Attributed commentary excerpt
John Gill's Exposition on Luke 17:29
A historical reference excerpt for this verse.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.
But the same day Lot went out of Sodom, etc.] Being plucked and brought from thence by the angels early in the morning; and a fine morning it was; the sun was risen, and shone out upon the earth, as Lot got into Zoar, (<011915>Genesis 19:15,16,23). “The Jews” f538 say it was the sixteenth day of Nisan: it rained fire and brimstone from heaven; the Syriac version reads, “the Lord rained”; so it is said in (<011924>Genesis 19:24) “the Lord rained from the Lord”; Jehovah the Son, rained from Jehovah the Father; or the word of the Lord, as the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem render it; and which is no inconsiderable proof of the deity of Christ: and the Persic version here reads, “God rained”; and so this amazing shower of fire and brimstone, and which was a violent storm of thunder and lightning, is ascribed to God in (See Gill on “<610206>2 Peter 2:6”). The Hebrew word, tyrpg, used in (<011924>Genesis 19:24) though it is rendered in the Targum of Jonathan, atyrbk, and by the Septuagint, yeion; both which words signify “sulphur”, or brimstone; and which last word is used here, following the Greek version; yet it is observed, by some learned men, that it rather signifies “pitch”, or “rosin”, which proceeds from some sort of trees; and indeed, by its derivation, it seems to signify something belonging to or that comes out of the wood of Gopher, of which the ark was made, (<010614>Genesis 6:14) which some think to be the pine tree, from whence comes pitch: and this, though it comes from the inside of a tree, may as well be said to be rained from heaven, as brimstone, which is taken out of the bowels of the earth: and the rather, since pitch is sometimes fluid; and especially it being combustible, may be joined with fire, as well as sulphur, or brimstone; though a shower of neither, can be accounted for in an ordinary way, but must be extraordinary and miraculous: the destruction of this city, with others, by fire from heaven, and the lake Asphaltites, being a bituminous and sulphureous one, into which the tract of land they stood upon was converted, are confirmed by the testimonies of Heathen writers; as Tacitus f539 , Solinus f540, Strabo f541, Justin f542, and Pliny f543; as well as by Josephus f544 , and Philo the Jew f545. And destroyed them all; all the inhabitants of Sodom, and all of Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim; and which was an ensample of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the land of Judea. (<052923>Deuteronomy 29:23) and of the burning of the world, and of the perdition of the wicked in hell, (<610206>2 Peter 2:6 Jude 7).
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