In recent decades, it has been
argued that the sin of vv. 4-5 was an infraction of hospitality on the
part of the men of Sodom rather than a sexual crime or that, it was a sexual
crime, its offense was not its homosexual nature but rather its violence as
a means of “putting foreigners in their place.” There is some truth in both of
these claims, for the theme of hospitality is paramount in both Gen 18 and 19,
and the rabble that descends on Lot’s house is clearly violent. But neither
interpretation, either alone or combined with the other, is the essential truth.
Lot’s plea, “Do not do this evil, my brothers” (v. 7) is scarcely a
reprimand for an infraction of hospitality. Furthermore, Lot’s appalling offer
to surrender his daughters to the rabble is meaningless if the intent of the rabble
is to put foreigners in their place, for his daughters are not foreigners. Lot’s
offer of his daughters can mean only that he regards a heterosexual gang rape
of his daughters less offensive than a homosexual gang rape of his guests. “To
know” (v. 5; Heb. yada) is the common Old Testament expression for
sexual intercourse of a man with a woman (e.g., 4:1, 17, 25; 24:16; 38:26; 1
Kgs 1:4); in v. 8, the same word is again used of “knowing” Lot’s daughters in
sexual intercourse. “Knowing” is also a euphemism for sexual intercourse in the
ancient Greek world as it is in the Hebrew. The use of yada in v. 5
clearly refers to homosexual intercourse, as it does similarly in Judg 19:22.
Later Jewish legal instruction considered homosexuality, which was
characteristic of Canaanite society, an abhorrent sexual practice (Lev 18:22,
24-30; 20:13, 20). The phrase that I translate “every last one of them” (v. 4;
literally, “all the people from one end of the city to the other”) connotes “unanimity
in evildoing.” Such unanimity settles the debate between Abraham and the Lord
in 18:24-32: There is not a single just man in Sodom.
In an attempt—as perverse as it
is desperate—to preserve the lives and honor of his guests, Lot makes a
deplorable decision that reveals the vulnerability of women in Sodom, and
surely in many sectors of ancient society: He offers his two daughters to
satisfy the lust of the assailants (v. 8). Only one positive thing can be said
of Lot’s offer: It indicates the virtual sacred ideal in the ancient Near East
that was placed on duties of hosts to guests “who came under the shade of their
roof beams” (v. 8). (James R. Edwards, In the Beginning: A Commentary on
Genesis and Its Reception in the New Testament [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Pillar
Books, 2026], 259-61, italics in original)
