Genesis 19:21

See, I have accepted thee, &c.— I have granted thee this request also. The Hebrew is, I have lifted up thy face, which some of the versions follow: and the metaphor, most probably, is taken from the Oriental custom of prostrating the body, and laying the face to the ground, when soliciting favours; when the order, to lift up the face, was generally deemed a presage, of good success. We have here, in what the angel says, Genesis 19:21. a fresh instance of the Divine clemency, which in the midst of wrath remembered mercy.