Genesis — Chapter 19

AND THERE CAME TWO ANGELS TO SODOM IN THE EVENING. — Note: the two angels (Michael and Gabriel or Raphael, see commentary on Gen. 18) come to Sodom at evening — as night falls on the city of sin. Symbolically (Ambrose): the just, like Abraham, receive angels in full daylight; the impious receive them at the close of day — for the light of truth is fading for them. Lot sits in the gate, exercising hospitality in imitation of Abraham (Heb. 13:2).

AND LOT WENT OUT, AND SPOKE TO HIS SONS IN LAW THAT WERE TO HAVE HIS DAUGHTERS, AND SAID: ARISE: GET YOU OUT OF THIS PLACE, BECAUSE THE LORD WILL DESTROY THIS CITY. AND HE SEEMED TO THEM TO SPEAK AS IT WERE IN JEST. — The sons-in-law thought Lot was jesting — the perennial reaction of sinners to warnings of divine judgment. Chrysostom: \"He seemed to them as one who jests — so inured were they to sin, so far gone in numbness of conscience, that the most terrible divine threat seemed to them a joke.\" Lapide: those who have made sin habitual cannot believe that God really punishes it.

AND THE LORD RAINED UPON SODOM AND GOMORRAH BRIMSTONE AND FIRE FROM THE LORD OUT OF HEAVEN. — The double \"from the Lord ... from the Lord out of heaven\" is noted by all: it emphasizes that this was a wholly supernatural punishment, not a mere natural disaster. Lapide: the raining of fire and brimstone signifies the double punishment of the damned — external fire of hell and internal fire of conscience. The destruction of Sodom is cited seventeen times in Scripture as the type of divine punishment for grave sin, especially the sin against nature (which Lapide treats at length in his commentary here, noting its foulness and gravity in the strongest terms).

AND HIS WIFE LOOKING BEHIND HER, WAS TURNED INTO A PILLAR OF SALT. — Lot's wife looked back in disobedience to the divine command, and in longing for Sodom and its pleasures — and became a pillar of salt. Lapide: this punishment was (1) immediate and certain; (2) permanent — the pillar was still visible in Lapide's time according to Josephus and travellers; (3) a perpetual memorial of the judgment; (4) prophetically cited by Christ: \"Remember Lot's wife\" (Luke 17:32) — warning against attachment to the world and disobedience to grace. Salt = incorruptibility: God preserved the pillar as an example for all ages.