyond the hour of Jacob’s trouble. We know that Habakkuk saw the overthrow of Israel, and the cup of sorrow which she must drink; but he saw also the Lord coming, with His glory covering the Heavens, and he saw the earth full of His praise. He saw Christ coming in judgment against the nations that had despoiled Israel. He saw the sun and moon standing still as the Lord’s arrows went forth. He saw the Lord marching through the land in indignation, threshing the heathen in His anger. Then, he saw the salvation of God’s people, with the head of the house of the wicked cut down.
We need a similar vision. We would not be blind to the day of wrath that is about to fall upon the earth, but we would see also another day,-a day of peace, a day when men shall beat the swords into plowshares, and the spears into pruninghooks; a day when Christ shall reign in righteousness.
If we see nothing but the present hour, heading up in the reign and rule of the antichrist, we will become discouraged; but, if we see beyond that hour, the day of “the Lord seated upon His throne,” we will become encouraged and full of blessed anticipation.
VI. DISCOURAGEMENT, THE DOWNWARD LOOK (Gen 4:5-6)
Sin had entered into the Garden, and man had been expelled therefrom. Cain and Abel had been born with the ravages of sin upon them. Abel had placed his faith in the blood of a sacrifice, which anticipated the Cross of Christ. Cain had rejected the atonement, and had placed his faith in a bloodless sacrifice-art ethical conception.
In jealousy Cain rose up and slew his brother. When Cain had seen that God accepted Abel and rejected himself, he was wroth, and his countenance fell. The result of sin is always a downcast look-a fallen countenance.
God made man an “uplooker.” He placed his head on the top of him. He gave him as his realm of his contemplation and vision, the things which were high and holy. Sin changed man’s perspective; it turned his face from the skies, where God rules; to the earth, where man dwells.
The sinner looks at the things seen, not at the things unseen; he centers his affections upon the things of the earth, not upon the things of the sky.
Saints are “uplookers” and not “downlookers.” We are looking for that Blessed Hope, and the Glorious Appearing of our Lord. We are building our treasures in Heaven, not upon the earth. We are strangers and pilgrims, journeying toward a City, whose Builder and Maker is God.
The man who, Cain-like, has his countenance downcast, and is living for this present world, is blind and cannot see afar off. The god of this world hath veiled his eyes lest the light of the Gospel of the glory of God should shine in upon him and convert him.
VII. ENCOURAGEMENT, THE GOD-WARD LOOK (2Ki 6:17)
Gehazi must have trembled with fear as he saw the enemy closing in upon Elisha, Then it was that the Prophet prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray Thee, open his eyes, that he may see.” What Gehazi saw was the mountain full of God’s horses and chariots, giving protection to His Prophet.
We need the vision which God gave to Gehazi. We need to see all Heaven working in our behalf. When this is before us, we will lift up the hands that hang down and find strength for our feeble knees.
Instead of looking at our emergencies, we should look beyond them, and above them to God’s provision and power. When the Children of Israel saw the mountains on one side, the sea before them, and Pharaoh’s hosts coming upon them and closing them in, they needed to look away to God.
The hosts of the Lord are an innumerable multitude, and they are all working in our behalf. The Lord, Himself, has placed at our disposal all of the power invested in Him, as He sits enthroned above.
Retreat should never be found in the Christian’s vocabulary. We should not even try to go around our difficulties. We should press through them.
The ten spies came back, saying, “We saw giants.” Joshua and Caleb said, “Let us go up at once”-they saw God.
There are giants at every turn. They are in our family life; they are in our business careers; they are in our spiritual walk; they are everywhere. If we see the powers of God around us, we will say, “They be bread for us; we will eat them up.” Without the opening of our eyes, and the faith which the vision of God instills, we will be eaten up by our enemies.
Our God is a God of infinite power. Our battle, therefore, is a battle with a sure conquest at its close. We will prove more than victors, through Him who loved us. We may experience a continuous fight, but we will have a glorious conclusion.
AN ILLUSTRATION
BIRDS ON THE WING
“Birds are seldom taken in their flight; the more we are upon the wing of Heavenly thoughts the more we escape snares.” “O that we would remember this, and never tarry long on the ground lest the fowler ensnare us. We need to be much taken up with Divine things, rising in thought above these temporal matters, or else the world will entangle us, and we shall be like birds held with limed twigs, or encompassed in a net. Holy meditation can scarcely be overdone; in this age we fear it never is. We are too worldly, and think too much of the fleeting trifles of time, and so the enemy gets an advantage of us, and takes a shot at us. O for more wing and more use of the flight we have! Communion with Jesus is not only sweet in itself, but it has a preserving power by bearing us aloft, above gun-shot of the enemy. Thoughts of Heaven prevent discontent with our present lot, delight in God drives away love to the world, and joy in our Lord Jesus expels pride and carnal pleasure: thus we escape from many evils by rising above them.
Up, then, my heart. Up from the weedy ditches and briery hedges of the world into the clear atmosphere of Heaven. There where the dews of grace are born, and the sun of righteousness is Lord paramount, and the blessed wind of the Spirit blows from the everlasting hills, thou wilt find rest on the wing, and sing for joy where thine enemies cannot even see thee.”
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
Gen 19:25. And he overthrew those cities, and all the inhabitants of them, the plain, and all that grew upon the ground It was an utter ruin, and irreparable; that fruitful valley remains to this day a great lake, or dead sea. Travellers say it is about thirty miles long, and ten miles broad. It has no living creature in it: it is not moved by the wind: the smell of it is offensive: things do not easily sink in it. The Greeks call it Asphaltis, from a sort of pitch which it casts up. Jordan falls into it, and is lost there. It was a punishment that answered their sin. Burning lusts against nature were justly punished with this preternatural burning.