Genesis 19:4

4 prius autem quam irent cubitum viri civitatis vallaverunt domum a puero usque ad senem omnis populus simul

Genesis 19:4 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 19:4

But before they lay down
Upon their beds to sleep; it was between supper time and bedtime that the following affair happened, while the angels were talking to Lot about the men of Sodom, and inquiring what sort of men they were, as the Jewish writers F12 suggest:

the men of the city, [even] the men of Sodom, compassed the house round
about;
the house of Lot, where the angels were:

both old and young:
the males of the city of every age; some that were past committing the sin they were so infamous for, as well as those that burned with that unnatural lust; some that could not be actors were willing to be spectators; and all were curious to see the lovely persons, that it was reported all over the city were seen to go into Lot's house:

all the people from every quarter;
all from one end of the city to the other, and from every corner in it: which shows the general corruption and depravity of the city, that it was so far from having ten righteous persons in it, that of the proper inhabitants of it, there was not, as Jarchi notes, one righteous person, no, not one.


FOOTNOTES:

F12 Bereshit Rabba, ut supra. (sect. 50. fol. 44. 4.)

Genesis 19:4 In-Context

2 et dixit obsecro domini declinate in domum pueri vestri et manete ibi lavate pedes vestros et mane proficiscimini in viam vestram qui dixerunt minime sed in platea manebimus
3 conpulit illos oppido ut deverterent ad eum ingressisque domum illius fecit convivium coxit azyma et comederunt
4 prius autem quam irent cubitum viri civitatis vallaverunt domum a puero usque ad senem omnis populus simul
5 vocaveruntque Loth et dixerunt ei ubi sunt viri qui introierunt ad te nocte educ illos huc ut cognoscamus eos
6 egressus ad eos Loth post tergum adcludens ostium ait
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.