Yahweh said, “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous,
Parallel Translations
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Yahweh said, “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous,
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And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;
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And the LORD said: 'Verily, the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and, verily, their sin is exceeding grievous.
Cross-references (8)
Passages linked to Genesis 18:20 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Genesis 19:13 for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown so great before Yahweh that Yahweh has sent us to destroy it.”
- Isaiah 3:9 The look of their faces testify against them. They parade their sin like Sodom. They don’t hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought disaster upon themselves.
- Ezekiel 16:49-50 “ ‘ “Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters. She also didn’t strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. They were arrogant, and committed abomination before me. Therefore I took them away when I saw it.
- Genesis 4:10 Yahweh said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground.
- Genesis 13:13 Now the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinners against Yahweh.
- James 5:4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies.
- Isaiah 5:7 For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.
- Jeremiah 14:7 Though our iniquities testify against us, work for your name’s sake, Yahweh; for our rebellions are many. We have sinned against you.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 20. The cry of Sodom. The Lord here begins…
20. The cry of Sodom. The Lord here begins more clearly to explain to Abraham his counsel concerning the destruction of the five cities; although he only names Sodom and Gomorrah, which were much more famous than the rest. But before he makes mention of punishment, he brings forward their iniquities, to teach Abraham that they justly deserved to be destroyed: otherwise the history would not tend to instruction. But when we perceive that the anger of God is provoked by the sin of man, we are inspired with a dread of sinning. In saying that the “cry was great,” he indicates the grievousness of their crimes, because, although the wicked may promise themselves impunity, by concealing their evils, and although these evils may be silently and quietly borne by men; yet their sin will necessarily sound aloud in the ears of God. Therefore this phrase signifies, that all our deeds, even those of which we think the memory to be buried, are presented before the bar of God, and that they, even of themselves, demand vengeance, although there should be none to accuse.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Gen 18:20 And the LORD said, Because the cry…
Gen 18:20 And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;
Ver. 20. Because their sin is very grievous.] Or, very heavy; such as the very ground groans under; the axle of the earth is ready to break under it. Sin is a burden to God. {Amo 2:13} It was so to Christ; he fell to the ground when he was in his agony. It was so to the angels, who sunk into hell under it. It was so to Korah and his company; the earth could not bear them. It was so to the Sodomites; they were so clogged with this excrement of naughtiness, {a} as St James calleth it, {Jas 1:21} that God came from heaven to give their land a vomit.
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{a} η περισσεια κακιας
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Sins are said to cry when they are gross,…
Sins are said to cry when they are gross, and manifest, and impudent, and such as highly provoke God to anger. He names only these two cities, as being the most eminent in state, and exemplary in wickedness; but under them he includes the rest, as appears by the story.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And the Lord said,.... The Targum of Jonathan adds,…
And the Lord said,.... The Targum of Jonathan adds, to the ministering angels, the two angels that were with him in the likeness of men; or to Abraham, at least in his hearing, by which he understood that Sodom and other cities were about to be destroyed for their sins:
because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great; either of Lot in it, whose righteous soul was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked, and cried to heaven against them; or of the inhabitants that were oppressed by others, either in their bodies, being forced to submit to their unnatural usage of them, or in their estates, of which they wronged them; particularly the cry of the poor among them, whom they suffered to starve, though there were fulness of bread in the midst of them, see Eze 16:49; the Jews (b) say, they appointed false judges, who oppressed all strangers that came to Sodom, and made a law, that whoever relieved a poor person should be burnt with fire: or the cry of their sins, which were many and great, and openly and impudently committed; the cry of which came into the ears of the Lord of hosts, and called for vengeance. Those two cities, which perhaps were the greatest and the most remarkable for their sins, are put for all the five cities of the plain, called Pentapolis.
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And because their sin is very grievous; attended with very aggravated circumstances, they enjoyed great plenty of good things; and were not to be bore with, being so exceeding sinful, and so publicly and audaciously committed, especially that sin so frequent among them, which has its name from Sodom, see Gen 13:13.
(b) Pirke Eliezer, c. 25.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 20. Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah]…
Verse 20. Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah] See Clarke on Ge 13:13.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 20. The cry of Sodom — The cry of…
20. The cry of Sodom — The cry of the sins and abominations of Sodom, which went up to God, like the voice of Abel’s blood (Gen_4:10) demanding punishment.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 20. Because … because] Better, as marg., Verily ……
20. Because … because] Better, as marg., Verily … verily.
the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah] See Gen_19:13. (1) Either, this is the complaint concerning Sodom and Gomorrah going up to Heaven. The genitive “of” is then objective, like “the report of Tyre” (Isa_23:5), “the spoil of thine enemies” (Deu_20:14). (2) Or, it is the cry by the cities, which are personified, and which make their loud complaint against the inhabitants. The genitive then is subjective. See Gen_4:10.
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their sin is very grievous] Cf. Gen_13:13; Eze_16:49-50.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom…
And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great. Literally, the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah, (cf. Gen_4:10) because it is (not, it is indeed, Baumgarten, Keil) multiplied; the place of emphasis being conceded to the subject of discourse, viz., the cry of Sodom s wickedness. And because their sin is very great. Literally, and their sin, because it is heavy, i.e. abundant and heinous.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great,…
Gen_18:20
Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous
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Gods judgment on Sodom
I.
The vale of Sodom was a region blooming and smiling in all the riches of nature; ON EVERY HAND THERE WAS SOMETHING TO RAISE THE THOUGHTS TO THE CREATOR. But amidst all this, what was man? His wickedness was so aggravated and extreme, that the region itself was doomed to perish with its inhabitants. Sin still infects the fair field of nature, and it is this which spoils the beauty of the scene. If all the sin in the world could become a visible thing, it would blast and overpower in our view all the beauty of nature. The sin of Sodom was so aggravated that its cry went up to heaven, and the righteous Governor was obliged to manifest Himself.
II. It is impossible not to be struck with THE CALMNESS AND QUIETNESS WITH WHICH THE WORK OF VENGEANCE PROCEEDED. Three persons came on a friendly visit to Abraham. They accepted his hospitality; spoke with him on a matter of complacent interest--the renewed assurance of his posterity. Then the men rose up from thence and looked toward Sodom. We are left in the dark as to one circumstance here. Only two of the persons went on to Sodom, leaving Abraham to converse with the Almighty. The third disappears from our view--unless he was a manifestation of the Divine Being Himself, and the same that Abraham conversed with in that solemn character.
III. Notice WHAT VALUE THE LORD MUST SET ON THE RIGHTEOUS, when for the sake of ten such men He would have spared Sodom. Only one righteous man dwelt in Sodom, and he was saved.
IV. THE PRECISE MANNER OF THE FEARFUL CATASTROPHE IS BEYOND OUR CONJECTURE. It would seem that an earthquake either accompanied or followed it, but the fire from heaven is intimated as the grand chief agent of the destruction. The people of Sodom had no time for speculations; there was just time for terror and conscience and despair. Yet our Lord says there is a still greater guilt, a more awful destruction even than theirs. The man that lives and dies rejecting Him had better have been exposed to the rain of fire and brimstone and gone down in the gulf of the vale of Siddim. (Y. Foster.)
Lessons from Sodom
I. Notice FIRST THE WORDS OF GOD WHICH INTRODUCE THIS HISTORY. Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, &c. Behind this human manner of speaking what a lesson if; here! The judgments of God from time to time overtake guilty nations and guilty men; but, huge and overwhelming catastrophes as these often are, there is nothing hasty, blind, precipitate about them. He is evermore the same God who, when the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah waxed great, is described as going down to see and inquire whether they had done altogether according to the cry of it.
II. In Gods assurance to Abraham that if there are fifty, forty, thirty, twenty, or even ten righteous men found in the city He will not destroy it, we may recognize a very important law of His government of the world: this, namely,--THAT IT IS NOT THE PRESENCE OF EVIL BUT THE ABSENCE OF GOOD WHICH BRINGS THE LONG-SUFFERING OF GOD TO AN END. However corrupt any fellowship of men may he, however far gone in evil, yet so long as there is a sound, healthy kernel in it of righteous men, that is, of men who love and fear God and will witness for God, there is always hope.
III. This promise of God, I will not destroy it for tens sake, SHOWS US WHAT RIGHTEOUS MEN, LOVERS AND DOERS OF THE TRUTH, ARE. They are as the lightning conductors, drawing aside the fiery bolts of His vengeance, which would else have long since scorched, shattered, and consumed a guilty world. Oftentimes, it may be, they are little accounted of among men, being indeed the hidden ones of God crying in their secret places for the things which are done against the words of Gods lips. The world may pass them, may know nothing of them, yet it is for their sakes that the world is endured and continues unto this day,
IV. Does not this remind us of one duty on behalf of others which we might effectually fulfil if a larger measure of grace dwelt in our hearts?--I MEAN THE DUTY OF PRAYER AND INTERCESSION FOR OTHERS. Prayer for others is never lost, is never in vain; often by it we may draw down blessing upon others, but always and without fail it will return in blessing on ourselves. (Archbishop Trench.)
Sodom
I. SODOMS SINFULNESS. Her sins were committed amidst an unbounded flush of prosperity; they were committed amidst scenes of much natural loveliness, Nature being outraged before the eye of her most beautiful forms: and they were committed not only in opposition to Natures silent, but to Gods spoken, warnings.
II. SODOMS WARNINGS. One was given by the entrance of Lot within its gates; another was given by the advent of Chedorlaomer and the invaders from the east. Abraham and Melchizedek cast their sublime and awful shadows from the Kings Dale southward upon Gomorrahs walls; but the sinners within felt not the hallowing sense of their presence, trembled not at the steps of their majesty.
III. SODOMS INTERCESSOR. Abrahams prayer shows--
1. The confidence that existed between himself and God.
2. It shows Gods personal knowledge of evil.
3. It shows Gods reluctance to punish.
4. It gives proof of the tremendous guilt of Sodom.
IV. This terrible catastrophe lies in A BYE-PATH OF THE DIVINE PROCEDURE; it did not relate immediately to the general course of the patriarchal dispensation; and yet what an awful aside did the fall of these cities utter. It must have struck Abraham with a new sense of the evil of sin and of the holiness and justice of God. (G. Gilfillan.)
I. THEY ARE PRECEDED BY A LONG HISTORY OF WICKEDNESS.
1. The shedding of innocent blood (Gen_4:10; Job_16:18).
2. The peculiar sin of Sodom.
3. The oppression of the people of God.
4. Withholding the hire of the labourer (Jam_5:4).
Gods judgments on nations
II. THEY ARE MANIFESTLY RIGHTEOUS.
1. They proceed slowly.
2. They are only inflicted when the reasons of them have been made evident.
3. They are self-vindicating. (T. H. Leale.)
The depravity of Sodom
We have to speak, then, of Sodoms sinfulness. Delicacy may seem to repel us from such a subject altogether, but there is a false as well as a true delicacy, which, by passing by sin in silence, gives it an amnesty, and suggests the thought of its repetition. Had the sin of Sodom been confined to that people, and had it been rooted out with the guilty cities, it would almost have been sacrilege against human nature to dig it up from the slush of the sea of death, and expose it to the world. But alas I it still exists even in Christian nations, and requires still to be denounced. Had there been but one prevalent evil practice in Sodom, there is something so disgusting, and at the same time comparatively so rare, in the sin which bears the name of the city, that it might have been as well, perhaps, to have passed it over in silence. But it is evident that the peculiar iniquity of Sodom was only the climax and consummation of the general depravity of the place. This is clear, both from the general principles of human nature, and from certain distinct declarations in the Word of God. We are told that pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness, were the sins, or rather were sins producing the flagrant and fatal sin of Sodom; and no doubt along with these every species of excess and licentiousness abounded, so that the city formed, with the exception of Lot and his family, one blot on the face of the earth; and we can conceive of a visitor shuddering with horror, as, passing through it at eventide in haste, he in this street hears cries, faint and half-sincere, of Father, force me not I and in another, finds men and women staggering in their vomit; and in a third, hears men cursing Jehovah, and cursing Lot, and cursing Abraham; and in a fourth, sees obscene dances; and in a fifth, beholds many plunging into the fires of an idol-sacrifice. All this, and more than this, which dares not even be shadowed out in expression, might have been seen in this fearful city, running over as a great caldron of iniquity, and coming to a point in that sin for which its inhabitants are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. It added to the aggravation of these sins, that they were committed amidst an unbounded flush of prosperity; that they were committed amidst scenes of much natural loveliness, nature being outraged before the eye of her most beautiful forms; and that they were committed not only in opposition to natures silent, but to Gods uttered protest. (G. Gilfillan.)
Sodom and its sin
Sodom itself stood not only in the alluvium of a river bed, but on a main highway for land carriage between Babylon and Egypt. The natural consequences of such a position followed fast. When Ezekiel in his analysis of its decline calls fulness of bread, comes without toil to a population so favourably situated. Wealth flowed in. With wealth easily acquired came abundance of idleness; and with leisure and wealth came luxury, their daughter. Then followed pride, the insolence of the pampered; at last, self-indulgence and shameless licence. Possibly the time had not yet arrived for the cultivation of those adornments which lend dignity to wealth, and serve even to veil the deformity of dissolute manners; of letters, I mean, and of the arts. Possibly the race was not endowed by nature with such gifts. At any rate, we detect no signs of such a degree of culture or refinement as has always accompanied civilization among Aryan peoples. The early civilization of the Hamitic tribes seems to have been of a vulgar material type, and to have fallen a speedy prey to vice and corruption. How far that corruption had gone in the case of Sodom is only too apparent on the face of the narrative. Disgusting and unnatural lust has been the plague-spot of heathenism in other times, as well as of at least one Moslem race in our own. But it never carried itself with such effrontery, or showed its vileness so openly, as in the town which has given it a name. Wherever it has appeared, it has marked a stage of social degradation ripe for destruction. Four hundred years after Sodom, other Canaanite tribes in Palestine had become infected with it, till the land was ready, in the strong words of Leviticus, to spue them out. Its prevalence in Greece when St. Paul wrote his letter to the Church of Rome showed how near Greece was to its fall. What it means in the case of the Turk, we are seeing to-day with our eyes. Unnatural vice fills the cup of iniquity to overflowing. It sends up a cry to heaven that the righteous Judge must answer. (J. O.Dykes, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Gen_18:21. Whether they have done altogether according to the…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Gen_18:21. Whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it.] Heb. Whether they have made completeness, or filled up the measure of their sins. And if not, I will know.] Onk. “But if they repent I will not take vengeance.”
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Gen_18:22. Stood yet.] Heb. And LXX. have, Was standing yet. Onk. “Stood in prayer before the Lord.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Gen_18:20-22
GOD’S JUDGMENTS ON NATIONS
Though every man must give an account for himself to God at the last day, yet Providence does visit judgment upon nations, as such, in this world. Nations have no existence in the future life, and therefore must be punished in this life. Hence religious minds read some awful lessons in human history. They see the punishments of Divine justice visited upon communities of sinners. We have here God’s threatening of judgment upon a wicked nation; a threatening which was as sure as doom; for they had exhausted the Divine forbearance, and there was no more space for repentance. God’s judgments upon nations have the same general characteristics as this one upon Sodom and Gomorrah.
I. They are preceded by a long history of wickedness. God’s retribution does not fall until the harvest of sin is ripe. The wickedness of this people had grown so great as to become proverbial. (Isa_1:9.) A community must have existed for some time before it can give rise to proverbs. This way of referring to a nation’s moral character shows that it has been long established in evil ways. These cities were notorious for sins of the worst type. These are mentioned in the Bible as sins which bring down the judgments of God upon nations.
1. The shedding of innocent blood. (Gen_4:10; Job_16:18.) This is the highest crime against man. The blood of the innocent appeals to heaven for vengeance. God hears their cry, and by terrible judgments requires their blood of guilty nations.
2. The peculiar sin of Sodom. The vilest form of sensuality derives its name from this wicked city. There are sins of the flesh so heinous that they degrade men below the level of the brute.
3. The oppression of the people of God. (Exo_3:7.) God regards this sin as specially directed against Himself. To fail in duty, or to go wrong, are sins against God; but to afflict His people is directly to affront the Majesty of God. The same principle is to be observed in the case of those who, by the calamities of human life, are in an especial manner thrown upon the care and kindness of God. The oppression of widows and orphans is regarded in Scripture as a crime which calls for immediate judgment, the very tenderness of God urging Him to inflict it.
4. Withholding the hire of the labourer. (Jas_5:4.) Sins committed against society differ much in their consequences to individual men. The labourer who works for day wages suffers a grievous wrong when these are withheld. To rob him of the means by which he lives lies very near to crimes directed against his life. The judgments of God, sooner or later, overtake nations who have a bad eminence in such sins as these.
II. They are manifestly righteous. The judgments of God upon sinful communities of men are so conducted that the justice of them may appear.
1. They proceed slowly. The feet of vengeance travel with slow and measured steps. Though the punishment may be just in itself, and the sinful deserve no more time, yet it is delayed in order that God’s ways with men might appear to be right. When we intend acts of love and kindness, there is a propriety in our haste to do them. But in acts of punishment—of righteous judgment—all haste is unseemly. Mercy will rejoice over judgment as long as it possibly can. God is slow to punish. Judgment is His strange work. He endures even the vessels of wrath with much long-suffering. Men have time to see that the signal examples of Divine retribution which history furnishes are just and right.
2. They are only inflicted when the reasons of them have been made evident. God is represented as making careful inquiry. (Gen_18:21.) Such language is evidently accommodated to our human weakness, but the intent of it is to impress the thought upon our minds, that God will not visit iniquity until it is fully proven.
3. They are self-vindicating. Sodom and Gomorrah are represented as crying to God for vengeance. (Gen_18:20.) There are some sins which more than others loudly call to Heaven for punishment. Their just recompense thus approves itself to the conscience of humanity.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Gen_18:20. God regards the sins of nations as such, and bears with them until they cry out for vengeance. They put a strain upon the Divine endurance until they become “very grievous,” and sparing mercy can hold out no longer.
The sins which destroy nations are those which strike at the very foundations of social order, purity, and safety—lawlessness, corruption in family life, general insecurity amidst the wreck of just institutions. Such sins are among those which “are open beforehand, going before to judgment.”
History reads us this awful lesson, that the fall of great nations has been brought about by their own corruptions.
Every sin makes a moral demand for punishment, and has a voice of crimination against the sinner. Sins, however, are more especially said to cry when they are peculiarly heinous, flagrant, aggravated, and calculated to provoke the wrath of God; and such were now the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, which two cities are doubtless mentioned for their pre-eminence in crime, though it is clear from Deu_29:22-24 that several other cities in the immediate vicinity were involved in the same destruction.—(Bush.)
Because their sin is very grievous. Or, very heavy; such as the very ground groans under; the axle-tree of the earth is ready to break under it. Sin is a burden to God. (Amo_2:13.) It was so to Christ; He fell to the ground when He was in His agony. It was so to the angels who sank into hell under it. It was so to Korah and his company—the earth could not bear them. It was so to the Sodomites—they were so clogged with this superfluity of naughtiness, as St. James calleth it (Gen_1:21), that God came from heaven to give their land a vomit.—(Trapp.)
“Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous.” The ways of God are not governed by caprice—the result of mere will. They approve themselves to the reason of mankind.
Gen_18:21. Every great judgment upon wicked nations is a special visitation of God.
There is a certain measure of sins—a capacity of iniquity—which wicked nations must fill before God’s great judgments come upon them.
God is represented as a just judge who has no prepossessions in regard to the case, but is determined to make an exact and careful scrutiny.
The sins of nations require time to develop into a full-grown body, but it is a body prepared for death (Jas_1:15).
These verses (20, 21), probably, are to be taken as retrospective; as being a parenthetical explanation of the whole scene, which might have been given at the outset, but is now incidentally thrown in: “The Lord had said, I will go down now and see”—speaking after the manner of men, to mark the perfect equity of His procedure, as not condemning hastily, or without inquiry. This had been His purpose in coming down to earth at all on this occasion. In the execution of this purpose, He had visited Abraham. And now, sending on to Sodom the angels who accompanied Him, and who were appointed to save Lot, He Himself remains behind.—(Candlish.)
God keeps open the door of repentance to the very last, so that the worst of characters may have no cause to complain of injustice.
Descent here is, of course, but figuratively ascribed to God. There could be no change of place with Him who is everywhere present; nor can examination be necessary to the eye of Omniscience. The language merely represents God as employing those means of investigation which are necessary to man to declare that all the acts of His vengeance are in perfect conformity to justice, and that He never punishes without the clearest reason. And surely, if anything can show unwillingness to punish, or a desire to see everything in the most favourable light, or an anxiety like that of a tender parent to cleave to the last hope that his child is not irrecoverably lost, we have it in these words. It is speaking of God, indeed, according to the manner of men, but it implies that He would look into the whole case; that He would be slow before He came to the resolution to inflict vengeance to the uttermost; that He would institute a careful inquiry, to see whether what He knew to be bad was incurably bad. In a word, it implies that if there was any possibility, consistently with justice, of sparing that devoted city, He stood ready, in heart and mind, to do it. If we rightly apprehend the drift of the whole narrative, Gen_18:20-21 are inserted by way of parenthesis, in order to acquaint the reader with the main design for which the Lord, with His two accompanying angels, had descended and made this visit to Abraham. On any other interpretation it is not easy to understand the propriety of the expression, Gen_18:21, “I will go down,” when He had actually “come down” already.—(Bush.)
God’s actions, both of mercy and judgment, are proofs of His complete knowledge of men. It is not a blind or irresponsible, but an all-seeing and rational Power that governs the world of nature and of man.
Gen_18:22. Angels are God’s ministers for mercy and for judgment. They are sent forth to deliver the righteous, and to visit judgment upon the wicked.
Abraham stood yet before the Lord. And without such to stand and pray, the world could not stand: they bear up the pillars of it. Oh, the price with God, and profit to men, of praying persons! God will yield something to such when most of all enraged or resolved (Mat_24:20). Lot was saved for Abraham’s sake when all the rest perished.—(Trapp.)
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great
the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great
This can be reworded so that the abstract noun "outcry" is expressed as the verb "accuse." AT: "so many people have been accusing the people of Sodom and Gomorrah of doing evil things" (See: Abstract Nouns)
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their sin is so serious
"they have sinned so much"
I will now go down there
"I will now go down to Sodom and Gomorrah"
go down there and see
"go down there to find out" or "go down there to decide"
see the outcry ... that has come to me
Yahweh speaks as if he knew about this matter because he had heard the cries and accusations coming from the people who had suffered. This can be reworded so that the abstract noun "outcry" is expressed as the verb "accuse." AT: "as wicked as those who are accusing them say that they are" (See: Abstract Nouns)
If not
"If they are not as wicked as the outcry suggests"
translationWords
Yahweh
Sodom
Gomorrah
sin
evil
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 18:20-21 The omniscient God was cautious in his judgment:…
18:20-21 The omniscient God was cautious in his judgment: He knew the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, but this close scrutiny communicated God’s justice in human terms—he would not destroy the people of the plain unless he was absolutely sure they were wicked.
18:20 a great outcry: See Ezek 16:49-50.
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