25 That be far from thee to do | find in Sodom fifty righteous after this manner, to slay the within the city, then I will spare righteous with the wicked; and all the place for their sakes. that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: i Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

26 And the LORD said, * If I

h Joh. 8. 20. Isai. 3. 10, 11. i Job. 8. 3. & 34. 17. Ps. 58. 11. & 94. 2. Rom. 3. 6. k Jer. 5. 1. Ezek. 22. 30.

casion an exemption was granted to all
such as would avail themselves of it,
v. 26, for command was given by
Moses to the congregation, saying,
'Depart, I pray you, from the tents of
these wicked men, and touch nothing
of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all
their sins. Comp. 2 Sam. 24. 17. Ps.

11.4-7.

27 And Abraham answered and said, 1 Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the LORD, which am m but dust and ashes:

1 Luke 18. 1. m ch. 3. 19. Jb.4 19. Eccles. 12. 7. 1 Cor. 15. 47, 48. 2 Cor. 5. 1.

sakes. But pondering farther upon the subject, his benevolent feelings, together with his conviction of the divine clemency, seem to have prompted him to widen the scope of his intercession, and to sue for the sparing of the guilty for the sake of the innocent part of the population. For their own sakes he would not venture to offer the petition. In this we see the working of a pious heart, which is continually prone to enlarge its desires, and like the horseleech's daughter to cry, 'Give, give.' Like the four things that are never satisfied-the grave, the barren womb, the thirsty earth, and the fire-'it saith_not, it is enough.'

24. Peradventure there be fifty rightcous. Abraham charitably hopes the best with respect to the number of the righteous even in Sodom. At this the outset of his intercession, he certainly considered it as at least a possible case, that there might be found in that wicked place fifty righteous, and though in this instance he was sadly mistaken, yet his example teaches us Heb. 33 halilah; a term expres25. That be far from thee to do. the propriety of entertaining the most sing detestation of a thing as profane, charitable hopes, even in the midst of the worst appearances. abominable, shocking, and consequentFrom facts elsewhere recorded in the sacred vol-ly that which was forbidden to be done. It is rendered in the Sept. by μn yεvolto and in Job, 27. 5, μn sin be it not. In let it not be, or by μndaμws by no means, all the parallel New Testament texts, the Gr. is uniformly un yevoro, and the Eng. version 'God forbid.'

ume, we learn that God still had a

remnant to serve him in times of general apostacy, even though they were unknown to his own servants; and we are perhaps warranted to believe that although in regard to particular places the number of the righteous may 28. Peradventure there shall lack five be less than we suppose, yet in the of the fifty righteous, &c. If it be world at large it is much greater. -T asked why Abraham continued thus to Wilt thou also destroy and not spare press his suit abating the number by the place? From the question profive till at length he had reduced it down posed by Abraham in the preceding to ten, the answer perhaps may be, verse, it would appear that he contemthat being in the outset uncertain as to plated the preservation of the righteous the number of righteous in Sodom, the only, without presuming to hope for readiness and facility of Jehovah in the deliverance of the wicked for their yielding to his first petition, inspired a

28 Peradventure there shall | lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it.

29 And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty's sake.

30 And he said unto him, Oh, ¦ let not the LORD be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there.

31 And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the LORD: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty's sake.

32 And he said, "Oh, let not the LORD be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake.

33 And the LORD went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.

n Judg. 6. 39. o James 5. 16.

doubt whether the specified fifty could and the iniquities of a people may arbe found. This doubt would naturally rive at such a pitch that if Noah, Danbe increased by every successive con- iel, and Job were in it, those holy men cession, each one of which paved the should not prevail except to deliver way for the following, till at length he their own souls by their righteousness, probably deemed it both hopeless and Ezek. 14. 14. It is not to be forgotten presumptuous to proceed any farther. therefore that notwithstanding the Yet who can affirm that one step far- amazing condescension of God manither in the reduction might not have fested on this and other occasions to secured the salvation of Sodom? The the prayers of his saints, there is a liminquiry is not perhaps profitable or decit beyond which their intercessions will orous, but certain it is that on a sub- not avail. sequent occasion, when God was about to send the Jews into captivity, Jer. 5. 1, he told them that if they could find one righteous man in Jerusalem, he would spare them all; and after he had inflicted his judgments upon them, he assigned as his reason for it, Ezek. 22. 30, 31, that not one had been found to stand in the gap, and intercede for them. But on the other hand, it must | be admitted that God holds the prerogative of pardoning in a sovereign manner, and will not allow himself to be bound by his own precedent. The clemency which would have spared Sodom for the sake of ten could not be moved on any account to avert the threatened wrath from the city which had rejected the Saviour, Matt. 11. 24,

33. And the Lord went his way, &c. Rather, Heb. went away; which implies that he was one of the three persons who had come to Abraham. Chal. 'The glory of the Lord was lifted up.'- -T Unto his place; i. e. to the grove of Mamre, where he was now residing.

REMARKS.-The above narrative of Abraham's intercession teaches us, (1.) How highly God esteems the righteous, and what blessings they are to the places in which they live. They are well termed the 'light of the world' and the 'salt of the earth,' for without them the world would be immersed in total darkness, and speedily become one mass of corruption. Little do the world think how much they are indebted to God's

people. If only ten persons of this character had been found in Sodom it would have been spared. Good men are the safeguards of a nation. Though often traduced and represented as the 'troublers of Israel,' yet were they viewed aright they would be considered rather as the shields of the earth,' who ward off from it the judgments of the Almighty, and their removal would be mourned as a public calamity. When Lot is taken out of Sodom, Sodom is taken out of the world.' Trapp.

case ten righteous men had been found in it. Our glorious Intercessor has availed to save ten thousand times ten thousand of the guilty progeny of Adam, though not one righteous man has been found throughout all their generations.

3. The astonishing efficacy of intercessory prayer, and the duty which rests upon us of offering it. It appears from the present narrative that Abraham left off asking before God left off granting; and though the particular object of his (2.) The humility which ought to petitions was not accorded to him, yet characterise our addresses to God. the avowed conditions on which it Nothing more distinguishes the prayer would have been granted show that no of Abraham on this occasion than the limits, but such as a concern for his profound abasement of spirit which own honour induced God to fix, can breathes through it. He speaks as one be assigned to the exercise of his grace who can hardly realize that he has ta- in answer to his people's prayers. It ken it upon him to speak at all. Un- was in fact a virtual obtaining of the der the same oppressive consciousness object of his suit. How diligently then of our being but sinful dust and ashes should the pious improve their interest should we draw near to God. It is in behalf of others! We can scarcely only when the awe of the divine ma- conceive a person so obdurate, but that jesty and purity falls upon us, and we if, by speaking to another, he could are filled with an overwhelming sense obtain health for the sick or relief for of our own unworthiness and vileness, the indigent, he would avail himself of and of the vast distance that separates such an opportunity to benefit his felus from God, that we can suitably ap- low-creatures. Yet, alas! what backproach him. But if duly penetrated wardness among Christians to the work with these emotions, we need not fear of intercession! How silent, how cold, that he will be angry with us, or that how indifferent, while an awful mass our humble, compassionate, and fer- of ignorance, wretchedness, and impivent petitions will fail of acceptance. ety, surrounds them on every side! Moreover, let us remember for our con- Shall Abraham be thus fervent, thus solation and encouragement, while thus anxious in behalf of a guilty city by abased with the sense of our ill-desert, whose destruction he could in no way that we have a High Priest within the have been injured, while we sit unconvail, whose merits countervail our demer-cerned in the midst of perishing parits, and who will present our poor peti-ents, children, brethren, and friends? tions at the throne of his Father; who will do more than this-who will intercede for us as Abraham never could; for the intercession of Jesus cannot weary, his petitions cannot fail. How comforting, how delightful a thought to the true believer! Abraham's inter-sin against God, 1 Sam. 12. 23; and that cession, with all his fervency, could if we have no heart to sigh and cry for only avail to save devoted Sodom in the abominations or miseries of others,

26

Let us stir ourselves up to this good work. Let us consider how much we ourselves need the prayers of others, and from this let us judge of the claims of others upon us. Let us consider also that to neglect to pray for others is to

we have great reason to fear and trem- special formalities of appointment, the ble for ourselves.

CHAPTER XIX.

supposition is perhaps not ill-founded. Certain it is that in the book of Job, which contains so many striking pic

1. And there came two angels to Sod-tures of patriarchal times, the phrase om. Rather according to the literal rendering of the Heb.

is used in that sense; ch. 27. 7—12, When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in in the street, &c.-I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him ;' i. e. I did this judicially. Lot was now an aged man and a resident of long standing in Sodom, and might with other elders have sustained this character, though it would appear from v. 9, that he was too good a man to have been a popular magistrate.- -¶ And Lot seeing them, rose up to meet them, &c. Lot, like Abraham, was 'upon hospitable thoughts

and there came two of the angels, or the two angels; i. e. two of the three spoken of in the previous chapter, and there called men. While the Angel-Jehovah remained communing with Abraham, the other two went on their way till they came to Sodom. -¶ And Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. The gates of cities were anciently the chief places of general resort for the citizens where they assembled not only to confer upon public affairs, and to hold their courts of justice, but also for the sake of social intercourse and pleasant rec-intent,' and with the ready courtesy reation. Indeed it appears from 2 Kings, 7. 1, 18, that markets were sometimes held in their gates, which would naturally bring together a concourse of people, and it is remarked by travellers that the modern Arabs and other Orientals are exceedingly addicted to flocking together to their markets and fairs for the sake of society and amusement. 2. Behold, now, my lords, turn in, As to the passage before us, the Jewish &c. Heb. 7 Adonai; a word frecommentators understand the phrase quently applied as a title of the Most 'sitting in the gate,' as implying the High, although in such cases distinexercise of authority as a magistrate; guished by a different mode of voweland if we suppose, as is highly proba-pointing. The absence of inns in eastble, that in those primitive times the ern countries (except the caravanserais, 'elders' of cities and villages were the where shelter alone is provided), both acknowledged judges in civil affairs in in ancient and modern times renders virtue of their age, and without any such an invitation as Lot's a custom

which is ever prompted by a pious heart, he rises and goes forth to meet the approaching strangers, and to tender to them the welcome and the attention of a generous host; thus exemplifying the language of Job, ch. 31. 32, The stranger did not lodge in the street; but I opened my doors to the traveller.'

3 And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; f and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.

f ch. 18. 8.

4 ¶ But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter:

ary civility under similar circumstan- enjoy their company and converse, but ces. But for such a proffer of enter- because he was too well aware of the tainment in private houses, strangers danger to which they would be exoften pass the night in the open squares posed, were they to adhere to their de of cities, which in that warm climate clared purpose of lodging in the street. is attended with little inconvenience. The Heb. term implies an earnestness -¶ Nay, but will abide in the of importunity almost amounting to street all night. They at first refuse, violence, and is in fact the very same as if it were accounted as great a mark word that occurs v. 9, 'And they pressof civility on the part of strangers not ed sore upon the man,' which cannot to seem forward in accepting, as it was perhaps be better rendered. Its Gr. on his to be forward in inviting. The representative is kareßiaσaro, a synonreply is to be construed, not as a delib-yme with which is employed in a simerate violation of truth, but as the lan-ilar connection, Luke, 24. 29, 'But guage of common etiquette on such they constrained (Tapeßiaoavro) him occasions, and as expressing their pres-saying, Abide with us; for it is toward ent purpose, unless they should be further importuned by Lot; in that case, their words would not be understood to preclude the liberty of complying. Our Saviour's language, Luke, 24. 28, 29, affords a striking parallel to their refusal. The answer of the angels, moreover, was better calculated to put to the test and make manifest the sincerity and kindness of Lot's disposition. By acting as if they deemed it safe to lodge in the streets, while they knew the contrary to be true, they gave a fair opportunity to Lot to show how unfeigned was his concern for their security, while at the same time the intimations from him of the danger to be apprehended would go to disclose the aggravated wickedness of the place, and justify the judgment about to be inflicted.

evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.’—¶ He made them a feast. Heb. nwa a drinking, a banquet. Gr. TOTOV id. rendered in Est. 5. 6.—7. 7, a 'banquet of wine.' Comp. Est. 7. 1, 2.-3. 15; so called from that which constituted the principal part of the entertainment. This was customary in those days, and on similar occasions, and is not to be judged of by those rules of abstinence from every exciting beverage which pious and benevolent men in modern times have felt constrained to adopt under a state of society altogether different, and in view of evils which have made a course of rigid abstinence absolutely imperative on their consciences.-——— Did bake unleavened bread. Because this could be more expeditiously prepared than any thing else of the kind.

4. And before they lay down, &c. While the little party were thus innocently refreshing and enjoying themselves under the hospitable roof of Lot, the characteristic baseness of the