fo profane thinq.1 (he it) to thee= ncfas sit tibi= absit a te I nn exclamation of al,horrencc, too feebly rendered by ,,.,8aµwi: first petition), Behold now, I have taken upon me-literally, I have bequn, though hero perhaps used in a more emphatic sense : I (LXX. )-to do after this manner (literally, have undertaken or vontured (vide Gesenius, according to this ~ooi·d), to slay the righteous :r,. 326)-to speak unto the Lord-.A.donai with the wicked: and that the righteous (eh. xv. 2)-which am but dust and ashes. should be as the wicked (literally, and that; '' Dust in his 01igin and ashes in his end " 1·t should be-as the 1-ighteous, so the wicked), (Delitzsch ; vide eh. iii. 19). that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge Yer. 28.-Peradventure there shall le.ck of all the earth do right 1 The patriarch five of the fifty righteous : wilt thou destroy appeals not to Jehovah's covenant grace e.11 the city for lo.ck of five 1 Literally, 01. (Kurtz), but to his absolute judicial equity q:ccoum of five, i. c. because they are ,vant- (Keil). It does not, however, follow that mg. .A. raro example o~ holy•ingenuity in the Divine righteousness would have been prayer. Abraham, i.nsteao. of pleading for compromised hy consigning pious and wicked the city's safety on account of forty - five, t0 the same temporal destruction. 'l'his depreca.tes its destruction on account of fivo .. must have been a spectacle not unfrequently And he said, If I find there forty and five, I observed in Abraham's day as well as ours. will not destroy it. Yet the min<l of Abraham appears to have Yer. 29. - And he apake unto him yet been perplexc<l, ns men's minds often are again-literally, and he added yet to speak still, by the magnitude of the proposed illus- to him (cf. ch. iv. 2; viii. 10, 12; xxv. 1)- tration of a common principle in Providence. and ea.id (increasing in his boldness as God Though prepared to admit the 11l-inciple abounded in his grace), Peradventure there ,,hen its application is confined to solitary shall be forty found there.· Does Abraham cnses, or cases of no great amplitude, yet hesitate to add the query, "Wilt thou also Y" instinctively the human mind feels that &c., as if fearing he had at last touched the there must be a limit to the commingling limit of the Divine condescension. If so, he of the righteous and the wicked in ca.lamity, must have been surprised by the continued though it should be only of a temporal gracious response which his supplication 1·e- description. That limit Abraham conceive<l, ceived. And he said, I will not do it for or perhaps feared that others might conceive, forty's sake. would be passed if good and bad in Sodom Ver. 30.-And he said unto him, Oh let should be overwhelmed in a common ruin ; not the .Lord be ans-ry,-literally, let there and in this spirit the closing utterance of not be buming with anger to the Lord his first supplication may be regarded as (Adonai)-and I will speak : Peradventure giving expression to the hope that Jehovah there shall thirty be found there. And he would do nothing that would even seem to said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there. tarnish his Divine righteousness. Abraham Yer. 31.-Andhe said, Behold now, I have of course regarded this as impossible, con- taken upon me (vide ver. 27) to speak unto sequently he believed that Sodom might be the Lord (Adonii,i) : Peradventure there spared. shall be twenty found there. And he said, Yer. 26.-And the Lord said, If I find in I will not destroy it for twenty's sake. Sodom :fifty righteous within the city (thus Yer. 32.-And he said, Oh let not the accepting the test propo§ed by Abraham, Lord be angry (vide siipra ), and I will speak but not necessarily thereby acquiescing in bat this once (literally, only thu time 'TTI/Yre, the absolute soundness of his logic), then I as in Exod. x. 17) : Peradventure ten shall will spa.re (not as an act of justice, but as be found there. And he se.id, I will not an exercise of mercy, and not because of any destroy it for ten's sake. suspicions that might otherwise attach to Yer. 33.-And the Lord (Jehovah) went my rectitude, but solely in vindication of his way,-i. e. vanishe<l (Keil); not to avoid my clemency) e.11 the place (not the righteous further entreaties on tho part of Abraham merely, which was all that justice could have (Delitzsch), but for the reason specified in legitimately demanded) for their sakes, i. e. the next words-as soon as he had left com- Lccause of the claims upon my mercy which muning with Abraham (because Abraham's grace admits the righ teoua to prefer. supplications were ended) : ,nd Abraham Yer. 27.-And Abraham answered and returned unto his place (viz., Mamre nenr said (being emboldened by the success of his Hebron).
HOMILETICS. Vers. 23-33.-Abraliam's intercesswn. I. THE OBJECT OF HIS INTERCESSION. Not simply the rescue of Lot from the doomed citiee, but the ealvation of the citiee tLem- selves, with their miserable inhabitants. A request evincing-I. Tender sympatky. Cll. XVllI. 23-33.] TllE BOOK OF GENESIS. 2f>l