Attributed commentary excerpt
John Gill's Exposition on 2 Peter 2:6
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Exposition of the Old and New Testament
John Gill (1697–1771) · 18th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes, etc.] By raining brimstone and fire upon them from heaven, (<011924>Genesis 19:24) which soon reduced them to ashes, with Admah and Zeboiim, (<052925>Deuteronomy 29:25), cities delightfully situated, which were as the garden of God, and the land of Egypt, together with the inhabitants of them; and after they had received a signal mercy, in being rescued by Abraham from the kings who had carried them captive; and though Abraham, the friend of God, interceded for them, and righteous Lot dwelt among them. The first of these cities is in the Hebrew language called Sedom; Philo the Jew f20 calls it Sodoma, as in ( <450929>Romans 9:29) and in the Septuagint on (<011310>Genesis 13:10 18:22 19:1 <230109>Isaiah 1:9) here it is said to be a city, and Josephus f21 always calls it the city of the Sodomites, but in (<401015>Matthew 10:15 11:24) we read of the land of Sodom; and so Philo f22 the Jew speaks of cwra, the region or country of the Sodomites; here the word is of the plural number, as in (<401015>Matthew 10:15 11:23,24) (<421729>Luke 17:29) as it is also in the Septuagint in (<011019>Genesis 10:19 13:13) (<011402>Genesis 14:2,8,10-12,16,17,21,22) and in Philo the Jew f23, and so is Gomorrah in some copies of this, place, as in (<401015>Matthew 10:15). Solinus, the historian, gives an account of these cities, in agreement with this; “a good way off of Jerusalem (he says f24) is opened a sorrowful gulf, which the black ground, “in cinerem soluta”, “reduced to ashes”, shows it to be touched by heaven; there were two towns, or cities, the one called Sodom, and the other Gomorrah; where an apple is produced, which, although it has an appearance of ripeness, cannot be eaten; for the outward skin that encompasses it only contains a sort of soot, or embers within, which, ever so lightly squeezed, evaporates into smoke and dust;” and so the author of the book of Wisdom 10:7 speaking of the five cities, on which fire fell, says, “of whose wickedness, even to this day, the waste land that smoketh is a testimony; and plants bearing fruit, that never come to ripeness.” Philo the Jew f25 says, that “there are showed to this day in Syria monuments of this unspeakable destruction that happened; as ruins, ashes, sulphur, smoke, and a weak flame, breaking forth as of a fire burning:” condemned [them] with an overthrow; by this sad “catastrophe” God condemned the sins of those men of Sodom and Gomorrah, and condemned their persons to everlasting damnation; of which their temporal punishment was an emblem and figure; (see <650107>Jude 1:7), the word “overthrow” is generally used when this destruction is spoken of, (<052923>Deuteronomy 29:23 <231319>Isaiah 13:19 <245040>Jeremiah 50:40 <300411>Amos 4:11) and therefore retained by the apostle here: making them ensamples unto those who after should live ungodly; in the commission of any sins, and be open, bold, and impudent in them, and declare them as they did; and especially that should live in the commission of the same sins, those unnatural lusts and uncleannesses, which to this day go by the name of “sodomy”, and “sodomitical” practices; now the punishment of the inhabitants of these cities was an ensample to such wicked conduct, showing what they must expect, and was a representation of those everlasting burnings, which such sinners, as a righteous retaliation for their burning lusts, shall be cast into. The Jews say f26 the same of the men of Sodo…
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