And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father [is] old, and [there is] not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth:
Gen 19:31-38
And they made their father drink wine
The lessons of Lots dishonour
I.
THAT SAINTS WHO HAVE BEEN THE SUBJECTS OF EXTRAORDINARY MERCY MAY YET FALL INTO SIN.
II. THAT IT IS DIFFICULT, EVEN FOR THE BEST, TO ESCAPE THE EFFECT OF EVIL ASSOCIATIONS.
III. THE FOLLY OF A WORLDLY CHOICE.
IV. THE WISDOM OF AVOIDING THE OCCASIONS OF SIN.
V. THE AWFUL DEPTHS OF HUMAN DEPRAVITY.
VI. FLESHLY SINS COVER EVEN A FAIR NAME WITH DISHONOUR. VII. THE DANGER OF EXCITEMENT.
VIII. THE FAITHFULNESS OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORD. (T. H. Leale.)
Lots dishonour
The dishonourable end of this good man shows that we are never out of danger while we are upon earth. He whose righteous soul was grieved with the filthy conversation of the wicked, while in a city, is drawn into the same kind of evils himself, when dwelling in a cave! His whole history also, from the time of his leaving Abraham, furnishes an affecting lesson to the heads of families in the choice of habitations for themselves or their children. If worldly accommodations be preferred to religious advantages, we have nothing good, but everything evil to expect. We may, or we may not lose, our substance as he did; but, what is of far greater consequence, our families may be expected to become mere heathens, and our own minds contaminated with the examples which are continually before our eyes. Such was the harvest which Lot reaped from his well-watered plain; and such are the fruits very commonly seen in those who reflect his example! (A. Fuller.)
.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 31. Our father is old]. And consequently not likely to re-marry; and there is not a man in the earth – 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 as well as those of Sodom and Gomorrah, and were only saved at the earnest request of their father; and probably while they lived among them they found them ripe enough for punishment, and therefore would have thought it both dangerous and criminal to have formed any matrimonial connections with them.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In the earth; either,
1. In the whole earth; for they thought the same deluge of fire which destroyed the four cities had by this time extended itself to Zoar, and all other places, knowing that the whole world did lie in wickedness, and having possibly heard from their father, that the world, as it was once destroyed by water, so it should afterwards be consumed by fire, which they might think was now executed, and that God had secured Abraham from it by taking him to himself. Or,
2. In that land, as the word may be rendered. And her meaning might not be this, that there was no man at all, but not a man with whom they might or durst marry; for though they knew they left many men in Zoar, yet the sad expericnce of the dreadful ruin wherein their brethren-in-law were involved, made them abhor the thoughts of any conjunction with them.
After the manner of all the earth, i.e. of all the inhabitants of the earth. Compare Gen 18:11.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And the firstborn said unto the younger,…. That is, the firstborn of those two, or the elder of them; for, if Lot had other daughters that were married in Sodom, it is probable they were elder than either of these: Aben Ezra intimates, that Lot had another wife, who died first, and these were by his second; the following motion is made by the eldest of them to the youngest, as being bolder, having more authority, and a greater influence to persuade:
our father [is] old; if he was fifty years of age when he was taken captive by the kings, as says the Jewish chronologer q he must now be sixty five, since the destruction of Sodom, according to Bishop Usher r, was fifteen years after that:
and [there] is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth; to marry them, cohabit with them, and procreate children of them, which was the common way of the propagation of mankind in the earth; they thought the whole world was destroyed by fire, as it had been by a flood; they understood it would be no more consumed by water, but they had been told it would be by fire, and they imagined the time was now come, and this was the case; that not only Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire, and that by this time the fire had reached to Zoar, and had consumed that, but that the whole earth was destroyed, and not a man left but their father, and therefore thought it could be excusable in them, and lawful for them to take the following method to repopulate the world; or else they supposed there were none in the land, the land of Canaan, not of any of their kindred and relations, for they might be ignorant of Abraham and his family, or however of any good man that they knew of, that they could be joined to in marriage; for as for the inhabitants of Zoar, they had just left, they were as wicked as any, and therefore could not think of living with them in such a near relation: but all this is not a sufficient excuse for contriving and executing what is after related; for they should have inquired of their father, who could have informed them better.
q Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 77. 1. r Annales Vet. Test. p. 8, 9.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
31. And the firstborn said (427) Here Moses narrates a miracle, which rightly brings the readers to astonishment. For, how could that unchaste intercourse come into the mind of the daughters of Lot, while the terrible punishment of God of the Sodomites stood still before her eyes, and while they knew that the scandalous and sinful lusts were the chief causes thereof? True, they were not so much moved through sensual lusts, as through a foolish desire for the procreation of their family; nevertheless, this urge was too absurd, because it forces the nature to forget all chastity and sense of shame, and, like the beasts, to destroy all difference between scandalous and honorable. To understand the better the whole of the case, I will deal with the separate parts, in order.
In the first place, concerning the plan of Lot’s oldest daughter, whom the younger obeyed, concerning that I take for granted that none of both is urged trough fleshy lust, but that they both have only thought about the propagation of the family. For, what kind of passion would that have been, to desire for intercourse with an already old father?
That the oldest furtively comes in for but one night, and puts her sister in her stead, the next night, and that they, being pregnant, not think to return to the embrace of their father; from that we decide in the second place, that they have had no other goal but to become mother. But I do not approve of what some conjecture, who say that they were mislead by a great error, thinking that the whole world had perished together with Sodom. For, they had just dwelt in Zoar, also there were sweet regions before their eyes, which were surely not without inhabitants, and also they had learned from their father that a special punishment was inflicted upon the Sodomites and the other neighbors. They also were not ignorant of the family whence their father came, and what kind of uncle he had followed out of his fatherland. So, what must we think? That, because they were assured that families are maintained by children, it was hard for them and it was a continual cause of grief, that they were without children. Also the emptiness, when their father would be dead, could seem to be unbearable for them, because they saw that they then would be lonely, and without any help. So, hence their impudent desire, and that absurd urgency to seek this unchaste intercourse, as they were afraid of a lonely life, which was liable to many concerns. Also I doubt not, that Moses not narrates what they have used as a pretext, but what they have said in a sincere feeling of their hearts. So, they wanted to bring forth seed, like the custom of all the nations. They adduce the example of the entire world, because they would deem it unfair when their state would be worse then that of the others. Everywhere, they say, the young women are praised, who conceive children, and thus build their families; why must we then be condemned to be always childless? In the mean time, they well know that they commit a great sin. For, why make they their father drunken? Is it not, because they guess, that he cannot be made willing? When he has had an aversion to unchastity, the daughters must necessarily have had the same notion in their consciences. So, in no wise they are to be excused, that they lend themselves to a scandalous intercourse, which all the nation abhor by nature. While the people, with normal crimes, are forced to admit their crimes; how will they plead themselves free with important crimes, as if no fear for God’s judgement prickled them? Therefore, with suppression of the conscience, Lot’s daughters devote themselves to that crime. The reason to mislead their father was no other then this, that they knew the disgrace, which they themselves necessarily had to condemn, because they knew that it was against the order of the nature. From this appears, whereto the people come when they follow their own will; for nothing can be so absurd or bestial, that we not decay to that, when we give free rein to our flesh. Let this, therefore, be the beginning of al our desires, to examine what the Lord allows, in order that it comes not in our mind to ask something, what according His Word is free to us.
There is not a man in the earth. They mean not that all the nations are destroyed, as many explainers drivel, but because they are by fear driven in the cave, leading a lonely life, they complain, that they are cut off from any hope of marriage. And yes, being secluded from the rest of the nations, they lived as if they were sent away to some separated world. Might one object that they could ask husbands of their father, then I answer, that it absolutely not a miracle, that they, beaten down through fear, could not seek another medicine, than what was at hand. For, they thought that they on that solitary mountain, locked up in the den of a rock, had no more the least connection with the human race. It could be (as I have reminded before) that some slaves dwelt with them. This is even probable, for otherwise it was difficult to have wine in the cave, when this was not taken with them on a wagon with the other foods. Yet they say that there were no husbands for them, because they have an aversion to a marriage with slaves.
Further I mean, that the name earth in the first member, is put for region or area, as if they said: This region has no more men left, who could marry us after the custom of the entire world. For there is here a tacit contrast between the whole earth and a certain part thereof. But this is their first crime, that they, in a zeal to propagate the human race, violate the holy law of nature. Next, it is wrong and wicked, that they not flee to the Creator of the world Himself, to cure them from that desolation, about which they were worried. Thirdly, they show their negligence when they aim their hearts only on the earthly life, and not worry about the heavenly life. Though I dare not to give security concerning the time, which has elapsed between the destruction of Sodom, and the unchaste intercourse of Lot with his daughters, yet, it is probable that they, as soon as they had come in the cave, in aversion to the solitude, have made up this scandalous and execrable plan. It could not take a long time, that Lot lived in the cave, or there came lack of food and drink. And like a sudden fear had carried away their father, like a storm, likewise the daughters could not restrain themselves, even for some days. Without calling upon God, or asking their father for advice, they are carried away through a bestial instinct. Herein we see how soon the deliverance and the punishment of the Sodomites has left their memory, although both had always to be kept in their heart. Oh, that this vice also among us were not so great; but we show too clearly in both ways our ingratitude.
(427) “ Et dixit primogenita.” — “ Hic prodigium narratur a Mose, quod lectores merito obstupefacere debet,” etc. The lengthened comment on this and the following verses, it has been deemed necessary entirely to omit. Perhaps the only points worthy of notice in it, are the following: 1. Calvin supposes Lot to have been under judicial infatuation in consequence of his intemperance on the occasion. “ Ego quidem ita omnino statuo non tam vino fuisse obrutum, quam propter suam intemperiem divinitus percussum spiritu stuporis.” 2. He explains, as other commentators do, the names of the children of Lot’s daughters; the first מואב, ( Moab,) which signifies “from a father;” the other בן-עמי, ( Ben-ammi,) which signifies “the son of my people.” These were the progenitors of the Moabites and Ammonites. — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Gen. 19:37. Called his name Moab.] From the father, or seed of the father.
Gen. 19:38. Ben-Ammi. Son of my people.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Gen. 19:31-38
THE LESSONS OF LOTS DISHONOUR
This chapter closes with the sad picture of a good man betrayed into sin, and thus covering his name with dishonour. It is a painful history, but there are some lessons of instruction to be learned.
I. That saints who have been, the subjects of extraordinary mercy may yet fall into sin. The temporal deliverance of Lot was a special act of Divine mercy. His conviction of it depended upon no mere emotion. There was the outward fact in which he could distinctly trace the hand of God. Yet, after so distinct a favour of Providence, he falls by an easy temptation into the foulest sin. Thus Gods mercy is no guarantee for human gratitude. Those who have been saved, yet so as by fire, are often the very first to forget God their Saviour. The picture which the Bible gives of man is faithful to the facts of human nature. God merciful, but man ungrateful. God just, but man unrighteous. God true, but every man a liar.
II. That it is difficult, even for the best, to escape the effect of evil associations. The conduct of Lots daughters shows how much they were imbued with the spirit of evil around them, notwithstanding their pious parentage. It is difficult for goodness to stand upright in the land of wickedness. Lots spiritual character suffered less injury than that of his family from their sojourn in Sodom; yet his moral sense was blunted, his moral fibre relaxed. As there is said to be virtue and healing in the shadow of goodness falling upon us, so the shadow of evil spreads nought but what is baneful.
III. The folly of a worldly choice. Lot had chosen this place with a view of promoting his temporal prosperity, but at what a cost! He had nearly perished in the terrible judgments which fell upon its population. He is scarcely saved. Mercy had to snatch him out of the fire. By choosing this world, against his best spiritual interests, he had exposed himself to bodily danger; and, what is worse than this, to great impairment of his spiritual health and vigour. We run the greatest risk to our souls when worldly considerations are uppermost in our minds in choosing our path in life.
IV. The wisdom of avoiding the occasions of sin. Lot gave way to strong drink, and then committed the sin of incest. There is a special danger in all sins of the flesh, for, when once indulged in, they render easier sins of deeper dye. They dull the intellect and the conscience until all moral perceptions are weakened and confused. If we allow the animal man the mastery, the spiritual man is threatened. How much of the sin, degradation, and misery of mankind is to be traced to strong drink! Intoxication deceived Lot, who was not deceived in Sodom; the flames of lust burn him whom flames of sulphur did not burn. (Gregory 1.) Lot, who in Sodom, the very school of unchastity, had lived chastely, in the cave was guilty of incest, suffering shipwreck in the harbour. (Lange.) The occasions of sinespecially those of a fleshly natureshould be avoided, or else we venture upon a current which will, in the end, become too strong for us.
V. The awful depths of human depravity. All sin is evil, but there are sins which defile the whole body and reveal depths of human depravity, from the very thought of which pure minds shrink with pain. There are fleshly sins of so deep a stain that the common fault and corruption of human nature is almost pure by comparison with them. This view of specially degrading sins is confirmed by the usages of language, by which the term sinner is applied to a special class. Such sins tend to hurry a man along that path which leads to infamy and shame.
VI. Fleshly sins cover even a fair name with dishonour. Lot is never mentioned in the history after this circumstance. He disappears under a cloud. A blot lies on his memory for all generations. He is now both outwardly and inwardly separated from Abraham, and is of no further importance in the history of salvation. His sin may have been forgiven, and his person accepted, but the deeds themselves are recorded in the iron page, where they remain. They are things done, and cannot be altered. They are happier and more blest who have not greatly fallen, even though the mercy of God is not overtasked by the worst sins of mankind.
VII. The danger of excitement. Lot had witnessed alarming scenes. It was a time of wild excitement when he knew not where to look for rest, and fears were in the waydestruction all around him, his wife stricken down at his side by an awful judgment, he himself a wanderer, having no certain dwelling-place, and not strong in the inspiration of hope. It is a time of great spiritual danger when a man is recovering from the extreme tension of his mind, produced by the excitement of violent and conflicting feelings.
VIII. The faithfulness of the Scripture record. Sacred history records the faults of its good men with a wonderful faithfulness. Here are no impossible characters, no ideal personages created by human imagination, but never seen in actual flesh and blood. The facts of human nature are accepted, though the contemplation of them may be painful and sad. We have men as they are, and not written up to by the devices of literary art. No human story-teller would have forged such a narrative as this. It has all the marks of a truthful record. The gravest sins and faults of the righteous are not concealed.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Gen. 19:32-36. The manners of Sodom here obtrude themselves upon our view. Lots daughters might seem to have been led to this unnatural project, first, because they thought the human race extinct with the exception of themselves, in which case their conduct may have seemed a work of justifiable necessity; and next, because the degrees of kindred within which it was unlawful to marry had not been determined by an express law. But they must have seen some of the inhabitants of Zoar after the destruction of the cities; and carnal intercourse between parent and offspring must have always been repugnant to nature.(Murphy).
Kalisch well remarks, No word is employed, no allusion made, in the whole of this tale to express disgust, aversion, or hatred: the laws concerning the allowed and forbidden degrees were not yet fixed: Abraham himself lived in a matrimony cursed as an abomination in the Mosaic code (Lev. 18:9): the event is related with all the calmness of historical composition. And it must also not be forgotten that in Deu. 2:9-19, the possessions of the children of Lot in Ar and in the land of Ammon are recognised by God, and the Israelites are forbidden to distress or meddle with them. But at the same time the necessity which there was for bereaving Lot of his self-command, shows us beneath the surface that his righteous soul, even though it could brook much which nature now abhors (Gen. 19:8), could not have been brought to consent to that into which he was unconsciously betrayed.(Alford.)
It is a moral duty to take care of our physical nature and to preserve it in its integrity. Whatever confuses the understanding, or weakens the will, exposes to moral danger. Hence drunkenness leads men into crimes from which, in their sober senses, they would shrink in abhorrence. All that which rouses the beast within us tends to destroy our better nature.
Those carnal devices by which morality is strained to meet circumstances show a practical distrust in Providence.
Gen. 19:37-38. Both these names justify the view that it was merely to preserve the family that the daughters of Lot had recourse to the expedient. Hence, as we do not find that they ever repeated the stratagem, so neither do they now appear to have been at all ashamed of it, both which would have been natural had their motives been more unworthy than they were. The offspring, however, of this incestuous connection, whatever may be said in behalf of the connection itself, was certainly a bad one. These Moabites soon fell from the faith of God, and became idolators, the worshippers of Chemosh and Baal-peor, and were enemies to the children of Abraham. The same is also true of the Ammonites. As both these make afterwards a considerable figure in the sacred history, the inspired writer takes care to introduce at this early period an account of their origin.(Bush.)
In the worst races there is an element of hope. Ruth was a Moabitess, and was a member of that family through whom the Messiah came. The prophetic Scriptures give us a picture of the conversion of the Moabites to Christ. (Isa. 11:14; Jer. 48:47; Dan. 11:41.) The golden age for mankind lies in the future, not in the past.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(31) The firstborn said unto the Younger.Several modern commentators see in this recital a mark of Jewish hatred towards the Moabites and Ammonites, and an attempt to brand their origin with shame. Really we find in Deu. 2:9-19, no trace of the existence of this hostility, but, on the contrary, the relationship of these two nations to Israel is used as a ground for kindly feelings; and in the story of Ruth the Moabitess, and the friendship which existed between the king of Moab and David, we have proof that such feelings existed.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
31. The firstborn said unto the younger The infamous measures which this elder daughter proposed, and in which she was readily followed by her younger sister, shows what demoralizing power the city life of Sodom had exerted over them . They became familiar with “the filthy conversation of the wicked,” (2Pe 2:7😉 their sisters had married, and perhaps they themselves had been betrothed to men of Sodom, (see on Gen 19:14-15,) and possibly their mother was a woman of Sodom, (note on 13, 14;) what could be expected of daughters grown up amid such surroundings! Even though Lot held the faith of Abraham, and reproved his wicked neighbours, his worldly-mindedness was strong, and his parental discipline as feeble, perhaps, as Eli’s. 1Sa 2:22-25.
Not a man in the earth That is, in the land, or country around them . We are not to understand by this, as some of the ancient interpreters, that Lot’s daughters believed the whole human race to have been destroyed, but that they had no hope of marriage with any of the men of the country to which they had fled .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Gen 19:31. The first-born said, &c. There can be no doubt, I suppose, that the principal reason why the sacred writer recorded this event, was to point out to the Israelites the incestuous and hateful origin of the Moabites and Ammonites, their enemies, as before he mentioned the sin of Canaan for the same reason. Other useful and instructive lessons against vice may indeed be derived from this history, which the inspired historian cannot be supposed to approve or commend by barely relating it; and in this view his credit is no way concerned.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Gen 19:31 And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father [is] old, and [there is] not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth:
Ver. 31. And the firstborn, &c. ] It is dangerous to live in a wicked place: yea, for though thyself mayest escape infection, thy children may be tainted, as Lot’s were.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
not: Gen 19:28, Mar 9:6
to come: Gen 4:1, Gen 6:4, Gen 16:2, Gen 16:4, Gen 38:8, Gen 38:9, Gen 38:14-30, Deu 25:5, Isa 4:1
Reciprocal: Gen 19:8 – let Pro 20:1 – General Ecc 5:13 – riches
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
19:31 And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father [is] old, and [there is] not a man in the {p} earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth:
(p) Meaning in the country which the Lord had now destroyed.