But the same day Lot went out of Sodom
Being plucked and brought from thence by the angels early in the morning; and a fine morning it was; the sun was risen, and shone out upon the earth, as Lot got into Zoar, ( Genesis 19:15 Genesis 19:16 Genesis 19:23 ) . "The Jews" F9 say it was the sixteenth day of Nisan:
it rained fire and brimstone from heaven;
the Syriac version reads, "the Lord rained"; so it is said in ( Genesis 19:24 ) "the Lord rained from the Lord"; Jehovah the Son, rained from Jehovah the Father; or the word of the Lord, as the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem render it; and which is no inconsiderable proof of the deity of Christ: and the Persic version here reads, "God rained"; and so this amazing shower of fire and brimstone, and which was a violent storm of thunder and lightning, is ascribed to God in (See Gill on 2 Peter 2:6). The Hebrew word, (tyrpg) , used in ( Genesis 19:24 ) though it is rendered in the Targum of Jonathan, (atyrbk) , and by the Septuagint, (yeion) ; both which words signify "sulphur", or brimstone; and which last word is used here, following the Greek version; yet it is observed, by some learned men, that it rather signifies "pitch", or "rosin", which proceeds from some sort of trees; and indeed, by its derivation, it seems to signify something belonging to or that comes out of the wood of Gopher, of which the ark was made, ( Genesis 6:14 ) which some think to be the pine tree, from whence comes pitch: and this, though it comes from the inside of a tree, may as well be said to be rained from heaven, as brimstone, which is taken out of the bowels of the earth: and the rather, since pitch is sometimes fluid; and especially it being combustible, may be joined with fire, as well as sulphur, or brimstone; though a shower of neither, can be accounted for in an ordinary way, but must be extraordinary and miraculous: the destruction of this city, with others, by fire from heaven, and the lake Asphaltites, being a bituminous and sulphureous one, into which the tract of land they stood upon was converted, are confirmed by the testimonies of Heathen writers; as Tacitus F11, Solinus F12, Strabo F13, Justin F14, and Pliny F15; as well as by Josephus F16, and Philo the Jew F17.
And destroyed them all;
all the inhabitants of Sodom, and all of Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim; and which was an ensample of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the land of Judea. ( Deuteronomy 29:23 ) and of the burning of the world, and of the perdition of the wicked in hell, ( 2 Peter 2:6 ) ( Jude 7 ) .