Genesis 13:10

And Lot lifted up his eyes,.... He immediately fell in with Abram's proposal, but had not the ingenuity to return back the choice to Abram which he gave him, but took the advantage of it; nor did he

And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land. And there was a strife.

The plain of Jordan, a great plain so called, because there the pleasant river Jordan divided itself into divers little streams or rivulets, which having no visible outlet into the sea, by degrees, and in several places, insinuated themselves into the earth, which made it very fruitful and excellent for Lot’ s purpose. But this lovely plain was afterwards transformed by Divine vengeance into a filthy lake or dead sea, . Even as the garden of the Lord; i.e. either, 1. Like that famous garden of Eden which God himself planted, . The like comparison we meet with . Or, 2. Like some excellent garden; for excellent things are thus expressed, as, the host of God, , i.e. a great host; cedars of God, . Like the land of Egypt, a land of eminent fertility by the influence of that great river Nilus, anciently celebrated as the granary of other countries. See . Unto Zoar, i.e. to Bela, , afterwards called Zoar, , and here so called by a prolepsis. But these words are not to be joined with the words immediately going before, as if Egypt was commended for its fertility in that part of it from which men go to Zoar, but with the more remote words, and the sense is, as the words of the text are transplaced and rendered by some, that the plain of Jordan was (before the Lord destroyed it and its cities Sodom and Gomorrah) watered every where, even to Zoar; or, even until thou comest, i.e. till a man come, to Zoar, i.e. all the way which leads from the place where Abram then was to Zoar. And such transpositions are not unusual, as we shall see hereafter.

Genesis 13:10 And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it [was] well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, [even] as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.Ver. 10. And Lot lifted up his eyes.] This was "the lust of the eye" St John speaketh of, as he afterwards fell into "the lust of the flesh," his incestuous posterity into "the pride of life." We have heard of the pride of Moab, and the ambition of Ammon,. Lot might not be suffered so much as to look at Sodom while it was burning, as Abram might. God knew his weakness, and so prevented the temptation. He should have had the good manners to let his uncle choose first; but the dust of covetousness had put out his eyes, that he saw not what beseemed him for the present, as afterwards he did, when God so crossed him in that which he chose, and so blessed Abram in that which was left him. Lot was a good man, but this, τοτηςφιλοχρημοτιαςνοσημα, somewhat obscured his virtues. That it was well watered everywhere,] and so fruitful. Hence the inhabitants, through abuse of their plenty, became wholly drowned in fleshly delights. It faring with them in this respect, as with the inhabitants of Oenoe, a dry island besides Athens, who bestowed much labour to draw into it a river to water it, and make it more fruitful. But, when all the passages were opened, and the receptacles prepared, the water came in so plentifully, that it overflowed all, and at the first tide, drowned the island, and all the people. "They that will be rich," saith the apostle, - that are resolved to rise in the world, by what means it matters not, these, - "fall into temptation and a snare," as Lot, (that is the least evil can come of it), "and into many foolish and noisome lusts," as his neighbours the Sodomites did, "which" desperately "drown men in" double "destruction". Like the land of Egypt.] Which was called of old, publicum orbis horreum the world’ s great granary. A country so fair and fertile, that the Egyptians were wont to boast, they could feed all men, and feast all the gods, without any sensible diminution of their provision. The leper shaved his eyebrows, to teach us to mortify the lust of the eyes. De Triboniano, Procopius. Una est ex tetrapoli Attica . - Steph. βυθιξουσι. Ita immergunt, ut in aquae summitate cursus non ebuliiant .

(10) The plain of Jordan.—This word, Ciccar, literally means the circuit, or, as it is translated in St. Matthew 3:5, “the region round about Jordan,” and, according to Mr. Conder (Tent Work, ii., p. 14), is the proper name of the Jordan valley, and especially of the plain of Jericho. It is now called the Gnor, or depression, and is one of the most remarkable districts in the world, being a deep crack or fissure, with chalk rocks upon the western and sandstone on the eastern side, over which lies limestone, geologically of the age of our green-sand formation. It is thus what is technically called by miners a fault, the formations on the two sides having been displaced by some tremendous convulsion of nature. Most of the valley lies below the level of the Mediterranean, the Sea of Galilee being, by Mr. Conder’s observations, about 682 feet below it, and the Dead Sea no less than 1,292 feet. As the watershed to the south rises to a level of 200 feet above the Mediterranean, al) egress for the waters is thereby cut off, and there are numerous proofs that at some distant period the whole valley, about 150 miles in length, was a succession of large lakes. But even in Abram’s days the Jordan poured down a far larger volume of water than at present; for by the loss of its forests the climate of Palestine has become much more dry than of old, and regions once fertile are now barren. And as the supply of water has become less than that lost by evaporation, the Dead Sea has gradually receded, and left around it arid wastes covered over with incrustations of salt. As the garden of the Lord.—Mr. Palmer (Desert of the Exodus. p. 465) describes the fertility of the Jordan valley as follows:—“Although the immediate vicinity of the Dead Sea is barren enough, the Ghor, or deep depression at the northern and southern extremities, teems with life and vegetation; and even where the cliffs rise sheer up from the water’s edge, streams of fresh water dash down the ravines, and bring the verdure with them almost to the Salt Sea’s brink.” The same writer (p. 480) has also shown conclusively, with Mr. Grove, Dr. Tristram, and others, that Sodom and Gomorrha were at the northern end of the lake, and not, as was previously supposed, at the southern. For the Ciccar is strictly the part of the Ghor near Jericho, and as the Dead Sea is forty-six miles in length, its southern extremity was far away out of sight. Moreover, Lot was standing some miles away to the north-west, on the high ground between Beth-el and Ai, whence “the northern end of the Dead Sea, and the barren tract which extends from the oasis of Jericho to it and the Jordan, are distinctly visible” (Dr. Tristram, Sunday at Home, 1872, p. 215). This “barren tract” was once the Ciccar, and the traces of ancient irrigation and aqueducts attest its former fertility.

Verse 10. Like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.] There is an obscurity in this verse which Houbigant has removed by the following translation: Ea autem, priusquam Sodomam Gornorrhamque Do minus delerit, erat, qua itur Segor, tota irrigua, quasi hortus Domini, et quasi terra AEgypti. "But before the Lord had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, it was, as thou goest to Zoar, well watered, like the garden of the Lord, and like the land of Egypt." As paradise was watered by the four neighbouring streams, and as Egypt was watered by the annual overflowing of the Nile; so were the plains of the Jordan, and all the land on the way to Zoar, well watered and fertilized by the overflowing of the Jordan.

10. And Lot lifted up his eyes] The spot near Bethel, from which the view described in this verse can be obtained, is easily identified. Travellers speak in glowing terms of the scene commanded by this piece of high ground. all the Plain (R.V. marg. Circle) of Jordan] The word kikkar, a “round,” or “circle” (Skinner renders “Oval”), was applied by the Israelites to the broader portion of the level country on either side of the river Jordan, extending northwards as far as the river Jabbok, and southwards, originally, according to the tradition, to the supposed site of the submerged cities of the Plain at the lower end of the Dead Sea. Cf. Genesis 19:24-29; 2 Samuel 18:23; 1 Kings 7:46. The kikkar is specially mentioned in connexion with Jericho in Deuteronomy 34:3; Nehemiah 3:22; Nehemiah 12:28. The present passage suggests, that the narrative emanated from a source, according to which the formation of the Dead Sea was subsequent to the destruction of the cities of the Plain (19), and that its bed had previously been a fertile agricultural region. well watered] The basin of the Jordan is famous for its fertility. The climate is tropical, and the soil is watered by the Jordan and its tributaries. before the Lord destroyed, &c.] The writer pictures this scene of fertility extending itself to the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, before the catastrophe described in Genesis 19:24-29. like the garden of the Lord] “The garden of Jehovah” is the garden of Eden (chap. 2; cf. Isaiah 51:3), the ideal of beauty and fertility. “Like the land of Egypt”; the writer adds a second simile. “The land of Egypt” was well known for the richness of its soil and for the abundance of its irrigation. The two similes, following in succession, have been thought to overload the sentence, but are not, on that account, to be regarded as glosses. as thou goest unto Zoar] Zoar, a town situated probably in the S. E. of the Dead Sea (cf. Genesis 19:22): and hence this clause, as it stands, must be connected with “the Plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where,” the intervening clauses being parenthetical. Another reading, “Zoan,” found in the Syriac Peshitto, would connect the clause with the mention of Egypt, by specifying the fertile district of the famous city of Tanis on the east of the Nile Delta.

10. Lot… beheld all the plain of Jordan — λλψ, here rendered plain, means the region around, or circuit; ηπεριχωρος, Matthew 3:5.