dawn of day the angels pressed Lot to depart, saying: “Take thy wife and thy two daughters, lest you also perish in the wicked city.” And, as Lot still lingered[1], they took him by the hand, and, as it were against his will, led him and his family out of the city, warning them all not to look back, under pain of death. Lot's wife, however, looked back, and was instantly changed into a pillar of salt. The sun had just risen, when Lot entered the neighbouring city of Segor. Then the Lord rained down from heaven fire and brimstone, and utterly destroyed [2] those two wicked cities, with all their inhabitants.
COMMENTARY.
God's Holiness and Justice are most plainly shown to us by the terrible fate of the wicked cities. The attack made on them by the strange kings was a visitation, permitted by God for the conversion of their wicked inhabitants. But they remained impenitent, and were quite as wicked after, as they were before that visitation. Lot’s good example might also have been to them a means of conversion, but they paid no heed to it. Then Almighty God could no longer endure their shameful state of vice, for sin is infinitely abhorrent to the Most
- ↑ Lingered. Hesitating, and unable to make up his mind.
- ↑ Utterly destroyed. Picture to yourself this terrible judgment which overtook the wicked cities. As the sun rose in the east, and the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrha woke from sleep, thick clouds gathered over them, out of which fire fell which kindled every part of the town. The whole air was full of smoke and sulphur; the flames roared and licked up everything. The people, full of fear, rushed from their houses, hoping to escape from the city, but it was impossible to get out. The very air was aglow, and the earth itself, full of pitch and petroleum, was on fire. Their clothes caught fire, and they died a terrible death, shrieking in agony. The whole country round was burnt up, and remains unfruitful to the present day. The earth sank, and the waters of the Dead Sea rushed in, and covered the place where the wicked cities once stood, and formed what has since then been the southern part of the Dead Sea. Lot’s wife, who, against the angel’s express command, looked back, was suffocated and seized by the fire, covered with the molten bitumen, so that her corpse stood up as a pillar of salt. The Dead Sea, the southern portion of which covers the ancient sites of Sodom and Gomorrha, is a peculiar and most ghastly lake (Fig. 7, p. 63). It lies very low, 900 feet below the level of the Mediterranean, and its water is so thick and bitter that no fish or creeping thing can live in it. If the Jordan, which flows into it, carries to it any fish, they die at once and come up to the surface. Therefore, the lake is called the Dead Sea. Objects thrown into it are covered at once with a salt-crust, and the stones on its shores are covered with bitumen. On the surface of the water, and on the shores, great flakes of bitumen are often found. The northern part of the lake is 1300 feet deep, but the southern part, where the wicked cities once stood, is only thirteen feet deep. This Dead Sea, which covers the once beautiful site of Sodom and Gomorrha, is a terrible monument of divine justice.
