Chapter 11.
HOW GOD OVERTHREW THE NATION OF THE SODOMITES, OUT OF HIS
WRATH AGAINST THEM FOR THEIR SINS.FJAJ 1.53
1. ABOUT this time the Sodomites grew proud, on account of their riches
and great wealth; they became unjust towards men, and impious towards God,
insomuch that they did not call to mind the advantages they received from
him: they hated strangers, and abused themselves with Sodomitical practices.
God was therefore much displeased at them, and determined to punish them
for their pride, and to overthrow their city, and to lay waste their country,
until there should neither plant nor fruit grow out of it.FJAJ 1.54
2. When God had thus resolved concerning the Sodomites, Abraham, as
he sat by the oak of Mambre, at the door of his tent, saw three angels;
and thinking them to be strangers, he rose up, and saluted them, and desired
they would accept of an entertainment, and abide with him; to which, when
they agreed, he ordered cakes of meal to be made presently; and when he
had slain a calf, he roasted it, and brought it to them, as they sat under
the oak
Now they made a show of eating; and besides, they asked him about
his wife Sarah, where she was; and when he said she was within, they said
they would come again hereafter, and find her become a mother
Upon which
the woman laughed, and said that it was impossible she should bear children,
since she was ninety years of age, and her husband was a hundred
Then
they concealed themselves no longer, but declared that they were angels
of God; and that one of them was sent to inform them about the child, and
two of the overthrow of Sodom.FJAJ 1.55
3. When Abraham heard this, he was grieved for the Sodomites; and he
rose up, and besought God for them, and entreated him that he would not
destroy the righteous with the wicked
And when God had replied that there
was no good man among the Sodomites; for if there were but ten such man
among them, he would not punish any of them for their sins, Abraham held
his peace
And the angels came to the city of the Sodomites, and Lot entreated
them to accept of a lodging with him; for he was a very generous and hospitable
man, and one that had learned to imitate the goodness of Abraham
Now when
the Sodomites saw the young men to be of beautiful countenances, and this
to an extraordinary degree, and that they took up their lodgings with Lot,
they resolved themselves to enjoy these beautiful boys by force and violence;
and when Lot exhorted them to sobriety, and not to offer any thing immodest
to the strangers, but to have regard to their lodging in his house; and
promised that if their inclinations could not be governed, he would expose
his daughters to their lust, instead of these strangers; neither thus were
they made ashamed.FJAJ 1.56
4. But God was much displeased at their impudent behavior, so that he
both smote those men with blindness, and condemned the Sodomites to universal
destruction
But Lot, upon God's informing him of the future destruction
of the Sodomites, went away, taking with him his wife and daughters, who
were two, and still virgins; for those that were betrothed (21)
These sons-in-law to Lot, as they are called, Genesis 19:12-14, might be
so styled, because they were betrothed to Lot's daughters, though not yet
married to them. See the note on Antiq. B. XIV. ch. 13. sect. 1.
to them were above the thoughts of going, and deemed that Lot's words were
trifling
God then cast a thunderbolt upon the city, and set it on fire,
with its inhabitants; and laid waste the country with the like burning,
as I formerly said when I wrote the Jewish War.FJAJ 1.57
(22)
Of the War, B. IV. ch. 8. sect. 4.
But Lot's wife continually turning back to view the city as she went from
it, and being too nicely inquisitive what would become of it, although
God had forbidden her so to do, was changed into a pillar of salt; (23)
This pillar of salt was, we see here, standing in the days of Josephus,
and he had seen it. That it was standing then is also attested by Clement
of Rome, contemporary with Josephus; as also that it was so in the next
century, is attested by Irenaeus, with the addition of an hypothesis, how
it came to last so long, with all its members entire. � Whether the account
that some modern travelers give be true, that it is still standing, I do
not know. Its remote situation, at the most southern point of the Sea of
Sodom, in the wild and dangerous deserts of Arabia, makes it exceeding
difficult for inquisitive travelers to examine the place; and for common
reports of country people, at a distance, they are not very satisfactory.
In the mean time, I have no opinion of Le Clerc's dissertation or hypothesis
about this question, which can only be determined by eye-witnesses. When
Christian princes, so called, lay aside their foolish and unchristian wars
and quarrels, and send a body of fit persons to travel over the east, and
bring us faithful accounts of all ancient monuments, and procure us copies
of all ancient records, at present lost among us, we may hope for full
satisfaction in such inquiries; but hardly before.
for I have seen it, and it remains at this day
Now he and his daughters
fled to a certain small place, encompassed with the fire, and settled in
it: it is to this day called Zoar, for that is the word which the
Hebrews use for a small thing
There it was that he lived a miserable life,
on account of his having no company, and his want of provisions.FJAJ 1.58
5. But his daughters, thinking that all mankind were destroyed, approached
to their father, (24)
I see no proper wicked intention in these daughters of Lot, when in a case
which appeared to them of unavoidable necessity, they procured themselves
to be with child by their father. Without such an unavoidable necessity,
incest is a horrid crime; but whether in such a case of necessity, as they
apprehended this to be, according to Josephus, it was any such crime, I
am not satisfied. In the mean time, their making their father drunk, and
their solicitous concealment of what they did from him, shows that they
despaired of persuading him to an action which, at the best, could not
but be very suspicious and shocking to so good a man.
though taking care not to be perceived
This they did, that human kind
might not utterly fail: and they bare sons; the son of the elder was named
Moab, Which denotes one derived from his father; the younger bare Ammon,
which name denotes one derived from a kinsman
The former of whom was the
father of the Moabites, which is even still a great nation; the latter
was the father of the Ammonites; and both of them are inhabitants of Celesyria.
And such was the departure of Lot from among the Sodomites.FJAJ 1.59