to turn about or over · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
those
הָאֵ֔לha.'El
H411
these or those · definite article + demonstrative particle
cities
הֶעָרִ֣יםhe.'a.Rim
H5892
a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the wi… · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
plain
הַכִּכָּ֑רha.ki.Kar
H3603
a circle · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
inhabitants
יֹשְׁבֵ֣יyo.she.Vei
H3427
properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct
cities
הֶעָרִ֔יםhe.'a.Rim
H5892
a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the wi… · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
grew
וְצֶ֖מַחve.Tze.mach
H6780
a sprout (usually concrete) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
ground
הָאֲדָמָֽהha.'a.da.Mah
H127
soil (from its general redness) · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 107:34 A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.
Genesis 14:3 All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea.
Genesis 13:10 And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Go…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 19:24-25
Then, when Lot had got safely into Zoar, then this ruin came; for good men are taken away from the evil to come. Then, when the sun had risen bright and clear, promising a fair day, then this storm arose, to show that it was not from natural causes. Concerning this destruction observe, 1. God was the immediate author of it. It was destruction from the Almighty: The Lord rained - from the Lord (Gen 19:24), that is, God from himself, by his own immediate power, and not in the common course of nature. Or, God the Son from God the Father; for the Father has committed all judgment to the Son. Note, He that is the Saviour will be the destroyer of those that reject the salvation. 2. It was a strang…
Then the Lord rained . . . brimstone and fire from . . . heaven--God, in accomplishing His purposes, acts immediately or mediately through the agency of means; and there are strong grounds for believing that it was in the latter way He effected the overthrow of the cities of the plain--that it was, in fact, by a volcanic eruption. The raining down of fire and brimstone from heaven is perfectly accordant with this idea since those very substances, being raised into the air by the force of the volcano, would fall in a fiery shower on the surrounding region. This view seems countenanced by Job [Job 1:16; Job 18:15]. Whether it was miraculously produced, or the natural operation employed by God,…
And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain - This forms what is called the lake Asphaltites, Dead Sea, or Salt Sea, which, according to the most authentic accounts, is about seventy miles in length, and eighteen in breadth.
The most strange and incredible tales are told by many of the ancients, and by many of the moderns, concerning the place where these cities stood. Common fame says that the waters of this sea are so thick that a stone will not sink in them, so tough and clammy that the most boisterous wind cannot ruffle them, so deadly that no fish can live in them, and that if a bird happen to fly over the lake, it is killed by the poisonous effluvia proceeding from the waters; tha…
The Church Fathers
IF GOD'S JUDGMENTS ARE RIGHT, WHY WERE THE CHILDREN CONSPIRED WITH THEIR PARENTS IN THE FIRE OF SODOM? — In order to bring out the greatness of the crime of the inhabitants of Sodom, God desired that the punishment should extend to the death of their children, in order to destroy even the last remnants of that guilty race. But did not God act in their interest, lest by prolonging their life they should follow the example of their fathers? For they are exempt from the pains of hell, because they have been the victims of a crime which they had not committed. Parents are charged with the double responsibility of their punishment and that of their children, because to erase the traces of their crimes, it was necessary to destroy all their posterity. Just as children rejoice in the virtues of their parents, because they are a title of glory to them, so they have no right to complain of the death that strikes them to punish the crimes of those who have them given the day. They are associated with benefits, they must be punished. In Egypt, children were also punished for the mistakes of their parents, but to bring them back to more just feelings. The other prodigies could not induce them to believe in the God represented by Moses, and to adore him; this scourge had for the end, by striking them with terror, to make them confess and expiate their hardening, and to spare them a more rigorous punishment. The crime of the parents is therefore the cause of the death of the children. However, the children have paid this debt, they will one day be the accusers of their parents, because the very blood of their children has not been able to triumph over their disloyalty. It is not therefore for the future life, but for the present life, that the children have suffered the punishment due to the crimes of their fathers. And it is not for them a slight favor to escape guilt, though not in glory. We see men, at the end of their lives, demanding the profession of the true faith, in order to obtain, if not the crown, at least their forgiveness; How then can they complain of those who, by the conduct held towards them, have neither to beg forgiveness of their faults, nor to obtain an extraordinary reward, because they have not deserved it by their labors? Compare a moment of suffering with a torture that lasts for centuries. Consider, too, that a great number of them take great…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Abraham — Father of a multitude, son of Terah, named (Gen. 11:27) before his older brothers Nahor and Haran, because he was the heir of the promises. Till the age of seventy, Abram sojourned among his kindred…
Angel — A word signifying, both in the Hebrew and Greek, a “messenger,” and hence employed to denote any agent God sends forth to execute his purposes. It is used of an ordinary messenger (Job 1:14: 1 Sam.…
Brimstone — An inflammable mineral substance found in quantities on the shores of the Dead Sea. The cities of the plain were destroyed by a rain of fire and brimstone (Gen. 19:24, 25). In Isa. 34:9 allusion is…
Gomorrah — Submersion, one of the five cities of the plain of Siddim (q.v.) which were destroyed by fire (Gen. 10:19; 13:10; 19:24, 28). These cities probably stood close together, and were near the northern…
Judgments of God — (1.) The secret decisions of God’s will (Ps. 110:5; 36:6). (2.) The revelations of his will (Ex. 21:1; Deut. 6:20; Ps. 119:7-175). (3.) The infliction of punishment on the wicked (Ex. 6:6; 12:12;…
Plain — (1.) Heb. ‘abel (Judg. 11:33), a “grassy plain” or “meadow.” Instead of “plains of the vineyards,” as in the Authorized Version, the Revised Version has “Abel-cheramim” (q.v.), comp. Judg. 11:22; 2…
Anger Of God, The · Exemplified against: Cities of the plain — Exemplified against: Cities of the plain
Gomorrah · General references — General references
Judgments · General references — General references
Meteorology And Celestial Phenomena · .Fire from heaven upon the cities of the plain — .Fire from heaven upon the cities of the plain
And he overthrew those cities,.... Of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim: very probably at the same time that this fiery tempest was in the heavens, there was an earthquake which overthrew the cities; and so Strabo (h) makes the lake, which is now the place where they stood, to be owing to earthquakes and eruptions of fire, and of hot bituminous and sulphurous waters; and says nothing of fire from heaven, which yet Tacitus and Solinus do, being unacquainted with the sacred history:
and all the plain; the plain of Jordan, and the cities on it, all but Zoar; not all the five cities, as Josephus (i): Egesippus (k) and other authors mistake, only the four above mentioned. Strabo (l) speaks of…
Then the Lord rained. Moses here succinctly relates in very unostentatious language, the destruction of Sodom and of the other cities. The atrocity of the case might well demand a much more copious narration, expressed in tragic terms; but Moses, according to his manner, simply recites the judgment of God, which no words would be sufficiently vehement to describe, and then leaves the subject to the meditation of his readers. It is therefore our duty to concentrate all our thoughts on that terrible vengeance, the bare mention of which, as it did not take place without so mighty concussion of heaven and earth, ought justly to make us tremble; and therefore it is so frequently mentioned in the…
"When the sun had risen and Lot had come towards Zoar (i.e., was on the way thither, but had not yet arrived), Jehovah caused it to rain brimstone and fire from Jehovah out of heaven, and overthrew those cities, and the whole plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and the produce of the earth." In the words "Jehovah caused it to rain from Jehovah" there is no distinction implied between the hidden and the manifested God, between the Jehovah present upon earth in His angels who called down the judgment, and the Jehovah enthroned in heaven who sent it down; but the expression "from Jehovah" is emphatica repetitio, quod non usitato naturae ordine tunc Deus pluerit, sed tanquam exerta man…
Cp. Luke 17:29. The eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii in AD 79, as well as recent natural disasters, show how quickly a thorough catastrophe like this could happen.
Rashi on Genesis 19:5
ונדעה אותם AND WE SHALL KNOW THEM — with homosexuality, as in "who have not known a man" (Genesis Rabbah 50:5).
Sodomites · General references — General references
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
