Yer. 36.-Thue were both the daughters always used of events which had taken placo of Lot (who after this disappears from sacred several centuries before the time of Moses, as history, not even his death being recorded) in eh. xxvi. 33; xxxv. 20; xlvii. 26 (cf. with child by their father. Keil, 'Introduction,' part i. § 2, div. 1, § 38). Ver. 37.-And the firstborn bare a son, Ver. 38.-And the younger, she also bare and called his name Koab = Meab, from the father, alluding to his incestuous origin a aon, and called his namo J!en-ammi. I. e. son of my people (LXX., Jerome, Augustine), (LXX., which adds x;yov<ra h: roii 1rarp6t; meaning that her child WQS the oifs-r,ring of ,,ou; Augustine, Jerome, Delitzsch, Keil); her own kind and blood (RosenmiJ.ller), or though ]lfo (= water, an Arnbic euphemism the son of her relative (Kalisch), or of an for the semen virile) and ab has been advanced unmixed race (' Speaker's Commentary'). ns a more correct derivation (Roscnmiiller). The same is the father of the children of The same is the father of the Moabites-who Ammon-an unsettled people who occupied originally inhabited the country north-east the territory between the Jabbok and the of the Dead Sea, between the Jabbok and Arnon, from which they had ejected the the Amon (Deut. ii. 20), but were afterwards Rephaims or Zamzummims (Deut. ii. 22), driven by the Amoritcs south of the Amon- and in which they possessed a strong city, unto this day. This phrase, indicatil.1" a Rabbah (2 Sam. xi. 1) ; in their habits more ,·:triable period from a few years to a few migratory and marauding than the Moabites centuries (cf. eh. xl viii. 13 ; Exod. x. 6 ; (Isa. xv., xvi.; Jer. xlviii. ), and in their Knmb. xxii. 39; Josh. xxii. 3), cannot be religion worshippers of Molech, "the abomin- rcgardeu as a trace of post-Mosaic authorship ation of the Ammonites" (1 Kings xi. 7)- (De Wette, et alii), since in Genesis it is unto this day.
HOMILETICS. Ver. 29.-The last days of Lot. I. HAUNTED BY TERROR. 1. The te1-ror of DivinefudgmenJ. The appalling spectacle of Sodom's overthrow had no doubt filled him with alarm. And so are God's judgments in the earth designed to put the souls of men in fear (Ps. ix. 20; xlvi. 8-10; cxix. 120). 2. Tlie terror of men. Dwelling in Zoar, he apprehended an outburst of wrath from the citizens, who probably re- garded him as the cause of the ruin which had invaded Sodo)l'.I. So are better men than Lot sometimes overtaken by the fear of mar, (2 Sam. xxii. 5; Ps. xviii. 4), though they should not (Isa. Ji. ·12). 3. The terror of conscience. That Lot enjoyed while in Zoar a calm and undisturbed repose of heart and mind is scarcely supposable. Rather it may be- safely conjectured that after the storm and the fire and the ·earth- quake through which he had lately passed, the still small voice of conscience spoke to him in awe-inspiring accents, unveiling his past life, reproving him of sin, and pierci~g l1im through with many sorrows; and that under the agitations produced by its accusations and reproaches he became s.frnid, and withdrew to the mountains. "Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all." II. SouNDING THE LOWER DEEPS. 1. Descending into unbelief. God had promised to spare Zoar for him, and him in Zoar, and one would have thought Lot had been sufliciently warned of the sin of distrusting God. Yet he is scarcely established in t lie city which God had granted in response to his own prayer than he begins to think it hardly safe to remain within its precinctl3. How inveterate is unbelief I 2. Plung· iilg into sin. The details of the present story clearl)'. show thut .Lot, when. he went to the mountain cave, endeavoured to escape from his terrors not by carryrng them to God's throne but by drowning them in dissipation. The wretched man, who had once been a sai~t in God's Church, must have been in the habit of drinking to excess, else his daughters would never have thought of their abominable stratagem. Oi:ily oue little gleam of virtue can be detected as entitled to be laid to Lot's account, viz., tlmt liis daughters apparently believed that unless their father was drunk he woufd never be brought to assent to their lewd proposal. 3. Sinki;ng into shame. Tw\ce 0\'ercome by wine, he is twice in successio~ d1shono11red by 111s duught~rs; and twice 01·er wliile in his drink stupor be allows himself to commit an act wlnch almost out- Sod~ms Sodom. To what depths a saint may fall when once he turns his back on God I III. DISAPPEAnING JNTO0DLIVION. Notl1i11g could more distinctly mark the Divine diHapprobntion with Lot's conduct than the fact that after this he was suffered--;-!. To live an imncorded life, beir,g J!evcr hcnrcl of again in the pages of Holy Scnpture. tn. :xx. 1-18.J 'l'BE BOOK OF GENESlS. 263
2. To die an unnoticed deatl~. Where and how he met his end the histori,rn does not condescend to state, 3. To mnk into an unknown grave. Whether buried in hie mountain cave or entombed in the Jordan valley no man knoweth unto this day. See-1. The dnnger of turning aside from God and good men (Heh. iii. 12; x. 25). 2. The melancholy end of a worldly life (1 Cor. x. 6; Phil. iii. 19; 2 Tim. iv. 10). 3. The bitter fruits of parental neglect (1 Sam. ii. 27-36; Prov. xxix. 15-17).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Ver. 29.-The destruction of Sodom and Gomorral;,. I. TIIE VIsmu JUDGMEt!T. "God o-erthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt." 1. The reason. 2. The instru- mentality. 3. The reality. 4. The lessons of the overthrow. II. TnE UNKNOWN MERCY, "He sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow." To Abraham this was-1. A great mercy. 2. A mercy granted in answer to prayer. But-3. An unknown mercy, there being no reason to believe that Abraham ever saw Lot again, or knew of hie deliverance. Leam-1. That God always mixes mercy with his judgments. 2. That his mer- cies are not nlways so perceptible to the eye of sense and reason as his judgments. 3. That God's people get more mercies poured into their cups than they arc nt all times cognisant of.-W.