(4) From every quarter.--Heb., from the end. This may mean, either, "to the last man." or "from the very end of the town." In either case it shows that there were not in Sodom the ten righteous men who would have availed to save it (Genesis 18:32).
Verse 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. i.e. of the town, as in Jeremiah 51:31 (Lange); from the extremity, or extremities, of the town (Kalisch); from the extremities, i.e. all the population contained within the extremities (Rosenmüller); all the citizens to the last man (Keil). The text probably conveys the writer's idea.
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.
But before they lay down,.... Upon their beds to sleep; it was between supper time and bedtime that the following affair happened, while the angels were talking to Lot about the men of Sodom, and inquiring what sort of men they were, as the Jewish writers (l) suggest:
the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round about; the house of Lot, where the angels were:
both old and young: the males of the city of every age; some that were past committing the sin they were so infamous for, as well as those that burned with that unnatural lust; some that could not be actors were willing to be spectators; and all were curious to see the lovely persons, that it was reported all over the city were seen to go into Lot's house:
all the people from every quarter; all from one end of the city to the other, and from every corner in it: which shows the general corruption and depravity of the city, that it was so far from having ten righteous persons in it, that of the proper inhabitants of it, there was not, as Jarchi notes, one righteous person, no, not one.
(l) Bereshit Rabba, ut supra. (sect. 50. fol. 44. 4.)
the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round about; the house of Lot, where the angels were:
both old and young: the males of the city of every age; some that were past committing the sin they were so infamous for, as well as those that burned with that unnatural lust; some that could not be actors were willing to be spectators; and all were curious to see the lovely persons, that it was reported all over the city were seen to go into Lot's house:
all the people from every quarter; all from one end of the city to the other, and from every corner in it: which shows the general corruption and depravity of the city, that it was so far from having ten righteous persons in it, that of the proper inhabitants of it, there was not, as Jarchi notes, one righteous person, no, not one.
(l) Bereshit Rabba, ut supra. (sect. 50. fol. 44. 4.)