The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 323

loading down from Hebron to the Dead Sea, c>n the wf.st side of the lake (De Sanccy); in ':,:sv is again employed (cf. eh. xix. 8)-and all the plain,-kikkm·, circle or district (eh. the Ghor-d-llfez1·aa, i. e. upon the southern xiii. 10)-and all the inh&bita.nts of the peninsula, which projects a long way into cities,-n proof of their entire corrnption (eh. the Dead Sea (Robinson); and in the Ghoi·-el- xviii. 32)-and that which grew upon the Szaphia, Rt the south-eastern end of the sea g:round-literally, that wMch spi·outs fort!~ nt the opening oft.he Wady-el-Ra1tmer(Keil); Ji·oin the g1·ound, tbo protluce of tho soil ; hut has now been identified v.'ith Zi'Rra, Rt the thus converting "a. fruitful land into bnrrcn- 11orthom extremity of the lake ('l'ristram, ness for tho wickedness of them that dwell 'Land of Moab,' p. 380; vide 1'.iifra, vcr. 28, therein" (I's. cvii. 34). • on the site of cities of the plain). Ver. 26.-But his wife looked back from Yer. 23.-The sun was risen upon the behind him, - i. e. went behind him end earth-literally, the sun went .forth, i. e. looked back; l,r//3X11/,,11 (LXX.), implying it was now above the horizon. Lot had left wistful regard; ,·espiciens (Vulgate); an act 8odom with the first streak of dawn ; but, expressly forbidden by the a.ngel (vcr 17)- ha,ing lingered, it was clear morning-when and she b~came (literally, she was, convey. Lot entered into Zoar-or "went tom1rds ing nn idea of complete and instantaneous ZoRr," i. e. when the nngel left liim (Keil). Yer. 24.-Then the Lord ramed-literally, judgment) 11 pilla.r of sa.lt. n?~ :J. ',!IJ; ur~Xr, and Jehovah caU,Sed it to rain; rai o:vp,o, aXcii; (LXX. ); a statue or column ·or fos~il ;13p,/;, (LXX.), which latter term is adopted salt, such as exists in the nei~hbourhood of by Luke in describing this event (eh. xvii. 29) the Dead Sea. That she was literally trans• -upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah-nnd also formed. into a. pillar of salt (Josephus, Calvin, npon Admah and Zeboim (Dent. xxix. 23; Roscnmiiller, Kalisch, Wordsworth), though Hosea xi. 8), Bela., or Zoar, of the five cities not impossible, .is scarcely likely. A more of the Jordan circle (eh. riv. 2, 8) being ex- probable interp,etation is that she was killed empted-brimstone and fire-n'1;>} ; pro- by the fiery and sulphurous vapour with rerlv pitch, though the name wn.s afterwards which the atmosphere was impregnated, a.nd tran.sfcrred to other inflammable materials afterwards became encrusted with salt (Aben (Gcsenius) ; ~), and fire, whlch, though Ezra, Keil, Lange, Murphy, Quan-y), though against this it has been urged (1) that tho sometimes used of lightning, as in 1 Kings air was not fillccl . with "salt sulphurous xvi.ii. 38 ; 2 Kings i. 10, 12, 14 ; Job i 16, rain," but with fire and brimstone; and may here describe a. different sort of igneous (2) that the heaven-sent tempest did not agency. Wbether this Divinely-sent !'ain operate in the way described on the other wn.s "burning pitch" (Keil), or lightning inhabitants of Sodom (Inglis). A third which ignited the bituminous soil (Clerieus), explanation regards the expression as allc- or a volcanic eruption ,vhich overwhelmed gorica.l, and intimating that the fate of all the mgion (Lynch, Kitto), it was clearly Lot's wife was an everlasting monument of rnira.culons in its nature, antl designed as the danger of disregarding the wortl of the a solemn punitive infliction on the cities Lord, either as a covenant of salt si~ifies a. of the rlain-from the Lord-i. e. Jehovah perpetual covenant (Clark), or witll refor- (the Son) rained down from Jehovah (the ence to the salt piijars which, in a similar Futher), as if suggesting a. distinction of manner, attest the destruction of the cities persons in the Godhead (Justin Martyr, (Inglis). The notion that Lot's wife, return- Tertullian, Athana.sius, et alii, Delitzsch, ing to the city,' stuck fast in terra salsu- Lange, Wordsworth); otherwise the phrase is ginosa, like a salt pillar (Dnthius), anti that re!'llrded as "an elegancy of speech " (Aben she perished in the flames, 11aving afterwards &ra), "an emphati? re.Petition" (Calvin), a erected to her memory a monwnent of tho more exact charactel'16llt1on of the storm (Cle- salt stone of the region (Michaelis), mny bo ricus, Rosenm iiller) as being out of heaven. disregard et!. . . Ver. 25.-And he overthrew - literally, Ver. 27.-And Abraham gat up ea.rly in turned over, as a. cake ; whence utterly the morning (of the catastrop11e) ~~ the place destroyed (cf. Deut. xxix. 23 ; ,cariarpu/,•, (i. e. antl went to the place) where. he stood LXX.; 8Ubvertit, Vulgate). In Arabic "the before the Lord (vide on eh. xviii. 22). overthrown" is a. title applied., 1eai' i(ox,iv, Ver. 28.-And he looked toward-liter- to Sodom and Gomorrah (Gi,aenius). From allr., towards ehe/ace, or visible side (cf. eh, the use of the expression 1<araurpo~q (2 Pet. xvI.iL 16 where the same rhrase is employed. ii. 6), Wordsworth thinks a.n earthquake to describe the act of the angels on leaving may have a.ccompanied the burning-th9ae Marnre)-Sodom and Gomorrah, a.nd towa.rd citiee,-that they were suLmerged as well as all the land o! the plain, or Jordan circlo. overthrown (Josephus) is a. douLtful infer- The cities of the plain nre commonly believed. ~nce from eh. xiv. 3 (vide infra, ver. 28, on to have been situated. nt the southern ex- il,c site or ,;ilies of the rl:ii11). TJie archak tremity of t]1e Pcntl Sc11,. 'l'he princirril ,'H, XIX. 12-28.] 'l'llE BOOK OF GENESIS. 257