In this essay, I discuss the destruction by Yahweh of Sodom and Gomorrah, and mention that in the passage in Genesis where the story is told, Yahweh's reasons for this destruction are not clear. Me above:
"He does not explicitly say what the sins of these people are, but it is commonly understood that their offense is homosexuality."
I learned from Mauro Biglino today [1] that in Deuteronomy, Moses gives a reason other than homsexuality for this destruction: Because they failed to worship Yahweh, and worshiped other gods instead. Here is is in Deuteronomy 29:22-27:
"... brimstone and salt, all the land a burning, it cannot be sown and it cannot flourish and no grass will grow in it, like the overturning of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim which the LORD overturned in His wrath and in His anger, all these nations will say, 'For what has the LORD done this to this land? What is this great smouldering wrath?' And they will say, 'For their having abandoned the Covenant of the LORD, God of their fathers, which He sealed with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. And they went and worshipped other gods and bowed to them, gods that they did not know and that He did not apportion to them. And the LORD's wrath flared against that land to bring upon it all the curse written in this book. And the LORD tore them from upon their soil in wrath and in anger and in great fury flung them into another land as on this day. ..."
This is a little off, because Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed before the exodus to Egypt. Lot was not likely a party to the Covenant of the Pieces (Genesis 15:1-4) either. He did migrate with Abraham from Mesopotamia down into the land of the Canaanites (what we now call Israel). But there was a dispute between Abraham's and Lot's peoples, which was resolved peacefully, and the uncle and nephew parted ways at that point to avoid further conflicts. This happened before the covenant.
The Covenant of the Pieces was the first of many covenants between Yahweh and the Israelites. Even if we read this Deuteronomy passage with this first covenant in mind, Lot was not there. And Moses seems to specifically reference the Mosaic covenant (Exodus 19-24), which occurs well after Lot's time.
Mauro says (using YouTube's auto-translation) that "they were destroyed because they were changing military alliances." It's hard for me to read this into Deuteronomy 29. It seems to me that Moses's speech here is quite simply confusing matters by giving a reason for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah that is impossibly anachronistic. It's not unlikely that Lot started worshipping other gods after parting ways with Abraham, and it's possible that this is the reason for Yahweh's wrath. It's even possible that this is what Moses is trying to convey in his Deuteronomy 29 speech, but if so, it gets a bit tangled up.
In this essay, I discuss the destruction by Yahweh of Sodom and Gomorrah, and mention that in the passage in Genesis where the story is told, Yahweh's reasons for this destruction are not clear. Me above:
"He does not explicitly say what the sins of these people are, but it is commonly understood that their offense is homosexuality."
I learned from Mauro Biglino today [1] that in Deuteronomy, Moses gives a reason other than homsexuality for this destruction: Because they failed to worship Yahweh, and worshiped other gods instead. Here is is in Deuteronomy 29:22-27:
"... brimstone and salt, all the land a burning, it cannot be sown and it cannot flourish and no grass will grow in it, like the overturning of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim which the LORD overturned in His wrath and in His anger, all these nations will say, 'For what has the LORD done this to this land? What is this great smouldering wrath?' And they will say, 'For their having abandoned the Covenant of the LORD, God of their fathers, which He sealed with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. And they went and worshipped other gods and bowed to them, gods that they did not know and that He did not apportion to them. And the LORD's wrath flared against that land to bring upon it all the curse written in this book. And the LORD tore them from upon their soil in wrath and in anger and in great fury flung them into another land as on this day. ..."
This is a little off, because Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed before the exodus to Egypt. Lot was not likely a party to the Covenant of the Pieces (Genesis 15:1-4) either. He did migrate with Abraham from Mesopotamia down into the land of the Canaanites (what we now call Israel). But there was a dispute between Abraham's and Lot's peoples, which was resolved peacefully, and the uncle and nephew parted ways at that point to avoid further conflicts. This happened before the covenant.
The Covenant of the Pieces was the first of many covenants between Yahweh and the Israelites. Even if we read this Deuteronomy passage with this first covenant in mind, Lot was not there. And Moses seems to specifically reference the Mosaic covenant (Exodus 19-24), which occurs well after Lot's time.
Mauro says (using YouTube's auto-translation) that "they were destroyed because they were changing military alliances." It's hard for me to read this into Deuteronomy 29. It seems to me that Moses's speech here is quite simply confusing matters by giving a reason for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah that is impossibly anachronistic. It's not unlikely that Lot started worshipping other gods after parting ways with Abraham, and it's possible that this is the reason for Yahweh's wrath. It's even possible that this is what Moses is trying to convey in his Deuteronomy 29 speech, but if so, it gets a bit tangled up.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zqTnQyZvPc&t=120