Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

ABRAHAM AND LOT 14: 12-16
wicked” (Sodomites) , that “seeing and hearing, he vexed
his righteous soul from day to+ day with their lawless
deeds.” But there is not even an intimation in the Genesis
account that Lot was under the necessity of living in that
environment: why, then, did he not get out of it? It does
not take any great exercise of the imagination to suggest
the answers to this question. In the first place, it is almost
a certainty that the family which Lot had reared in this
environment of lust and violence was completely out of
accord with his own “righteousness,” and in the second
place, we must admit that Lot’s own “righteousness” was
not sufficiently virile to impel him to break away from
the wickedness which enveloped him on all sides (cf. ch.
19, also Matt. 10:34-39). Those who pitch their teqits
toward Sodom usually coine to the inglorious end of beiizg
swallowed up in Sodom. It was oidy through Abrahanz’s
intercession that Lot was finally rescued fronz the divine
judgment visited upoiz all the Cities of the Plain.
6. The Rescue of Lot (vv. 13 -1 6).
Abram was still sojourning in the vale of Mamre
when the tidings of Lot’s capture was brought him by one
who had escaped. Three Amorite brothers, Mamre, Eshcol,
and Aner, joined him with their clans, and he then armed
his own three hundred and eighteen servants, and, dividing
his small army into several bands, pursued the conquerors
and fell upon them by night near Dan. Thus gaining
the initiative, Abraham and his allies routed the invaders
and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus, recover-
ing the plunder and the prisoners. (See Num. 20:17).
Abraiiz the Hebrew. Lange (CDHCG, 404): “Abram the
Hebrew, that is, the immigrant. Abraham, as Lot also, was
viewed by the escaped, who was born in the land, as an
immigrant, and because Lot the Hebrew was a captive, he
sought Abram the Hebrew.” (“Hebrew” as “crosser over,”
that is, the Euphrates: hence, “immigrant.” This is the
view of some authorities.) (Or, were the Hebrews to be
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