Matthew Henry on Genesis 19:4-11
Now it appeared, beyond contradiction, that the cry of Sodom was no louder than there was cause for. This night's work was enough to fill the measure. For we find here,
I. That they were all wicked, Gen 19:4. Wickedness had become universal, and they were unanimous in any vile design. Here were old and young, and all from every quarter, engaged in this riot; the old were not past it, and the young had soon come up to it. Either they had no magistrates to keep the peace, and protect the peaceable, or their magistrates were themselves aiding and abetting. Note, When the disease of sin has become epidemical, it is fatal to any place, Isa 1:5-7.
II. That they had arrived at the highest pitch of…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 19:4
men of Sodom, compassed the house--Appalling proofs are here given of their wickedness. It is evident that evil communications had corrupted good manners; otherwise Lot would never have acted as he did.
Adam Clarke on Genesis 19:5
Where are the men which came in to thee, etc. - This account justifies the character given of this depraved people in the preceding chapter, Gen 18:20, and in Gen 23:13. As their crime was the deepest disgrace to human nature, so it is too bad to be described; in the sacred text it is sufficiently marked; and the iniquity which, from these most abominable wretches, has been called Sodomy, is punished in our country with death.
John Gill on Genesis 19:7
And said, I pray you, brethren,.... Not by family or nation, for the Sodomites were of the race of Ham, in the line of Canaan, and Lot was a descendant of Shem, in the line of Arphaxad; nor by religion, for the one were idolaters, and the other a worshipper of the true God, but by community of nature; and especially he called them so by reason of their having been neighbours considerable time, and on the score of friendship, see 1 Kings 9:13; and with this soft and loving language Lot hoped to win his neighbours, and to persuade them from pursuing their unlawful measures: for which purpose and that alone he used it, saying to them:
do not so wickedly; as to use ill a man's guests, to abuse…
