Luke 17:29

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. "The Jews" i 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

2 Peter 2:6. The Hebrew word, גפרית, used in

Genesis 19:24 though it is rendered in the Targum of Jonathan,

כבריתא, and by the Septuagint, θειον; 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 k, Solinus l, Strabo m, Justin n, and Pliny o; as well as by Josephus p, and Philo the Jew q.

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.

i Bereshit Rabba, sect. 50. fol. 45. 3. k Hist. l. 5. l Polyhistor. c. 48. m Geograph. l. 16. n Histor. l. 36. c. 3. o Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 16. p Antiqu. l. 1. c. 11. sect. 4. de Bello Jud. l. 5. c. 21. q De Vita Mosis, l. 2. p. 662.