Luke 17:29
But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
But the same day Lot went out of Sodom,.... 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, Genesis 19:15. "The Jews" {i} 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 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 "2 Peter 2:6". The Hebrew word, tyrpg, used in
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, 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 {k}, Solinus {l}, Strabo {m}, Justin {n}, and Pliny {o}; as well as by Josephus {p}, and Philo the Jew {q}.
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. Deuteronomy 29:23 and of the burning of the world, and of the perdition of the wicked in hell, 2 Peter 2:6.
{i} Bereshit Rabba, sect. 50. fol. 45. 3.
{k} Hist. l. 5.
{l} Polyhistor. c. 48.
{m} Geograph. l. 16.
{n} Histor. l. 36. c. 3.
{o} Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 16.
{p} Antiqu. l. 1. c. 11. sect. 4. & de Bello Jud. l. 5. c. 21.
{q} De Vita Mosis, l. 2. p. 662.