Genesis 19:9

And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) This one fellow came in to sojourn.—Heb. the one came to sojourn, as if an extraordinary concession had been made in Lot’s favour in allowing him to dwell within their walls. In ancient times the rights of citizenship were most jealously guarded, and the position of a sojourner made very bitter.

He will needs be a judge.—Heb., is ever acting as a judge. This suggests that Lot had previously reproved the men of Sodom, and agrees with 2Peter 2:8.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:1-29 Lot was good, but there was not one more of the same character in the city. All the people of Sodom were very wicked and vile. Care was therefore taken for saving Lot and his family. Lot lingered; he trifled. Thus many who are under convictions about their spiritual state, and the necessity of a change, defer that needful work. The salvation of the most righteous men is of God's mercy, not by their own merit. We are saved by grace. God's power also must be acknowledged in bringing souls out of a sinful state If God had not been merciful to us, our lingering had been our ruin. Lot must flee for his life. He must not hanker after Sodom. Such commands as these are given to those who, through grace, are delivered out of a sinful state and condition. Return not to sin and Satan. Rest not in self and the world. Reach toward Christ and heaven, for that is escaping to the mountain, short of which we must not stop. Concerning this destruction, observe that it is a revelation of the wrath of God against sin and sinners of all ages. Let us learn from hence the evil of sin, and its hurtful nature; it leads to ruin.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The wicked violence of the citizens displays itself. They compass the house, and demand the men for the vilest ends. How familiar Lot had become with vice, when any necessity whatever could induce him to offer his daughters to the lust of these Sodomites! We may suppose it was spoken rashly, in the heat of the moment, and with the expectation that he would not be taken at his word. So it turned out. "Stand back." This seems to be a menace to frighten Lot out of the way of their perverse will. It is probable, indeed, that he and his family would not have been so long safe in this wicked place, had he not been the occasion of a great deliverance to the whole city when they were carried away by the four kings. The threat is followed by a taunt, when the sorely vexed host hesitated to give up the strangers. "He will needs be a judge." It is evident Lot had been in the habit of remonstrating with them. From threats and taunts they soon proceed to violence. His guests now interfere. They rescue Lot, and smite the rioters with blindness, or a wandering of the senses, so that they cannot find the door. This ebullition of the vilest passion seals the doom of the city.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. men of Sodom, compassed the house—Appalling proofs are here given of their wickedness. It is evident that evil communications had corrupted good manners; otherwise Lot would never have acted as he did.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Stand back, or, go further off, i.e. out of our way; stand not between us and the door; or, come hither, that so they might seize him, and proceed in the designed wickedness.

This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: q.d. One man, and he too but a stranger, presumeth to oppose the whole society of the native citizens. Heb. In judging he will judge. This busybody, if not restrained in time, will take authority to himself to censure, reprove, and condemn us from time to time.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And they said, stand back,.... Turn on one side, get away from the door, that we may come to it:

and they said again: to one another:

this one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge; this one man, and he a stranger and sojourner, no freeman or citizen of this city, sets himself against the whole body of the inhabitants, and takes upon him to judge what is right and wrong to be done; and if he is let alone in "judging he will judge" (m), as it may be rendered; he will take upon him this office, and continue to exercise it, and determine and decide all matters among us at his pleasure. This confutes the above notion of the Jews, that Lot was appointed a judge by the men of Sodom, yea, the president of the court for that day; See Gill on Genesis 19:1,

now will we deal worse with thee than with them: the men in his house, both by abusing his body in their unnatural way, and by beating and bruising him, and pulling him in pieces, limb from limb; something of this kind they seem to threaten him with, and attempted to effect, as follows:

and they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot; not only with words in a bullying way, with menaces and threats, with oaths, and curses, and imprecations; for it is the same word that is used of Lot, pressing the angels with words and arguments to come into his house, Genesis 19:3; but they rushed in upon him in a body, and pushed him away, and pulled him about, and would in all probability have torn him to pieces, had he not been rescued by the angels:

and came near to break the door: that which was shut, the door of the passage that led to the house.

(m) "judicabit judicando", Drusius.

Geneva Study Bible

And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. Stand back] LXX ἀπόστα ἐκεί, Lat. recede illuc; cf. “give place,” Isaiah 49:20.

This one fellow] Lot is reminded of his solitariness and of his foreign extraction.

came in to sojourn] The people contrast Lot’s position as a sojourner (gêr) in the city with his claim to decide and play the judge.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - And they said, Stand back. Ἀπόστα ἐκεῖ (LXX.); recede illuc (Vulgate); "Make way," i.e. for us to enter (Keil, Knobel, Gesenius); Approach hither (Baumgarten, Kalisch); Come near, farther off ('Speaker's Commentary'). And they said again, This one fellow (literally, the one, an expression of the Sodomites' contempt) came in to sojourn, and he will heeds be a judge: - literally, and shall he judge, judging; shall he continually play the judge, referring doubtless to Lot s daily remonstrances against their wickedness (cf. 2 Peter 2:7, 8) - now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they premed Bore upon the man, even Lot (literally, upon Lot, who appears to have offered a sturdy resistance to their violence no less than to their clamors), and came near to break (שָׁבַר, to break to pieces, to shiver) the door. Genesis 19:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Lot went out to them, shut the door behind him to protect his guests, and offered to give his virgin daughters up to them. "Only to these men (האל, an archaism for האלּה rof, occurs also in Genesis 19:25; Genesis 26:3-4; Leviticus 18:27, and Deuteronomy 4:42; Deuteronomy 7:22; Deuteronomy 19:11; and אל for אלּה in 1 Chronicles 20:8) do nothing, for therefore (viz., to be protected from injury) have they come under the shadow of my roof." In his anxiety, Lot was willing to sacrifice to the sanctity of hospitality his duty as a father, which ought to have been still more sacred, "and committed the sin of seeking to avert sin by sin." Even if he expected that his daughters would suffer no harm, as they were betrothed to Sodomites (Genesis 19:14), the offer was a grievous violation of his paternal duty. But this offer only heightened the brutality of the mob. "Stand back" (make way, Isaiah 49:20), they said; "the man, who came as a foreigner, is always wanting to play the judge" (probably because Lot had frequently reproved them for their licentious conduct, 2 Peter 2:7, 2 Peter 2:8): "not will we deal worse with thee than with them." With these words they pressed upon him, and approached the door to break it in. The men inside, that is to say, the angels, then pulled Lot into the house, shut the door, and by miraculous power smote the people without with blindness (סנורים here and 2 Kings 6:18 for mental blindness, in which the eye sees, but does not see the right object), as a punishment for their utter moral blindness, and an omen of the coming judgment.