The account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is recorded in the Chumash, Gen. Ch. 19.
It is the subject of rabbinic interpretations and
speculations in Bereshit Rabbah Ch. 50 and by Rashi and other Medieval to
modern commentaries.
Below is a
review of key interpretations and the more likely meaning and intent of the actual
Chumash text.
Lot makes matzos for the two visitors.
Gen. 19: 3
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ג וַיִּפְצַר-בָּם
מְאֹד--וַיָּסֻרוּ אֵלָיו, וַיָּבֹאוּ אֶל-בֵּיתוֹ; וַיַּעַשׂ לָהֶם מִשְׁתֶּה,
וּמַצּוֹת אָפָה וַיֹּאכֵלוּ. |
3 And
he urged them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his
house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and
they did eat. |
Rashi, following Bereshit Rabbah, states that
Lot was making matzos which he offered the two visitors -- as he was
‘celebrating’ Passover some 400 years in advance of the Exodus from Egypt[i].
A ‘prophetic’ notion so bizarre for someone who chose
to live and intermarry his daughters with the people of Sodom (Gen. 19: 12 –
14).
As I have explained long ago in a blog, matzo is not
uniquely ‘Jewish’ nor an ‘invention’ of the rushed Exodus from Egypt.
It is a common, almost universal ‘quick bread’ made
throughout the Middle East even to this day.
It is akin to pita and unlike standard ‘bread’, does not need hours to rise (i.e. fermentation) before putting in an oven for final baking.
Lot, according to the Biblical verses, was not making
matzos in advance before the arrival of the two strangers, but only rushed to
bake ‘quick bread’ once they agreed to have a meal at his home and he had to
rush to prepare it as it was nightfall and sleep time was approaching (Gen. 19:
1 -3).
Unlike the case when the two visitors – with a third
member – visited Abraham beforehand in mid-day and Abraham had the time to
order regular bread made (as well as the slaughter and roast of a calf for
meat) while he leisurely entertained the visitors (Gen. 18: 6-7).
Sodom crowd wants to have homosexual sex with the
strangers.
Gen. 19: 4 – 11
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ד טֶרֶם,
יִשְׁכָּבוּ, וְאַנְשֵׁי הָעִיר אַנְשֵׁי סְדֹם נָסַבּוּ עַל-הַבַּיִת, מִנַּעַר
וְעַד-זָקֵן: כָּל-הָעָם, מִקָּצֶה. |
4 But
before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed
the house round, both young and old, all the people from every quarter. |
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ה וַיִּקְרְאוּ
אֶל-לוֹט וַיֹּאמְרוּ לוֹ, אַיֵּה הָאֲנָשִׁים אֲשֶׁר-בָּאוּ אֵלֶיךָ
הַלָּיְלָה; הוֹצִיאֵם אֵלֵינוּ, וְנֵדְעָה אֹתָם. |
5 And
they called unto Lot, and said unto him: 'Where are the men that came in to
thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.' |
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ו וַיֵּצֵא
אֲלֵהֶם לוֹט, הַפֶּתְחָה; וְהַדֶּלֶת, סָגַר אַחֲרָיו. |
6 And
Lot went out unto them to the door, and shut the door after him. |
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7 And
he said: 'I pray you, my brethren, do not so wickedly. |
|
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ח הִנֵּה-נָא
לִי שְׁתֵּי בָנוֹת, אֲשֶׁר לֹא-יָדְעוּ אִישׁ--אוֹצִיאָה-נָּא אֶתְהֶן
אֲלֵיכֶם, וַעֲשׂוּ לָהֶן כַּטּוֹב בְּעֵינֵיכֶם; רַק לָאֲנָשִׁים הָאֵל,
אַל-תַּעֲשׂוּ דָבָר, כִּי-עַל-כֵּן בָּאוּ, בְּצֵל קֹרָתִי. |
8 Behold
now, I have two daughters that have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring
them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes; only unto these
men do nothing; forasmuch as they are come under the shadow of my roof.' |
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ט וַיֹּאמְרוּ
גֶּשׁ-הָלְאָה, וַיֹּאמְרוּ הָאֶחָד בָּא-לָגוּר וַיִּשְׁפֹּט שָׁפוֹט--עַתָּה,
נָרַע לְךָ מֵהֶם; וַיִּפְצְרוּ בָאִישׁ בְּלוֹט מְאֹד, וַיִּגְּשׁוּ לִשְׁבֹּר
הַדָּלֶת. |
9 And
they said: 'Stand back.' And they said: 'This one fellow came in to sojourn,
and he will needs play the judge; now will we deal worse with thee, than with
them.' And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and drew near to break
the door. |
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י וַיִּשְׁלְחוּ
הָאֲנָשִׁים אֶת-יָדָם, וַיָּבִיאוּ אֶת-לוֹט אֲלֵיהֶם הַבָּיְתָה;
וְאֶת-הַדֶּלֶת, סָגָרוּ. |
10 But
the men put forth their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and the
door they shut. |
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יא וְאֶת-הָאֲנָשִׁים
אֲשֶׁר-פֶּתַח הַבַּיִת, הִכּוּ בַּסַּנְוֵרִים, מִקָּטֹן, וְעַד-גָּדוֹל;
וַיִּלְאוּ, לִמְצֹא הַפָּתַח. |
11 And
they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both
small and great; so that they wearied themselves to find the door. |
The Bereshit Rabbah interpretation of
verse 5’s וְנֵדְעָה אֹתָם is that the local people
wanted to have homosexual sex with the strangers. (Sefaria, Bereshit Rabbah
50:5).
But this makes no sense, and is
probably a misreading of the text and misunderstanding of events in the broader
‘context’ of the times.
Yes,
homosexual sex is listed in the Chumash as an abomination regularly practiced in Canaan (Lev. 18:22 and 20: 13; respectively
שְׁכַּב אֶת-זָכָר מִשְׁכְּבֵי
אִשָּׁה and תִשְׁכַּב מִשְׁכְּבֵי
אִשָּׁה).
And
Judges ends with a very similar story (Judges19-22). A travelling Levite with his concubine and
servant looked for overnight lodging in the Benjamite town of Gibeah. They were
ready to sleep in the public square as no one would take them in when an old
man returning from the fields, a fellow man of Ephriam now residing in Benjamin
Gibeah, saw them and took them in.
Soon,
a local citizenry mob arrives and wants the stranger to be handed over to them.
The old man offers his daughter but the Levite gives them his concubine instead
as the ‘surety’.
Next
morning she is left brutalized and dying at the doorstep.
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כה וְלֹא-אָבוּ
הָאֲנָשִׁים, לִשְׁמֹעַ לוֹ, וַיַּחֲזֵק הָאִישׁ בְּפִילַגְשׁוֹ, וַיֹּצֵא
אֲלֵיהֶם הַחוּץ; וַיֵּדְעוּ אוֹתָהּ וַיִּתְעַלְּלוּ-בָהּ כָּל-הַלַּיְלָה, עַד-הַבֹּקֶר,
וַיְשַׁלְּחוּהָ, כַּעֲלוֹת הַשָּׁחַר. |
25 But
the men would not hearken to him; so the man laid hold on his concubine, and
brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused
her all the night until the morning; and when the day began to spring, they
let her go. |
The parallels between the book of Judges event
and Lot and his visitors is startling. A
point the Malbim notes in detail in his commentary on Judges 19:22.
And, in both, the key word used by the Bible is the
common root verb “to know” יָדַע in Gen. 19 וְנֵדְעָה אֹתָם and twice in Judges
18: וְנֵדָעֶֽנּוּ re: the
Levite and for the concubine אוֹתָהּ וַיֵּדְעוּ.
Rashi for Judges 19: 22 re: the Levite, says
they wanted to “sodomize him”, i.e. male having sex with a male.
This is also
Rashi’s understanding of the root word יָדַע here in Gen. 19: 5 and so too Ibn Ezra, Ramban,
Chizkuni, Reggio, Gur Arya and Steinsaltz[ii].
Targum
Onkelos also uses “to know” וְנִדַּע יָתְהוֹן [iii] and Targum Jonathan uses the more
explicitly euphemism “to copulate” וּנְשַׁמֵשׁ, as noted by Jastrow’s dictionary[iv].
As Ibn Ezara
correctly states, יָדַע = to know, it is a polite euphemism for
sexual intercourse.
It is so
used in Genesis 4: 1 where Adam יָדַ֖ע (co-habited) with Eve to give
birth to Cain.
It is also
the Biblical term used when Cain co-habited with his wife to produce Enoch (Gen.
4:17) and when Adam again had sex with Eve to produce Seth (Gen. 4:25)
But Radak disagrees.
He interprets Gen. 19: 5 to mean the Sodomites intended to simply “murder” the
two strangers.
And Bekhur
Shor, 12th century, holds the Sodomites simply wanted to interrogate the
strangers in case they were robbers or enemy spies.[v]
In fact, the Greek Septuagint (3rd century
BCE) rejects the homosexual reading and differentiates between יָדַ֖ע in Gen.
chapter 4 which it translates as ἔγνω (the
euphemism of “to know” for sex) and its occurrence here in
Gen. 19:5 as συγγενώμεθα, “to get acquainted with.” [vi]
The ‘homosexual
sex act’ reading of verse 5 became universal in English Bible translations both
Christian and Jewish. Many Christian translations have now replaced the King James
Bible’s (1611) literal “to know” euphemism with more direct sexual wording:
“sex”, “know carnally”, “relations” and “be intimate”.[vii]
As for
Jewish translations, the original JPS 1917 “to know” has been replaced in its 2006 print edition by “be intimate”: a translation used by the online texts of Sefaria
and Chabad Lubavitch.”[viii]
Not
surprisingly, in English speaking countries, the term Sodomy is the legal term for homosexual acts.[ix]
But such a
focus on sex, I believe, is misguided and Bekhur Shor and the earliest of all
translations, the Septuagint, are correct: namely, it was not about sex
but interrogation.
Context matters
In both the Lot story and the one in Judges,
the context explains the local citizenry’s uproar and rage.
The strangers arrive just before nightfall and just
before the town entrance gates are locked for safety.
Once news of the strangers’ arrival and their finding
accommodation by a follow ‘foreigner’ recently settled in the town, all manner
of fears quickly arise: that they are all spies planning to overthrow and
capture the town and murder and enslave its people.
Spies
Sending Israelite spies to check out the defenses of
local towns is recorded twice: in the Chumas and book of Joshua.
Moses sends out 12 spies to ‘check out the land of
Canaan’ and to determine which towns and cities were strongly defended and
which would be easier targets (Numbers: 13:18-19 and 28)
And Joshua sent two spies to Jericho who were hidden
by the woman Rahab and when news spread to the authorities, she lied and the
two spies escaped capture and torture (Joshua 2, especially verses 1 and 5).
Even the earlier account of Joseph as viceroy of Egypt
and the arrival of his 10 brothers to buy grain is couched in similar paranoia
of enemy spies.
Gen. 42
Joseph, from his platformed throne before assembled
Egyptian officials and foreign visitors, twice publicly accuses his brothers of
being enemy spies in verses 9 and 14 and has them thrown in jail for three days
(verse 17).
As Joseph was viceroy, no one at this public event
would challenge Joseph's sudden accusation of spying. But such paranoia was to be expected as
Egyptian history shows.
Joseph probably ruled under the Hyksos, northern Semites
who settled and conquered Delta Egypt, and were constantly under threat from
the indigenous pharaohs to the south.[x]
And the entire stretch along the western mediterranean
coast that is now Lebanon, Israel and Gaza, while under Egyptian suzerainty during the later half of the 14th century, were under ongoing
invasion throughout as evidenced by the Amarna Letters.[xi]
The Hittites from Turkey also were long a dangerous foe with the Battle of
Kadesh in 1247 BCE the most well document pitch battle of the ancient world.[xii]
So Egypt, when not in internal north-south war, was
regularly under attack or threat of attack from the kingdoms and tribes to the
north, i.e., Mesopotamia.
Put simply, invading raiders and armies -- and their
scout spies -- were a normal concern and ongoing fear everywhere throughout the
Middle East for centuries.
In the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, the citizen panic
of Gen. 19 is related to their own, recent history as recorded in
Genesis ch. 14.
The cities and tribes along the Mediterranean all
revolted against their then overlord, the Mesopotamian Chedorlaomer
of Elam. In the 13th year of their vassalage, they refused to pay
tribute. The next year, he and three of his vassal kings marched their combined
army down and overran and crushed the revolting cities and tribes: the Epaim,
Zuzim, Emim, Horites, Amalekites, Amorites, and finally came to the Valley of
Siddim (Dead Sea area) and won a pitched battle against the rebellious kings
and armies of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Zoar.
While the five kings fled to the tar pits by the Dead Sea, the victorious Chedorlaomer and his forces invaded the cities of Sodom, etc. and looted all their wealth: valuables,
animal herds and enslaved all their surviving inhabitants – including Lot.
Abraham, with his three allies, then pursued the victorious forces and
using a night time assault, freed Lot and returned all that had been taken to
Sodom, Gomorrah, and the three other cities.
With such a horrific, most recent experience, is it any wonder the citizens
of Sodom were paranoid and frightened when two strangers arrived just before
nightfall and were sheltered by Lot – a foreigner?
What the crowd wanted was to interrogate – and possibly torture -- the
strangers to ensure they were harmless: to ‘better know’ them and why they came
here.
That sexual abuse was NOT the intent of the Sodom crowd
is also attested by Lot himself, as he proposed handing over his 2 virgin
daughters as sureties: certainly not expecting them to be sexually violated or,
as females, even tortured (Gen. 19: 8).
Other arguments:
ידע meanings
The root ידע, “to know” is used numerous times throughout the (Hebrew) Bible[xiii] but
only in the three instances in the Chumash: Gen. ch 4 (noted at the
start) is it ever used in a clear, explicit, sexual context and only for the
earliest human reproduction by Adam and Eve (twice) and Cain and his wife. (Gen.
4: 1, 17 and 25). And only once in the
rest of the Bible in 1 Kings 1:4, where out of respect for royalty, it states
King David did NOT “know”, i.e., have any sexual intimacy, with his female
companion, Abishag.
Otherwise,
intercourse is couched in other terms:[xiv]
1)
“go into her” וַיָּבֹא אֶל or בֹּא-נָא or אָבוֹא אֵלַיִךְ
-
Gen. 16:2 and 4, Gen. 29:23, Gen.
30: 3 and 4, Gen 38:16,
2)
“ to lie with” אֲשֶׁר
יִשְׁכַּב
-
Exod. 22:19
(bestiality), Lev. 15:18, 24 and 33,
Lev. 18: 20 (adultery), 21 (homosexuality), 23 (bestiality), Lev. 19:20,
Lev. 20: 11 -13, 15 (bestiality) and 16(stand before a beast), Num. 5:
13 and 20, Num. 31: 17, 18, 35, Deut. 27:20-23,
3)
“expose
(her) nakedness לְגַלּוֹת עֶרְוָה
-
Lev. 18: 6 – 19, Lev. 20:
17- 21, Ezek. 22: 10,
Sodom and Gomorrah’s real
crimes
So what was the great sin(s) of
Sodom and Gomorrah?
In Gen. ch. 13, when Lot
separates himself from Abraham and resettles by Sodom, the Bible includes vague
foreshadowing statements in verses 10 and 13.
Gen. 13: 10 - 13
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י וַיִּשָּׂא-לוֹט
אֶת-עֵינָיו, וַיַּרְא אֶת-כָּל-כִּכַּר הַיַּרְדֵּן, כִּי כֻלָּהּ, מַשְׁקֶה--לִפְנֵי שַׁחֵת יְהוָה,
אֶת-סְדֹם וְאֶת-עֲמֹרָה,
כְּגַן-יְהוָה כְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם, בֹּאֲכָה צֹעַר. |
10 And
Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of the Jordan, that it was
well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like
the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou goest unto Zoar. |
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יא וַיִּבְחַר-לוֹ
לוֹט, אֵת כָּל-כִּכַּר הַיַּרְדֵּן, וַיִּסַּע לוֹט, מִקֶּדֶם; וַיִּפָּרְדוּ,
אִישׁ מֵעַל אָחִיו. |
11 So
Lot chose him all the plain of the Jordan; and Lot journeyed east; and they
separated themselves the one from the other. |
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יב אַבְרָם,
יָשַׁב בְּאֶרֶץ-כְּנָעַן; וְלוֹט, יָשַׁב בְּעָרֵי הַכִּכָּר, וַיֶּאֱהַל,
עַד-סְדֹם. |
12 Abram
dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the Plain, and
moved his tent as far as Sodom. |
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יג וְאַנְשֵׁי
סְדֹם, רָעִים וְחַטָּאִים, לַיהוָה, מְאֹד. |
13 Now
the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners against the LORD exceedingly. |
But in Gen. ch. 18 the crime(s)
are specifically defined by God himself as He is about to explain the
punishment in advance to Abraham.
Gen. 18: 19 - 21
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יט כִּי
יְדַעְתִּיו, לְמַעַן אֲשֶׁר יְצַוֶּה אֶת-בָּנָיו וְאֶת-בֵּיתוֹ אַחֲרָיו,
וְשָׁמְרוּ דֶּרֶךְ יְהוָה, לַעֲשׂוֹת צְדָקָה וּמִשְׁפָּט--לְמַעַן, הָבִיא יְהוָה עַל-אַבְרָהָם, אֵת
אֲשֶׁר-דִּבֶּר, עָלָיו. |
19 For
I have known him [Abraham], to the end that he may command his children and
his household after him, that they may keep the way of the LORD, to do
righteousness and justice; to the end that the LORD may bring upon Abraham
that which He hath spoken of him.' |
|
כ וַיֹּאמֶר
יְהוָה, זַעֲקַת סְדֹם וַעֲמֹרָה כִּי-רָבָּה; וְחַטָּאתָם--כִּי כָבְדָה,
מְאֹד. |
20 And
the LORD said: 'Verily, the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and, verily,
their sin is exceeding grievous. |
|
כא אֵרְדָה-נָּא
וְאֶרְאֶה, הַכְּצַעֲקָתָהּ הַבָּאָה אֵלַי עָשׂוּ כָּלָה; וְאִם-לֹא, אֵדָעָה. |
21 I
will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the
cry of it, which is come unto Me; and if not, I will know.' |
Abraham is the opposite of
Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham believes in “to
do righteousness and justice” לַעֲשׂוֹת צְדָקָה וּמִשְׁפָּט, but not so Sodom and Gomorrah.
Later references to Sodom
As pointed out by Rabbi Steve Greenberg in his article, “The Real Sin of Sodom”, later Bible and
rabbinic texts do not list homosexual sex among the sins of
Sodom.[xv]
While the prophet Jeremiah speaks vaguely of their sins
as “evil doers” and “wicked” (Jeremiah 23:14),[xvi]
the prophet Ezekiel gives a detailed list:
Ezekiel 16: 49-50
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מט הִנֵּה-זֶה
הָיָה, עֲוֺן סְדֹם אֲחוֹתֵךְ: גָּאוֹן שִׂבְעַת-לֶחֶם וְשַׁלְוַת
הַשְׁקֵט, הָיָה לָהּ וְלִבְנוֹתֶיהָ, וְיַד-עָנִי וְאֶבְיוֹן, לֹא הֶחֱזִיקָה. |
49 Behold,
this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom: pride, fulness of bread, and careless ease
was in her and in her daughters; neither did she strengthen the hand of the
poor and needy. |
|
נ וַתִּגְבְּהֶינָה,
וַתַּעֲשֶׂינָה תוֹעֵבָה לְפָנָי; וָאָסִיר אֶתְהֶן, כַּאֲשֶׁר
רָאִיתִי. {ס} |
50 And they
were haughty,
and committed abomination before Me; therefore I removed
them when I saw it. {S} |
The prophet stresses pride (twice), being rich and
without cares yet never helping the poor and needy (i.e., selfish, indifferent),
and committing unspecified abominations.
The Babylonian Talmud “also associated Sodom with the sins of
pride, envy, cruelty to orphans, theft, murder, and perversion of justice.”[xvii]
The legends of the midrash and Talmud elaborate on
these sins.[xviii]
No one was to help the poor on pain of brutal death:
§ A beggar visitor was given lots of money by people, but no store would sell him food. Once he dead of hunger, the citizens recovered their coins as they had initialed them.
§ A girl who secretly gave flour to a staving neighbour was burned to death.
§ Plotit, the daughter of Lot, who was married to a prominent Sodomite, secretly gave food to a poor man. When discovered, she was burned at the stake. Her final cries led God to investigate Sodom and send his two emissaries to destroy Sodom (Yalkut Shimoni, Bereishit 83. On Gen. 18:21)
§ Another kind girl was stripped, tied down and covered with honey so the bees would eat her.
Outsiders were unwelcome and mistreated.
§ Outsiders had to pay a high fee to cross the entrance bridge. If they swam across, the fee doubled, and if they objected, they were beaten up as well.
§ The hotel for outsiders had beds of one size and if the person was too short, they would stretch him on the bed’s rack to fit. If too long, feet and legs would be chopped off.
Such tales align with the key points of Ezekiel; but do not include homosexual sex.
As
for Ezekiel’s vague reference to “abominations”, this probably refer to injustice
and the cruelty the legends highlight.
God
requires above all justice.
- The Lord is
righteous, he loves justice” (Psalms 11:7)
- “Justice, and only
justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the
Lord your God is giving you.” (Deuteronomy 16:20)
- “To do righteousness
and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.”
(Proverbs 21:3)[xix]
As
Isaiah chapter 1 proclaims:
The call for justice is repeatedly
stressed here, and the penalty for Jerusalem will be Divinely ordered
destruction.
Namely, invasion by Babylonia, the
destruction of the city’s buildings and wall, the burning down of God’s Temple,
and an exile to Babylon of the surviving, enslaved people – for at least 70
years. As lamented by Jeremiah in his Lamentations.
For the horrors that were Sodom and
Gomorrah, the penalty was far worse: destruction by a massive earthquake and
sinkhole collapse, an upblast of sulphur and other caustic salts and flammable tar
-- and their subsequent deadly return to earth.
The story of Lot and the two
strangers was a ‘last straw’.
Fear of attack was an ongoing concern everywhere, but deadly overreaction is not acceptable. It is not just.
When Lot came out of his house to reason with and reassure the crowd of his follow citizens that the strangers were not spies, he was attacked. And if not for the two strangers pulling him back into the house, Lot would have been beaten to death or torn apart.
Gen. 19: 6 - 10
|
ו וַיֵּצֵא
אֲלֵהֶם לוֹט, הַפֶּתְחָה; וְהַדֶּלֶת, סָגַר אַחֲרָיו. |
6 And
Lot went out unto them to the door, and shut the door after him. |
|
ז וַיֹּאמַר:
אַל-נָא אַחַי, תָּרֵעוּ. |
7 And
he said: 'I pray you, my brethren, do not so wickedly. |
|
ח הִנֵּה-נָא
לִי שְׁתֵּי בָנוֹת, אֲשֶׁר לֹא-יָדְעוּ אִישׁ--אוֹצִיאָה-נָּא אֶתְהֶן
אֲלֵיכֶם, וַעֲשׂוּ לָהֶן כַּטּוֹב בְּעֵינֵיכֶם; רַק לָאֲנָשִׁים הָאֵל,
אַל-תַּעֲשׂוּ דָבָר, כִּי-עַל-כֵּן בָּאוּ, בְּצֵל קֹרָתִי. |
8 Behold
now, I have two daughters that have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring
them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes; only unto these
men do nothing; forasmuch as they are come under the shadow of my roof.' |
|
ט וַיֹּאמְרוּ
גֶּשׁ-הָלְאָה, וַיֹּאמְרוּ הָאֶחָד בָּא-לָגוּר וַיִּשְׁפֹּט שָׁפוֹט--עַתָּה,
נָרַע לְךָ מֵהֶם; וַיִּפְצְרוּ בָאִישׁ בְּלוֹט מְאֹד, וַיִּגְּשׁוּ לִשְׁבֹּר
הַדָּלֶת. |
9 And
they said: 'Stand back.' And they said: 'This one
fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs play the judge; now will we deal
worse with thee, than with them.' And they pressed sore upon the man, even
Lot, and drew near to break the door. |
|
י וַיִּשְׁלְחוּ
הָאֲנָשִׁים אֶת-יָדָם, וַיָּבִיאוּ אֶת-לוֹט אֲלֵיהֶם הַבָּיְתָה;
וְאֶת-הַדֶּלֶת, סָגָרוּ. |
10 But
the men put forth their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and the
door they shut. |
So, wanting to question sudden strangers who arrive
near nightfall and find a welcoming place of another recent, ‘alien’ is
understandable.
But the crowd’s vicious excess, was
not acceptable nor just.
PS:
The horrific story of Judges ch 19-22 ends with the narrators repeated refrain:
|
כה בַּיָּמִים
הָהֵם, אֵין מֶלֶךְ בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל: אִישׁ הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינָיו, יַעֲשֶׂה. |
25 In those days there
was no king in Israel; every
man did that which was right in his own eyes. |
People and communities without restraints do whatever they want, and often it is evil and unjust.
That is why a king and enforceable rule of law is needed.
[i]
See timeline at https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3915966/jewish/Timeline-of-Jewish-History.htmb
[ii]
See right sidebar “Commentaries’ at https://www.sefaria.org/Genesis.19.4?lang=bi&with=Commentary%20ConnectionsList&lang2=en
[iv] See Sefaria
Targum Jonathan on Genesis 19:5. Jastrow’s dictionary gives a number
of examples of this term as a euphemism for sex from the Talmud Bavli at Jastrow, שָׁמַשׁ 1 & Niddah 17a
[v]
Ibid.
[vi] https://biblebento.com/index.html?lxx1i&10.4.1 and https://biblebento.com/index.html?lxx1i&10.4.1
, 4.17 and 4.25
[vii] See
Bible Hub listing at Genesis 19:5 Parallel: And they called unto Lot, and said
unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out
unto us, that we may know them.
[viii]
Sefaria, Genesis 19:5 with Commentary ConnectionsList and Chabad,
Bereshit - Genesis - Chapter 19 (Parshah Vayeira) - Tanakh
Online - Torah - Bible
[x] Hyksos -
Wikipedia and see my earlier blog,
https://stillsmallvoicereflectionsonthebible.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-story-of-joseph-and-international.html
[xi] Amarna
letters - Wikipedia and Wikipedia “Akhenaten (c. 1351–1334 BC)”
[xiii]
See the list at Strong's
Hebrew: 3045. יָדַע (yada) -- To know, to perceive, to
understand, to acknowledge
[xiv]
The ensuing citations are taken from Intercourse in the Bible (56 instances)
[xvi] Sefaria
Jeremiah
23:15
