Commentary on Genesis (chapters 17–20)
Commentary on Genesis
continued
Chapter 17
Genesis 17:1
After he had turned ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, "I am the Almighty God; walk before me and be perfect. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and I will greatly multiply you exceedingly." Hence, the name of Abraham is amplified at the age of one hundred years, the covenant of circumcision is given, and the promise of the birth of Isaac is made, so that in a great mystery, a one-hundred-year-old receives the son of promise already circumcised. He walks before the Lord to be able to be perfect, who every moment remembers himself to be standing in the sight of the Divinity and as if placed in his service; as Elias, who said, "The Lord lives, in whose sight I stand" (1 Kings 17:1); he always indicated that he kept himself prepared for divine service, having the presence of his Creator in mind; and because the first step of perfection is humility, it is rightly added:
Genesis 17:3
Abram fell face down. We read that in the earlier places of sacred history, holy men invoked the Lord, offered him sacrifices of praise, and lived innocently in his sight, but none had fallen face down before the Lord before Abram. However, the more superior gifts he received compared to the previous ones, the greater thanks he gave to the Giver of gifts by humbling himself; and because in falling to the ground he humbly recalled his fragility, he immediately deserved to sublimely recognize the eminence of divine power. For it follows:
Genesis 17:4
And God said to him: I am, and my covenant is with you. For what is it for the Lord to say: I am, if not to clearly declare the state of his eternity, in which he is always the same? About which the Psalm also says: But you are the same (Psalm 102:28). This place harmonizes with the Gospel where the Lord said to the Jews: Before Abraham was, I am (John 8:58). For appearing in the flesh, he taught that he himself was the one who had once appeared to Abraham in spirit, when he repeated to the Jews the same testimony of his essence that he had given to Abraham; but the Jews were troubled because they had heard: Before Abraham was, I am; yet Abraham rejoiced when he heard: I am, and did not doubt that God existed before he did; hence, because he faithfully heard the word of divine eternity, he received in the increase of reward that he would be called and be the father of many nations. Moreover, the Jews, because they could not grasp the mysteries of divinity they'd heard, were cast out from the lineage of Abraham, and were counted among the offspring of vipers: Finally, they took up stones to throw at him; but he hid himself from them, and went out of the temple (John 8:59), so that, evidently hidden from their stony hearts, and going out, he would come to reveal to the Gentiles the knowledge of his majesty. For even then having gone out of the temple, he restored sight to the man born blind. Evidently as a figure of grace, with which he was to enlighten the hearts of the Gentiles. It follows:
Genesis 17:5
And you will be the father of many nations, and your name will no longer be called Abram, but you will be called Abraham, because I have made you the father of many nations. Because blessed Abraham left his kin and his father's house at the command of the Lord, he received deservedly also in this gift of reward to exist as the father of many nations; indeed of so many, that not only those who came from his seed according to the flesh, but also those who deriving their origin of flesh elsewhere, would follow the footsteps of his faith and obedience, as the Apostle writes to the Romans with full exposition. It should be known that Abram means Exalted Father, but Abraham means Father of Many, so it is understood, of many nations. [Genesis 17:7] -- And I will establish my covenant between me and you, and between your seed after you in their generations with an everlasting covenant; that I may be your God and the God of your seed after you. The old translation has: And I will establish my testament. It should be noted, however, that wherever we read "testament" in Greek, in the Hebrew language it is "covenant" or "pact," that is, "berith." It is not surprising, then, that the testament or covenant of God is with Abraham and his seed in an everlasting covenant, that He may be their God: because indeed this covenant will be preserved throughout the entire duration of this life without any interruption in the generations of the chosen following in succession, and will be celebrated without any end in the future age. What follows, however, is:
Genesis 17:8
And I will give to you and to your seed after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. It requires a more laborious exposition on how it should be understood as fulfilled or still expected to be fulfilled, since any earthly possession cannot be eternal for any nation. But it should be known that "eternal" is interpreted by our people as what the Greeks call "Aeonion," which is derived from "age." For in Greek "Aeon" is called an age. But the Latins did not dare to say "age-long," lest they send the meaning far off into something else. For many things are called "age-long" that are done in this age in such a way as to pass away in a short time. However, what is called "Aeonion" either has no end or extends to the end of this age. And therefore, as we said above, the land of Canaan is given as an everlasting possession to the seed of Abraham, because in it Christians, up to the end of this age, whether from the Jews or from the Gentiles, that is, the seed of Abraham, are believed never to be lacking.
Genesis 17:9–11
God said again to Abraham: And you shall therefore keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations; this is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised; and you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. The Lord, in His kind provision, first established the covenant of His grace with the blessed Abraham and his offspring; and then He requires of them the covenant of obedience: so that the labor of striving might be less terrifying when the reward of perpetual remuneration is heard first. Therefore, the foreskin of the flesh is commanded to be circumcised, as a sign of the covenant between God and men, so that by this sign the faithful of that time might be reminded to cleanse themselves from all pollution of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God; but also by a higher mystery, that carnal circumcision was done as a sign of the covenant between God and Abraham's offspring, because it was given as a sign of that covenant of which it was said above to Abraham: In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed; which no faithful person doubts pertains to the grace of the new testament. Therefore, in the sign of this covenant, no faithful person doubts that Abraham and his offspring were circumcised in the flesh of their foreskin, so that it might be typologically prefigured that one would be born from his seed who would cleanse his chosen ones from all stain of sins, and grant them perpetual blessing; to the sacrament of which cleansing aptly corresponds what follows:
Genesis 17:12
A child of eight days shall be circumcised among you. For on the eighth day, that is, after the Sabbath, the Lord rose from the dead, in whose passion and resurrection we are baptized, absolved from the oldness of faults, as if we are renewed by spiritual circumcision; the Apostle explaining and saying: For as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death, therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death: so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life (Rom. VI, 3). This number can most fittingly correspond to the time of our resurrection, when we shall be clothed universally with the immortality of the flesh, which we laid down through death, and we shall suffer nothing of sin nor of corruption in the flesh. For our resurrection is also not incongruously figured by the number of the eighth day; because after the six ages of this world and the seventh of rest, that is, the rest of souls, which is now celebrated in another life, the future one will be. Therefore infants were commanded to be circumcised on the eighth day as a sign of the divine covenant to indicate mystically that all the elect by the grace of God would be absolved from all iniquities in this number, cleansed from all corruption of the flesh, and also freed from the very death that they incurred through the guilt of the first transgression.
Genesis 17:12
Every male among your generations, whether born in the house or bought with money, and whoever is not of your seed, shall be circumcised. This signifies that the grace of regeneration and immortality pertains to all the faithful, whether they derive their origin from the stock of Abraham or from another source of the flesh. [Genesis 17:13] -- And My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. By which covenant it is surely signified that I will clothe your flesh and soul together with perpetual renewal and immortality.
Genesis 17:14
A male whose foreskin's flesh has not been circumcised, that soul will be cut off from his people: because he has broken my covenant. By this sentence, the greater mystery of the same circumcision is revealed, which is not only a sign of renewal to come in Christ but also an abolition of the transgression committed in Adam; for what baptism now accomplishes through faith in Christ, circumcision accomplished from that time on the eighth day, which was a designation of Christ's resurrection; except that the entrance to the kingdom of heaven was not yet open to those circumcised, before the Lord, rising from death, unlocked the door of that same kingdom to all the elect by ascending to the heavens. For this reason, they were circumcised on the eighth day specifically; to signify that they would not truly be cleansed from all stain of vice except through the effect of the Lord's resurrection. However, it may raise a question how it is said, that soul will be cut off from his people, because he has broken my covenant, when there is no fault of the infant, whose soul, he said, will perish, nor has he himself broken the covenant of God, but those older who did not care to circumcise him; unless because even infants, not according to their own life's property, but according to the common origin of the human race, all broke the covenant of God in that one in whom all sinned. Therefore, since circumcision was a sign of regeneration, and not without reason the infant, on account of original sin, by which the first covenant of God was shattered, would be destroyed by generation unless liberation freed him; thus these divine words must be understood as if it were said: Whoever has not been regenerated, that soul will be cut off from his people, because he has broken the covenant of God; since in Adam, even he sinned with all.
Genesis 17:15
And the Lord said to Abraham: "You shall not call your wife Sarai, but Sarah, and I will bless her, and I will give you a son by her, whom I will bless, and he will become nations, and kings of peoples shall come from him. Here the promises about the calling of the gentiles in Isaac are more evident, that is, in the son of promise, which signifies grace, not nature, because a son is promised from an old man and a barren old woman. Although God also works in the natural course of procreation, where however the evident work of God is, with nature being corrupted and ceasing, grace is understood more evidently; and because this will happen not by generation, but by regeneration, therefore circumcision is now commanded. When a son was promised from Sarah, the names of the parents are also changed, everything resonates with newness, and the New Testament is foreshadowed in the Old. Sarai is interpreted as "My Princess," but Sarah as "Princess," and the reason for the change of the name is this: because she was previously called "My Princess," that is, the mother of one household only, but afterwards she is called "Princess" absolutely; for it follows:
Genesis 17:16
And I will give you a son by her, whom I will bless, and he will become nations, and kings of peoples shall come from him. And notably, not as we read in Greek: God said to Abraham, Your wife Sarai will no longer be called Sarai; in Hebrew it is, You will not call her name Sarai; that is, you will not call her My Princess: she is now to be the princess of all nations, wherefore the Apostle Peter, instructing the life of women, says: So once holy women also, who hoped in the Lord, adorned themselves, being subject to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, of whom you are daughters, doing good and not fearing any disturbance (1 Peter 3:5). [Genesis 17:17] -- Abraham fell on his face, and laughed, saying in his heart: "Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old, and will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" The laughter of Abraham is the exultation of one rejoicing, not the mockery of one disbelieving: those words which he said in his heart are not those of one doubting, but of one admiring; as testified also by the Apostle who, speaking of him, said: "He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform." (Romans 4:20).
Genesis 17:19
And the Lord said to Abraham: "Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac." Isaac is interpreted as Laughter, and it is not to be doubted that he was so called because when his birth was announced, Abraham laughed in his heart. This laughter fittingly signifies the joy of the New Testament, in which the children of the promise, with the Lord dwelling within them, shall rejoice forever. [Genesis 17:19] -- For what follows: "And I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him," etc. He says his seed in those who, by imitating the faith of Abraham, merit to hear from the Lord: "Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh" (Luke 6:21); to such as these the Apostle, joining himself, says: "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise" (Galatians 4:28). Specifically, however, the name Isaac, that is, laughter, which is born from the promise, fittingly applies to the Mediator between God and men, about whose birth an angel said to the shepherds: "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people" (Luke 2:10).
Genesis 17:24
He was ninety-nine years old when he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin, and Ishmael his son had completed thirteen years at the time of his circumcision. Therefore, Abraham was a hundred years old, and Ishmael was thirteen years old when they were circumcised: so that, after a year, when Isaac was born, Abraham was a hundred years old, and Ishmael was fourteen, that is, twice seven, years old? Indeed, in a great mystery: because evidently Isaac held the figure of the New Testament, and Ishmael of the Old Testament. For Isaac, when he was born, his father was a hundred years old, to signify that the grace of the New Testament would bring the children of his promise to the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom. Indeed, the number one hundred, as has often been said, in the arithmetical count, passes from the left to the right, and our heavenly mother Jerusalem is rightly marked by the right hand; for those to whom it is permitted to enter it will stand on the right hand of the Judge in the last examination. In the birth of the same Isaac, Ishmael had completed two weeks of years; evidently because of the sacrament of the Sabbath, which was observed in the Old Testament; so that in the fifteenth year, as if in the sign of the resurrection, that is, of the true circumcision, Isaac would be born;
where it would be typified because the passing legal observance given by Moses would be succeeded by grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ. Therefore, when Isaac, who prefigured the grace of the New Testament, was born, his elder brother Ishmael, who signified the Old Testament, had completed the number seven in his age; because the observance of the law, in which the Sabbath held the greatest place, was fit to be extended until the time of grace; but the same number seven is doubled concerning the perfection of the same sacrament; because the law of God desires us to be freed both from servile, that is, from evil works in the body, and from harmful thoughts in the mind. The number seven is doubled because the law commands rest for bodies to its followers in this life and promises rest for souls in the future life; when Isaac was born and the first year of his age began, Ishmael began his fifteenth year because, with the grace of the Gospel appearing, even the law itself, spiritually understood, was found to be full of heavenly sacraments and to have preached the glory of the resurrection; but when Isaac had grown up, at the command of Sarah, Ishmael with his mother was cast out, it should not be thought that the Old Testament is to be abolished by the succession of the New Testament;
but rather that the carnal observance of the law, with those who carnally, even while the grace of the Gospel shines, contend that it should be observed, ought to be expelled from the boundaries of the Church; but itself, understood in a spiritual sense, will lose neither a jot nor a tittle until all things are accomplished.
Chapter 18
Genesis 18:1
The Lord appeared to him in the valley of Mamre as he was sitting at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day, etc. This appearance of the Lord is considered to be more sacred than all the previous ones, in which He was seen so many times by the blessed Abraham. And rightly so, after receiving the sacrament of circumcision, after the name was amplified by which he was to be marked as the father of all nations, he came to know the more secret mysteries of God, of which, notably, not only circumcision but also the uncircumcised were to be participants. Rightly, the appearance in the valley of Mamre is remembered as having taken place. For Mamre, as we read above, was indeed an Amorite by race, but together with his brothers, he was allied with Abraham; hence the valley of Mamre aptly represents our humility, who, having derived fleshly origin from the nations, have Abraham as our father in spirit and faith. To whom the Apostle, drawing from Abraham both the origin of flesh and virtue, says: We announce to you eternal life, which was with the Father and appeared to us; what we have seen and heard, we declare to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us (1 John 1:2). And indeed in this reading, apart from the spiritual understanding, it greatly edifies the readers that Abraham, seeing unknown men, immediately ran to meet them as if to offer the grace of hospitality to strangers;
that he approached them humbly, worshipped on the ground, that he asked them to wait and accept his service, and hastily provided what they agreed to; and that he completed this not through servants and maidservants, but by himself and Sarah. It is indeed remarkable if, upon first seeing them, he did not believe they were men, why he would want to bring them water to wash their feet; how he would ask them to rest under a tree as if weary from walking; why he requested to strengthen their bodies with refreshment, as if they were laboring in fasting. If anyone seeks to investigate this reading more deeply, he will find it to be full of spiritual senses. For the fact that the Lord appeared to Abraham sitting at the entrance of his tent greatly suits both Abraham's devotion and that of all the heirs of the same promise, who testify that they are strangers and sojourners in this world but truly citizens of another life, that is, of the heavenly homeland. For we use tents in a journey or in war, but a house in our homeland, in which mystery, Isaac and Jacob are also read to have dwelled in tents. He who remains in the midst of his tent, knowing that he is a stranger and not destined to live forever in this world, and yet is not ashamed to engage himself as much as he can in the affairs and allurements of the world, remains.
But Abraham and his followers, who conduct the things of the world out of necessity and not out of pleasure, sit as if at the entrance of their tent, because they are ready to leave the world at any moment, always with a joyful mind stretched towards the future rewards and waiting for the entrance into the following life. And it is well added, in the heat of the day; for the heat of the day, in which Abraham was sitting at the entrance of his tent, signifies the virtue of love with which he was burning in his mind with respect towards the Sun of righteousness. And such a state of place and time was fitting for him who was to see the Lord and enjoy His conversation, in which both the sojourner of this world would be figuratively represented, and irradiated by the light of true heavenly grace, and zealously enflamed with the love of divine contemplation.
Genesis 18:2
And when he had lifted up his eyes, he saw three men standing near him; and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the door of the tent, and worshipped upon the ground, and said: Lord, if I have found grace in thy sight, do not pass by thy servant, etc. The fact that three men appeared to him is a mystery of the Holy Trinity; indeed, when he saw three, he worshipped one, and prayed to the Lord, because although there is a Trinity in persons, there is nevertheless one and co-adorable equality in divinity of the Lord, just as in Isaiah when the angelic hosts were singing the glory of the Holy Trinity, saying: Holy, Holy, Holy, they immediately add the unity of dominion and deity, saying: The Lord God Almighty, the whole earth is full of His glory. And it is fittingly said that Abraham lifted up his eyes to see the angels, because indeed it is necessary that one who wishes to see the citizens of heaven, who desires to know the glory and secrets of the Divine Majesty, should raise every gaze of his mind from lowly desires and with diligent intention open up to the light of the true Sun.
It is fittingly added that when he saw the angels, he ran to meet them, worshipping, and asked them not to pass him by, because it is necessary that whenever we conceive any taste of internal sweetness in our soul, we should immediately strive with all our prayers and prompt steps of good works, lest the same sweetness should leave us too quickly; but what is tasted for a time should refresh our minds somewhat longer by the memory of supernal sweetness and suspend them in the contemplation of eternal things, abstracted from the delights and cares of this world. It may perhaps move some that in this reading both Abraham and in the following Lot, having seen the angels, received them as guests as if they were men, and refreshed them with human food as if they were mortals, while yet they spoke with them as with God, and received their words no otherwise than as heavenly oracles. "But it is credible," as Saint Augustine says, "that both Abraham in the three men and Lot in the two men recognized the Lord; to whom they spoke with singular number, even when they considered them to be men. For they received them in no other way than as mortal men and ministered to them with human refreshment as if they were in need;
but surely there was something by which they so excelled, though as men, that in them the Lord was present as He is wont to be in prophets, so that those who offered them hospitality could not doubt; and therefore sometimes they called them in the plural, and at other times the Lord in the singular in them. Scripture testifies that they were angels, not only in this book of Genesis where these events are narrated, but also in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where, when hospitality was praised, it says: By this some, being unaware, entertained angels (Heb. XIII, 2). However, in this reception one can appropriately sense that it was divinely arranged so that the patriarchs, seeing angels, would receive them as men indeed but venerate them as God, so that through the distinction of such service and devotion it would be prefigured that in the future the Lord Himself, appearing in the flesh, would be satisfied with carnal foods and received in human hospitality. In which hospitality, however, He would more be devoted to preaching the gospel and healing the sick than to eating and drinking, as the gospel history often testifies. Finally, the interpreters of the sacred scriptures have understood this place as accomplishing what the Lord said to the Jews: Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad (John VIII, 56).
He saw indeed the day of the Lord, when seeing the three angels, he worshipped one, and addressed the Lord, because in the distinction of the three persons, he recognized the essence of one majesty.
Genesis 18:5
He refreshed them with the feasts that were prepared because he understood that from his seed would be born the one who, although he is God before the ages, consubstantial with the Father, appearing at the end of the ages as a true man, would truly dwell among men; the food with which he refreshed them is also full of spiritual sacraments, of which it is thus remembered: [Genesis 18:6] -- Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said to her: "Hurry, mix three measures of fine meal, and make cakes upon the hearth." And he himself ran to the herd, and took a tender and good calf and gave it to the servant, who hastened and cooked it. Where it is firstly to be noted that everything is done quickly, as if in the service of divine reception; Abraham hastens, he orders Sarah to hurry, the servant quickly completes the assigned task, so that it becomes clearly evident that blessed Abraham truly, according to the voice of the Lord, rejoiced to see his day, and he saw it and was glad (John 8:56). But also all who are touched in soul by the regard of divine grace immediately leap with joyful steps of good works and thoughts into the service of the heavenly will, and with diligent exhortation provoke themselves and those who hear them to the speedy observance of the commandments of heaven.
Genesis 18:6
The flour that Sarah mixed to refresh the angels is the internal sweetness of God's word, which the prophet promises to the heavenly Jerusalem, that is, the holy Church, saying of the Lord: "He makes peace your borders, and fills you with the finest of the wheat" (Psalm 147:14). And immediately, explaining more clearly what the finest wheat is, he added: "He sends out his command to the earth. Now there are three measures of this same flour because in the sacred Scripture there is a threefold sense of understanding, namely the historical, the allegorical, and the anagogical; for example: "Lord, I have loved the beauty of your house" (Psalm 26:8); according to history, he desired the beauty of the house which Solomon made for the Lord to remain inviolate, being praised by his people in it. According to allegory, he desired the beauty of the holy Church to shine throughout the whole world, to whom the Apostle says: "For you are the temple of God" (2 Corinthians 6:16). According to anagogy, that is, the sense leading to higher things, he desired to see the beauty of the heavenly homeland, that is, the house not made with hands but eternal in the heavens. The Lord also mentions this threefold measure in the gospel parable, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.
For the evangelical leaven the woman hid in the three measures of flour to leaven the whole, when the holy Church, which Sarah signifies in this place, either preaches history in the Scriptures, reveals allegory, or lifts up the eye of its exposition to contemplate higher things. It always instills the power of either the Lord's or fraternal charity in its words. And no one should think they have rightly understood Scripture in which they have not found the institution of charity. A "measure" was a type of measurement among the Palestinians, holding one and a half bushels.
Genesis 18:6
But the fact that Sarah makes bread under the ashes is very relevant. Bread baked under the ashes, while being baked, is indeed cooked with fire and lies hidden in the darkness, but only the ash that accumulates on top is visible to the eyes of onlookers. However, when they are baked, the ash is removed, and the clean bread is presented before the faces of those who will eat, because the words of the Lord have been tested by fire, namely the Holy Spirit, through whom the scripture itself was made. Sometimes, however, the style's baseness and simplicity contain so much knowledge in themselves that the spiritual fervor and celestial nourishment within them are not easily apparent; but when the veil of the letter is removed through the preacher's ministry and the sweetness of the spiritual sense is revealed to the hearts of the listeners, just like shaking off the ash, the sweetest bread is offered to refresh the faithful.
Genesis 18:7
The tender and excellent calf that Abraham took from the herd signifies the Mediator between God and humans, whom the most merciful Father killed for his returning younger son, that is, the Gentile people, according to the parable of the Gospel. He is the tender and excellent calf taken singularly to be slain and cooked for the citizens of heaven because he alone from the entire human race was specially chosen, whose blood would redeem the world, and through whom all things on earth and in heaven are restored in him, as the Apostle says. This calf is rightly called tender and excellent. For what is as tender and excellent as He who humbled Himself for our elevation: Becoming obedient to the Father unto death, even death on the cross? [Genesis 18:8] -- He also took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had cooked, and set it before them. By the milk, the beginnings and as it were the elements of the Mosaic law; by the butter, the perfection of evangelical doctrine; by the milk, the simplicity of the letter in the Scriptures, by the butter, the virtue of the mystical sense which is usually generated from the letter, is expressed. Or certainly, the milk indicates the beginning of faith, the butter indicates the perfection of the work which is created from faith. All of which Abraham placed before the men whom he had received, to signify that the sons of promise would always offer spiritual feasts to the Lord, namely the breads of holy readings, the calf of the Lord's Incarnation, the milk of faith or historical perfection, the butter of good senses or good works, where it is well added:
Genesis 18:8
But he himself stood by them under the tree, because certainly we should so feed the Lord with the feasts of faith and virtues by good living, that is, delight Him, so that we always remember to stand in His presence, according to the saying of Blessed Elijah: "The Lord lives, in whose sight I stand" (3 Kings 17:1). And as the Psalmist says: "In the sight, I will sing to you among the angels" (Psalm 138:1). And this under the tree of the Lord's passion, saying with the Apostle: "But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:14).
Genesis 18:9
And when they had eaten, they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife? He answered, “Behold, she is in the tent. Then he said, “I will return to you at this time next year, if life be with us, and Sarah your wife shall have a son. Both indeed the lords of the house, and evidently Abraham and Sarah, prepared with the utmost haste a meal; but as if in a well-ordered house, Abraham, with the meals prepared, more boldly approached the Lord; Sarah, with womanly fear and modesty, restrained herself in the tent, in fact behind the tent door, and no longer dared to approach, but listened from within to what her husband spoke with the Lord. Therefore, since she was both devoted to God and well subjected to her husband, she heard the joy of childbirth which she greatly desired; not indeed any childbirth, but that in which both she in the future and all nations would receive a blessing. And well, after the angels had eaten, they promised a son to their hosts, because when the Lord has accepted the meals of our good work and faith, he rewards us with the grace of his blessing. But the angels ate, or rather seemed to have eaten, as holy Raphael explained to Tobias, to signify the mystery of the Lord’s Incarnation, in which he, the Angel of Great Counsel, was to eat as a man, not only visibly appearing, but even sitting at the table of men and eating;
but they, as the same Raphael said, used invisible food, that is, which cannot be seen by men living in the flesh, namely the joy of contemplation; of which also the Lord in the Gospel: “For their angels,” he says, “always see the face of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 18:10); for they always see, that is, even when they come outside to us to minister something; it is credible, moreover, that the food which they ate, as soon as it touched their spiritual or ethereal body, was consumed like water thrown into a burning flame, and not like water poured into dry land to refresh their bodies, as happens to us when we eat.
Genesis 18:11
They were both old and advanced in years, and it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. To highlight the growth of heavenly power, he says that both were old, and moreover that Sarah, having been barren, was now also deprived of her menstrual blood, because of which she could no longer conceive, even if she had not been barren. Further, if a woman is of such an advanced age that the usual flow of women still occurs to her, she can conceive from a young man, but not from an old man; although the old man can still beget from a young woman, as Abraham, after Sarah's death, was able to beget from Keturah, because he found her age to be vigorous; this therefore is what the Apostle clearly commends when he says: "He believed against hope in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to what was said to him: Thus shall your offspring be; and not weakening in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead, being about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb; in the promise of God he did not doubt" (Romans 4:18). For this reason he says that Abraham's body was already dead, because he could still beget from any woman who still had some final period of time left for bearing children at that age: we must understand the body as dead for some purposes, not for all; for if for all, then it is not the old age of the living, but the corpse of the dead.
Genesis 18:12
Who laughed secretly, saying: After I have grown old and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure? The Apostle Peter recalls this sentence when, admonishing women to obey their husbands, he added: "As Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord." It seems, however, similar to this passage what is read about Abraham above, for when he heard about Sarah's childbirth, he fell on his face and laughed in his heart, saying: Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child? And he added, speaking to God: Oh that Ishmael might live before you! But since the Apostle says that Abraham did not waver in unbelief, but Sarah did hesitate, the following word of the Lord clarifies, saying to Abraham: [Genesis 18:12] -- Why did Sarah laugh, saying: "Shall I indeed bear a child, old as I am?" It remains to be understood that when she heard that Sarah would bear a son, Abraham had previously laughed in wonder with joy, and Sarah herself subsequently doubted in joy; whose doubt, nevertheless, was immediately removed when the reason for divine power was given, as the angel said to him:
Genesis 18:14
"Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son. With this statement heard, all doubt was so removed, and her faith so confirmed, that the Apostle rightly says of her: "By faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive. But when he says "I will return to you," and added "with life as a companion," he speaks in a human manner, as if he were to say: "If life is a companion. But it should be understood more deeply that the angels always converse with life as a companion either in heaven or descend to earth, certainly with that life that says: "For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself; by whose vision and enlightenment the angels and holy men are perpetually blessed. Indeed, this place seems comparable by contrast with the deeds of the first man; for after his transgression, he did not see the Lord God but is said to have heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden; here, the future blessing's faith, hope, and love inflamed he saw the Lord standing, because surely with this he was to remain, the contemplation of divine clarity having departed from him. Hearing the voice of the Lord God, trembling he hid himself because he truly blushed at his error.
Here, having seen the Lord, he immediately joyfully ran, believing that by the merit of obedience he had pleased Him. He on the cool of the day, this one at the very heat of the day; because this one burned with the fire of divine love, the other by sinning had driven away the light of divine protection and love from himself. This one receives and entertains the Lord as a guest, to show with the carnal feast provided that he would foster Him with spiritual feasts in his heart by living devoutly, according to what the Lord Himself promised about His lovers: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me" (Revelation 3:20). The other, that is, the first man, who ate what was forbidden, lost those delights which he could have had perpetually in the presence of the Lord and His angels, also being visibly excluded from the tree of life so that it might be openly shown that he had lost the incorruptible fruit of wisdom, which he used to enjoy invisibly. And because the blessed Abraham by the merit of pious devotion had already tasted the fruit of wisdom and life, which is Christ, rightly he is said to have seen and received the Lord standing under a tree.
There Eve, having abandoned the fear of God, having neglected her husband's counsel, rashly approached the serpent, in which the devil was speaking, by whom she was deceived into eating what was forbidden, and also made her husband complicit in her transgression; for which reason, receiving the sentence of just condemnation with her husband, she heard among other things: "In pain you shall bring forth children" (Genesis 3:16); and first she bore Cain, the cursed son and fratricide. Here Sarah, submitted to the fear of God, following likewise the religious faith and deeds of her husband, awaited at home the Lord's appearance until her husband came and learned what should be done; but also with the dishes prepared for the Lord's reception, she nevertheless modestly remained at home and rejoiced in having her husband go ahead with them to the Lord and offer the gifts of her devotion and his own. Therefore both received the reward of their kindness with a promised offspring; and not just any offspring, but indeed the one in whom all nations would be blessed. And rightly so, for there the guilt of transgression was punished with due retribution in the first Adam; here the time of redemption through the second Adam was both foreshadowed and prepared. It follows:
Genesis 18:16
When the men got up from there, they directed their eyes toward Sodom, and Abraham was walking with them to see them on their way. When it is said that the men got up from there, it is shown that while they were sitting, Abraham was standing and ministering to them, although he had initially seen them standing. They directed their eyes toward Sodom so that just as they rewarded the faith of blessed Abraham with joyful promises, they would destroy the faithlessness of the impious city with avenging flames, according to what the Psalmist said, who after proclaiming the Lord's mercy toward the holy: "The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are attentive to their cries" (Psalm 34:16), immediately added His severity in the punishment of the wicked: "But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to blot out their name from the earth" (v. 17). But that Abraham walked with the angels to see them on their way, he is believed to have done from the custom of devoted hospitality; but blessed were those steps by which a man was deemed worthy to walk with angels on earth, and to lead them who had come to visit him back to heaven; now blessed are those lives that follow the angelic way of life on earth, by living soberly, righteously, piously, and chastely, and by always, as much as mortal is possible, devoting themselves to divine praises. Truly, blessed Abraham, because he so joyfully received the Lord coming, that he cared to see them off as if they were household members, deserved to know higher secrets of divine works; who, understanding himself the strictness of the forthcoming divine retribution on the world, as he had previously shown himself devoted to God in receiving guests, so afterward he showed himself solicitous for his neighbors by interceding for them.
Genesis 18:20
The Lord therefore said: "The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah has been multiplied, and their sin has become very grave." He calls the outcry of Sodom the reputation or rather the infamy of their crimes, from which the Apostle, admonishing us, says: "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and blasphemy, be put away from you, with all malice" (Ephesians 4:31). To this clamor indeed is opposed the clamor of the elect, who confidently supplicating their Creator, individually say: "Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you" (Psalm 102:2). Indeed, great is their clamor, a sublime merit and the intention of faith seeking heavenly things alone, where Christ sits at the right hand of God; since they do not desire earthly riches, nor vain and perishable glory, nor the fleeting joys of the flesh, but only heavenly goods, everything they do is surely lofty and, as it were, resonates with a clamor. But with the multiplied outcry of sins, that is, their enormous crime, let us see what follows.
Genesis 18:21
"I will go down," he says, "and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry which has come to me; and if not, I will know." Therefore, when the Lord said that he would go down to see whether the same outcry was true, he did not show his ignorance, who possesses the knowledge of all things, but instructs our rashness, lest we presume to blame the deeds of others before we learn perfectly; which He also teaches us in the construction of the tower, where it is written that the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of Adam had built; for what would He not see from heaven to earth, of whom it is written that "Hell is naked before Him, and there is no covering for perdition"? [Genesis 18:23] -- And they turned themselves from there and went towards Sodom; but Abraham still stood before the Lord, and approaching he said: Will you indeed destroy the righteous with the wicked? If fifty righteous are in the city, will they perish along with the rest, until he said: If ten are found there; and the Lord said: I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten. It is read further that two angels came to Sodom and were received by Lot; hence it seems likely that at this place two angels departed from Abraham, and he spoke with the one who remained with him, interceding for the perishing city. In which intercession, the humility of the blessed Abraham is especially to be considered, who, although he was esteemed so highly by God that he received Him as a familiar guest and interceded with Him as if with a friend of one mind for others, nevertheless in his own estimation he remained vile and despicable; hence in his second prayer he says to Him:
Genesis 18:27
Since I have begun, I will speak to my Lord, though I am but dust and ashes. By this word he clearly rebukes our pride, we who are far distant from the height of his merits, far removed from divine conversation due to our slowness and inertia, nevertheless inflated with the pride of arrogance, do not recall that we are destined to be dust and ashes; for blessed Abraham, the closer he approached the purity of the divine vision, the more certainly he dispersed and cast away the weaknesses of his own frailty. But we, who are excluded from the gaze of inner clarity by the cloud of our own depravity, the less we lament the darkness of misery inherent in us, the more we are accustomed to see nothing but these.
Chapter 19
Genesis 19:1
And the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, while Lot was sitting at the gates of the city. Not without cause, the angels who had come to Abraham at midday are reported to have come to Sodom in the evening, because they came to announce prosperity and joy to the former, but to bring adversity to the latter; he was burning with the fruit of light towards heavenly things, but this one, besieged by the darkness of vices, was approaching eternal perdition. [Genesis 19:1] -- When he saw them, he rose, and went to meet them; he bowed down with his face to the ground and said: I beg you, my lords, turn aside to your servant's house and stay there, and so on. In blessed Lot a great and perfect example of godly hospitality is shown, who, seeing the guests entering the city, was not only prepared to meet and welcome them but also persistently asked them to turn aside to his house and rest with him. At first, they refused to enter his house, but eventually, at his urging, agreed to do so, so that they might more thoroughly test his hospitality's diligence and more worthily reward it, delivering him from the destruction of the sinners along with his house.
Genesis 19:4
But before they lay down, the men of the city, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house; and they called to Lot and said to him: Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them, etc. This is what the prophet Isaiah said about the exceedingly sinful people of Israel: They proclaim their sin like Sodom, they do not hide it (Isaiah 3:9). Indeed, they proclaimed their sin like the Sodomites, they did not hide it, for without any sense of shame, all, from youth to extreme old age, used to practice abominations with men; so much so that they did not even hide their crimes from guests and strangers and sought to make them alike in crime by force and to involve them in their wicked deeds. [Genesis 19:8] -- Indeed, when they [the men of Sodom] were raging to commit such a crime, Lot says among other things: "I have two daughters who have not yet known a man. I will bring them out to you, and you may abuse them as it pleases you, provided that you do nothing evil to these men." Because he wanted to offer his daughters as a form of compensation so that his male guests would not suffer such an outrage from the Sodomites, it is rightly questioned whether such a compensation of crimes or any sins should be admitted, that we might do something evil in order to prevent another from doing a greater evil, or whether it should rather be attributed to the disturbance of Lot’s mind rather than his intention, since he said this; indeed, this compensation is most perilously admitted; but if it is attributed to human disturbance and a mind disturbed by such great evil, it should in no way be imitated.
Genesis 19:11
And behold, the men reached out their hands and brought Lot to them and closed the door, and they struck with blindness those who were outside, from the least to the greatest, so that they could not find the door. And the rest is up to the point that Lot said to his sons-in-law: "Get up, leave this place, for the Lord will destroy this city," and he seemed to be speaking jestingly. That the angels closed Lot's door, so that neither he nor anyone from his house could be taken by the Sodomites to destruction, clearly indicates that none of God's elect will be lost to the impiety and persecution of the reprobates, as the Lord says about his sheep: "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:28). That Lot, having the authority given by the angels, could not bring back to salvation any of the wicked citizens, not even his own relatives or friends, even though he tried very much, signifies that no human effort can add even one soul to the number of the predestined, who were chosen by the Lord before the foundation of the world; for the Lord knows who are his own. Indeed, although the weakness of our condition may hide from us the fate of those who belong to the lot of the elect, we must not cease from caring about our own salvation, nor should we be silent in instructing our neighbors. But, following the example of the blessed Lot, we ought to live chastely and devote ourselves to the correction of those who err, for it is certain that even though we cannot save those predestined to destruction, we do not lose the reward of our kindness, which we extend toward their salvation.
Genesis 19:16
And they led him out and placed him outside the city. There he spoke to him: "Save your soul, do not look back, nor stay in any region around, but save yourself on the mountain, lest you also perish together. Generally, indeed, the fire and destruction of Sodom, from which Lot was rescued, designates the punishment of ultimate severity; when, with the completion at the end of the age of the total number of the elect, all the impious will be seized into eternal fire, the Lord explaining, who said: "Similarly as it happened in the days of Lot, they ate and drank, bought and sold, planted and built; but the day Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all. So will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed" (Luke 17:28). To which the apostle Jude also attests, saying: "Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 7). However, the same fire of Sodom can also, not incongruously, suggest the flames of the vices with which the reprobate are burned in this life and are thus prepared for eternal fire; who, although they now do not cease to burn with earthly desires and carnal allurements, then will never cease to burn with the fire of vengeance. This sense, too, the Lord affirms, indeed even teaches, who says:
"In that hour, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away; and likewise, let the one who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot's wife" (Luke 17:31). For we are not taught that in the approaching moment of the final judgment, deserting the peak of upright conduct, we should turn our mind to the depths of worldly desire; or, leaving the plow of spiritual agriculture, that we should look back, when no further correction of our works remains to us, but rather the reckoning of what we have worked is at hand. Rather, indeed, as judgment approaches, the faithful are given this exhortation, to persist in good and wholesome beginnings, lest, repeating the contagions of sins which they had left behind, they imitate Lot's wife, who, when she looked back heedlessly at the sulfurous burning Sodom, was turned into a pillar of salt. Therefore, as the Lord forbids us from imitating Lot's wife, he certainly shows that the burning of the city, to which she had looked back, expresses the flames of vices which we are both able and ought to avoid. Hence now the exhortation of the angels, by which they had admonished Lot, who was led out of Sodom, not to look back, nor to stay in any region around, but to seek the mountain to be saved, must be spiritually understood and followed with the utmost intention by us;
lest we carelessly repeat the ardor and incentives of the vices we seemed to have momentarily escaped, nor consent to remain, as much as possible, in the vicinity of sinners, lest by their example we deviate from the rectitude of our path, as the Psalmist says of the blessed man: "And he does not stand in the way of sinners" (Psalm 1:1), but we should quickly strive to ascend to the height of elevated conduct.
Genesis 19:19
And Lot said to them: "Please, my lord, because your servant has found favor before you, and you have magnified your mercy, which you have done with me, to save my life, I cannot be saved in the mountain, lest some evil overtake me. There is a city nearby to which I can flee, a small one, and I will be saved there." Blessed Lot did not seek the protection of the nearby city as if he feared some plague would overtake him if he reached the mountain; rather, he desired to turn to the nearby city with this intention, lest while seeking the height of the mountain, which was farther away, he would be consumed by the flame threatening nearby the impious on the way. [Genesis 19:21] -- And he said to him: "Behold, I have also accepted your request in this matter, that I will not overthrow the city you have spoken of, etc." Oh, how great is the compassion of divine mercy! Not only does it deliver the just man from the destruction of the wicked, but it also grants life to many of them on account of the same just man's safety, which they did not deserve, so that it might show in those who perished what impiety deserved, and in those who remained how much the intercession of the pious prevailed with God.
Genesis 19:22
Therefore, the name of that city was called Segor. Segor is interpreted as "Little," which for this reason was so called because Lot had said, "Is it not small?" Previously it was called Bale, as mentioned above: "Against the king of Bale, this is Segor." Bale is interpreted as "devour," which the Hebrews say was called such because it was swallowed up by a third earthquake. But just as Sodom burns with the flames of vices, and the mountain to which Lot is ordered to ascend indicates the summit of virtues, so Segor designates a certain lesser mode of good behavior; although it is far from the heights of the perfect, it is still separated from the contagion of the wicked. For example, one who rightly keeps a conjugal life escapes the sulfurous flame of fornication but does not yet ascend the mountain of continence; he who turns his hand and mind away from rapine and avarice, and is accustomed to give what he has to the poor, cannot yet leave everything behind. He indeed escapes the fire of the Sodomites, enters the walls of the small city where he avoids the danger of destruction, but has not yet ascended the fortress of virtue where he would already shine as perfect, and other such things.
Genesis 19:23–25
The sun rose upon the earth, and Lot entered Zoar; then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities and all the surrounding region. The sunrise upon the earth, at which Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown, marks the manifestation of the final judgment, when, after all the righteous have been rescued, the wicked will be suddenly overwhelmed by destruction. And surely it was rightly done by the judgment of God that those who had tried to snare the blessed Lot in the darkness of night, laboring much and resisting with their crimes, when day suddenly came upon them, saw him rescued while they themselves perished entirely; and they who had burned with vile pleasures of the flesh in darkness, were consumed with sulfur and fire once morning suddenly appeared, because all who serve vices secretly in the blindness of their minds are openly struck in the knowledge of their crime by the stern judge. Also, it should be noted that on one and the same night while Lot was rejoicing with the Lord as his guest and was being defended from enemies, the Sodomites were laboring to accumulate their crimes, even desecrating Lot with his guests; but at sunrise, Lot was liberated for his righteousness, and they were condemned for their impiety, because indeed in the night of this world holy people also rejoice in welcoming Him who said: 'Behold, I will come and dwell in the midst of you' (Zech.
x, 11), and in Revelation: 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me' (Rev. iii, 20). And the wicked seek to corrupt either the works of the faithful or the very faith itself with their temptations; but when the morning of the future age appears, they receive the crown of life, and the others incur the punishment of perpetual death. The Sodomites therefore perish with a punishment worthy of their crimes. For since they led an impious life in the filth of luxury and the burning of lust, they are deservedly punished with flames of fire and the stench of sulfur. Nor should it be doubted that by such punishment they were not only condemned to present suffering but are also to be condemned perpetually, as the apostle John says: 'But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone' (Rev. xxi, 2). The punishment and retribution are therefore made equal to the kinds of sins, according to the saying of the wise man, interpreting the plagues of the Egyptians: 'That they might know, that by the same things wherewith a man sins, by the same also he is tormented' (Wis. xi, 17), just as the blessed Lot deserved to be freed according to the mode of life he led;
for since he was hospitable, it happened that he was saved from destruction by receiving good guests. Nor should it be doubted that after death he was received into eternal tabernacles by these same guests; so that he who introduced the citizens of heaven into his own lodging and refreshed them with his feasts would himself be led by them into the heavenly dwellings, where he would be perpetually refreshed with the bread of angels, that is, the glory of the vision of divine brightness. And as it is said that the Lord rained sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven, the person of the Father and the Son is clearly distinguished, and the heresy of Sabellius is repudiated, which says that the Father is the same as the Son. The Lord rained from the Lord, the Son from the Father; hence it is also elsewhere said to the Father: 'You have made all things in wisdom' (Ps. 104:24), that is, in the Son. Similar to this is what the Psalmist says, describing the two persons of the Father and the Son in such a way that he nevertheless indicates one divinity in the two persons: 'Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom; you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness, therefore God, your God, has anointed you' (Ps. 45:6-7). 'Your throne, O God,' is said to God the Son; 'God, your God, has anointed you,' he adds concerning God the Father.
Genesis 19:26
And his wife, looking back, was turned into a pillar of salt. This indeed must be believed to have happened literally. Finally, Josephus reports that even up to his time the same pillar of salt had endured at the gates of the same city. And indeed, the wife, out of fear due to her feminine frailty at the sudden clamoring of the perishing and the crashing of the flames falling from the sky, looked back; but it nonetheless holds their figure in this infirmity, who, once renouncing the world and beginning the arduous journey of virtues, suddenly return with an unstable and almost feminine heart to the desires of the world they had forsaken; about whom the apostle Peter says: "It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them" (2 Peter 2:21); as, conversely, Lot, who left behind everything he possessed that was destined to perish with the sinners, suggests those who truly renounce the world, and regret not their renunciation; those whom also the blessed Noah, who left behind all his possessions to be destroyed by the floods with the reprobates, just as [Lot] did with the fire, clearly denotes; but the fact that the wife of Lot, when she turned away from the path which the Lord showed, perished and was turned into a pillar of salt;
aptly signifies that those who deviate from the way of truth by returning to sins perish in their own depravity; yet by the example of their perdition they leave behind, as it were, a seasoning of wisdom for others, so that those remembering their destruction may guard themselves more cautiously and circumspectly in the purpose of righteousness they have taken up. Finally, the Lord, warning the faithful not to abandon the path of faith they have begun, employs for them, as it were, a rock of salt that they may more sweetly savor His words, when He says among other things: "Remember Lot's wife" (Luke 17:32). Therefore, anyone who desires to escape the fire of vices, which is the final judgment, must forget what is past and always strive towards the joys of divine promise that lie ahead.
Genesis 19:30
Lot went up from Zoar and stayed on the mountain with his two daughters. He had feared to stay in Zoar. He hurried to ascend the mountain from Zoar because he recognized that this was more pleasing to the angels through whom he was rescued, fearing that the city which at the moment of his intercession had escaped the danger of death might later, due to the citizens' sins, be consumed with a similar destruction as the neighboring cities; he feared greatly, since he knew that it had been frequently devastated by earthquakes in earlier times, hence it was called Bela, that is, 'submerging' or 'devouring.' But also according to spiritual understanding, because Sodom represents the flames of vices, Zoar a small beginning of good works, and the mountain the height of virtues, it is necessary that when someone has moved from the fire of vices to the beginning of virtue, they should not remain sluggish at the outset, but should always strive and hurry with a lively step toward higher progress in good action.
Genesis 19:32
And the elder said to the younger: Our father is old, and there is no man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth; come, let us make him drink wine, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed from our father. And it was related how the daughters of Lot, by making him drunk with wine, lay with him, and conceived and bore Moab and Ammon, the patriarchs of the Moabites and the Ammonites. This story indeed seems to be against the natural custom of human conception, but it cannot be doubted as a fact, because such great authority reports it to have happened. Lot can be seen as excusable, because he suffered such a crime of incest unknowingly rather than committed it; but he is not excused in that, forgetting the recent extermination of the impious, he indulged in wine so much that he could not perceive what was being done to him. The daughters also seem excusable, because they did not commit incest with their father due to lust; but because they believed no men were left on earth, thinking all had been consumed by the same fiery punishment; and they suspected that just as after the flood the human race was restored through the three sons of Noah and as many daughters-in-law, now through themselves and their father, who alone had survived the fires, it must be restored anew;
thus they thought it should be done rather in sleep, lest the father, knowing such a marriage, would shun and reject it in scorn. So they can thus seem excusable, for they believed they were performing an act of obedience to divine disposition; but they are not excused in that they neither sought the will or counsel of their father in such a matter, nor waited for time to pass until they could learn more certainly what had happened regarding the human race throughout the earth. In a moral sense, we can understand from this event that no state of earthly habitation, however exalted it may appear, can be free from the contagion of tempting guilt. For behold, the blessed Lot escaped the stinking flames of Sodom, avoided the ruin of the equally sinful city of Zohar, and ascended the peak of a mountain; but where you might think him positioned in the lofty summit of virtues, there you see him, by night, drunk and suddenly defiled by his daughters, because it often happens that those who have conquered other temptations of vice through the enlightenment of heavenly grace, again succumb weakly to others through the inertia of their own weakness. For the assistance of angelic guidance signifies heavenly aid by which we are freed from the dangers of sin; while the daughters of blessed Lot represent even the carnal thoughts of exalted men, which by neglect sometimes subdue them; so that from a pious heart an unworthy word or deed, like nefarious offspring, is conceived.
Nor is it to be doubted that the sons born to Lot by his daughters, who begot Gentile peoples and alien to the faith of their father, represent those works of the saints which do not pertain to the rule of holiness, but rather to the depravity of the wicked; such was the adultery of David, the arrogance of King Hezekiah, the rash march of King Josiah to the battle in which he would perish and subsequently betray the Davidic kingdom to enemies; and then the denial of the most blessed prince of the apostles. The times so often correspond with events; for Lot, who had been rescued from Sodom at dawn, was drunk and deceived at night, because of course what saves us from dangers is the grace of God illuminating us; what makes us relapse into vices is our own blindness and weakness. Moab and Ammon are born of Lot's daughters, who also signify sins, as testified by that law's commandment which says: The Moabite and Ammonite shall not enter into the Church of the Lord until the third and fourth generation, and forever, because errors and vices, as we said, of the elect are by no means counted among the virtues by which the Church is perfected and adorned, but are rather covered by an abundance of good works so as not to appear. But the names of Lot's sons, the first of whom is interpreted as "from the father," and the second "my people," are fittingly applied to the nature of vices;
which I find divinely implanted not from the Creator God in us, but originating from the first cause of our condition. I call Ammon also "my people," because this also pertains to me, and I recognize that it is not to be ascribed to the Creator of natures. Behold it should be noted that the people are properly interpreted as merosus (rebellious). My people are called Ammon even if this too does not differ from the significance of sins. For just as we should rejoice in the fruit of virtues that are given to us by the Lord, so it is necessary that we be pricked with salutary sorrow at the emergence of vices, which is known to arise from the corruption of our nature. And these are indeed the sons of Lot conceived in incest. But Isaac, who was born of the promise and is interpreted as Joy, designates the grace of virtues.
Chapter 20
Genesis 20:1
Abraham departed from there to the southern land, lived between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar. That Abraham came to the southern land suggests a celestial progress of the mind through his earthly journey, by which he always used to ascend to more perfect works of virtues, as did the other saints. The southern land, being nearer to the light and heat of the sun, often indicates that life of the faithful which, shedding the stupor of worldly desire, used to be renewed more and more daily by the inner light of heavenly love. And Abraham, having destroyed Sodom, sought the southern land, since each chosen person, witnessing the destruction of the wicked, more devotedly girds himself in the service of his Creator so that having been inwardly granted to transcend the perdition of the wicked, he might merit to partake eternally in the joys of the good. "When the scourge is inflicted, the little one will become more prudent. The following words, too, which state that Abraham lived between Kadesh and Shur and sojourned in Gerar, aptly suit the spiritual progress of the elect. For Kadesh means Holy, or Changed, Shur means Strong, and Gerar means Sojourning. Therefore, Abraham having journeyed to the southern land, dwelt between Kadesh and Shur, hence, surely, all the chosen, being inwardly enlightened by the recognition of truth and inflamed with love for the divine vision, strive together to exercise works of holiness;
they endeavor to lead a life changed among men, that is, heavenly for earthly, angelic for human, and continually adhere to Him who is uniquely strong with the invincible strength of faith, saying individually, saying together: "But as for me, it is good to be close to God" (Ps. 73:28). Notably, Shur among the Hebrews is one of the ten names for God, by which the power of the Almighty is commonly signified. Therefore, he dwells between Kadesh and Shur, who, through works of virtues, daily yearns for the vision of his Creator; and since this vision is usually to come in the future, but in the present age they confess themselves to be sojourners who have learned to hope for an eternal homeland in the heavens, it rightly follows:
Genesis 20:1
And he sojourned in Gerar. For by both the word of sojourning and the name of Gerar, that is, of lodging, the life of the holy ones is aptly depicted, which, as much as it is devoted to divine commands, so much it is alienated from temporal joys; whence also the Apostle, glorifying the life of the same patriarchs, said: By faith, Abraham sojourned in the land of promise as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, co-heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for a city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God (Heb. XI, 9). And a little later: According to faith, all these died, not having received the promises, but having seen them from afar and greeted them, and confessing that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth (Ibid., 13). For those who say such things signify that they are seeking a homeland; but Gerar was formerly the border of the Canaanites to the south, and a metropolis city of Palestine, situated between Kadesh and Shur, that is, between two deserts, one of which is joined to Egypt, to which the people arrived after crossing the Red Sea, and the other extends from Kadesh to the desert of the Saracens. It follows:
Genesis 20:2
And he said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister. So Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took her. Why Abraham said this about Sarah, and whence it should be believed that she, although taken into the king's house, was by no means touched by the king's embrace, has already been said above, where in a similar manner she was taken by Pharaoh but returned to her husband at the command of the Lord. It follows. [Genesis 20:3-4] -- But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him: Behold, you are about to die because of the woman you have taken, for she has a husband; but Abimelech had not touched her and said: Lord, will you kill an innocent and righteous nation? And the rest of this reading. It seems that Abimelech was diligent in practicing the worship of the true religion and knew it with all his people; for how would a man, ignorant of the knowledge and fear of God, deserve to be rebuked by God for his sin, or receive God's rebuking words with such humility; for he demonstrated his people's innocence when he said: Will you kill an innocent and righteous nation? And he showed his own purity of heart and action when he added: In the simplicity of my heart and the cleanliness of my hands, I did this. Hence also, because he prudently and humbly answered the Lord, he soon merited to be praised and consoled by the second voice of the Lord saying:
Genesis 20:6
And I know that you have done this with a simple heart; therefore I have kept you from sinning against me. But also that he immediately rose in the night, called all his servants, and narrated to them what had happened to him; and that they, having heard the danger of the offense into which the king had fallen, were all greatly afraid, demonstrates how devoted to justice both the king and his servants were: For the king himself, when he said to Abraham: What have you done to us? What did we sin against you, that you have brought upon me and my kingdom a great sin? clearly implies that he did not consider the sin of ignorance to be trivial, which he confessed was harmful not only to himself but also to his kingdom. Hence, he did not believe it sufficient for him that he had obtained pardon from God, or had deserved to be kept from sinning by God’s favor, unless he also gave money abundantly along with the returned wife to the man against whom he had unknowingly sinned, so that he might be appeased, as it is read in the following passages. Nor is it to be wondered that uncircumcised men at that time could have been worshippers of truth, since the blessed Job and his royal friends are believed to have faithfully served the Lord with all that they had after the times of the given circumcision, without the sacrament of circumcision:
but also, it is evident that the patriarch Shem, along with Arphaxad, Salah, Heber, his sons or grandchildren, were still alive in the flesh at that time and led a life pleasing to God without the law of circumcision. From this, it seems likely that the sign in the circumcision of Abraham was given only to him and his seed and family, but among other nations, there could still have been some who naturally served God devotedly according to the law; whether by the offerings of sacrifices or certainly by the profession of true faith alone, cleansed from the stain of the first transgression, especially those who still survived and remembered the destruction of the human race in the flood, the building of the tower and the division of tongues, or the ruin of Sodom. For the very history of Genesis testifies that Shem himself endured in the body up until the fiftieth year of Jacob’s birth; to which opinion the blessed Pope Gregory agrees, saying it should by no means be believed that the lifespan of men in those times was as short as the few records of his writers seem to comprehend in Moses’ law. And when Abraham replied to the king who persistently questioned him why he had said his wife was his sister, and answered among other things: Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; the ancient translation has more fittingly: Indeed, she is my sister by my father, but not by my mother;
that is, the daughter of his brother, not his sister; for brothers or sisters are sometimes called kin in the Scriptures, who are of one family, that is, from the fatherland, which the Latins interpret as fatherhoods, when many branches of the family spread from one root; otherwise, how is it that Abraham, a just man, took his father’s daughter as his wife, when in the first men for the sake of the ears’ health the Scripture does not name it, preferring to be understood rather than openly stated? And that the king said to Sarah:
Genesis 20:16
Behold, I have given a thousand pieces of silver to your brother; this will be a veil of the eyes to all who are with you, wherever you shall go; and remember that you have been discovered. While speaking playfully, because she herself had said that he was her brother, and he says that she was discovered when by pretending she covered the truth, saying that he who was her husband was her brother, and he encourages her to remember this in the future, lest she should incur the same disgrace by similar pretense henceforth. But if in this reading, where Sarah, with Abraham’s permission, is taken by kings, but, with God’s provision, is returned to her husband undefiled, it pleases to understand something allegorical, it signifies that the Church is often to be assailed by the temptations of worldly powers, certainly with God permitting, who is called her husband by the gift of heavenly protection and grace, so that being tested by adversities, it may become more evident with what firm faith, with what chastity devoted to God, with what great care of her Creator she is always to be protected from all the snares of enemies, and never corrupted from the simplicity of her faith. However, that the king, in returning Sarah to Abraham, likewise gave sheep and oxen, servants and handmaids, and much money, signifies the time when the kingdom of this world would submit its neck to the Christian faith, and hold in veneration that religion which once it strove to overthrow.
That Sarah, being desired and taken by kings twice and yet was never defiled, first indeed as a young woman by Pharaoh, and now of more advanced age by Abimelech, signified that the Church, though always to be troubled by labors in this life, would yet experience two greater persecutions than the rest; one of the Roman Empire, which she endured, as it were, in her youth, and overcame most valiantly and gloriously with the help of the Lord; the other of the Antichrist, which she is to suffer, as it were, in old age, that is, at the impending end of her temporal life, and with the same merciful Lord’s help, she is to defeat. For that Sarah was of such great beauty that even in old age she could be loved for her grace of form, signifies that the Church, in that last time, will be adorned with such glory of virtues, that the fierce enemy with his satellites will greatly envy her, and therefore will strive to attack her with all his snares and forces; fulfilling the prophecy where it is said of her sons: They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing (Psalm 92:14), that is, that they may steadfastly declare the faith in which they glory among the evils they suffer.
That each king was prevented by God’s provision from violating Sarah, signifies thus the rage of persecutors, with God’s mercy, being restrained, so that none of those who truly belong to the Church can be seduced from the chastity of faith and charity which is in Christ. That each king was compelled by plagues to restore Sarah to her husband and corrected the presumptuous abduction by giving money, signified that the persecutors are often restrained from harming the faithful by adversity and losses of temporal goods; and are to be changed to the reverence or companionship of the same faithful, which we know has happened in persecutions sometimes, and we believe will be eminently so in that last great persecution; and this by the prayers of spiritual leaders, and the indulgence and mercy of the Lord Savior, who has deigned to unite the holy Church to Himself by the bond of matrimony. For both the blessed Abraham, praying for Abimelech, aptly designates both the Lord Savior himself who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us, and the pastors and rulers of the same Church who, since they take care of her chastity, do not neglect to pray to the Lord even for her adversaries that they may not be able to defile her but may cease sooner from harmful undertakings. Nor should it be considered irrelevant that by Abimelech, a good man and fearing God, the persecutors of the good can be symbolized.
For it is customary in Scriptures for both evils to be designated through good people and goods through bad people. For even the blessed Pope Gregory did not hesitate to place the most wicked kings Saul and Jehoiachin in the figure of the Lord Savior, and on the contrary, through the faithfulness of Uriah's deed, he says the faithlessness of the Jews is designated.