Genesis 19:32

Gen 19:32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.

Ver. 32. Come, let us make our father drink.] {a} She knew too well, that Venus in vinis, ignis in igne furit . It is like they had wine from Zoar. They sinned against conscience; and therefore intoxicated their father, who now forgets that he is a father, and does that, in a drunken pang, that which heaven and earth were afterwards ashamed of.

{a} So the great whore cometh forth with a cup {Rev 17:2}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gen 19:32. Come, let us make our father drink wine — Although, upon the whole, Lot was a righteous man, and possessed of many amiable qualities, yet it evidently appears that his principles also, as well as those of his daughters, had suffered some degree of contamination by the society of evil-doers, otherwise surely he would have withstood every temptation to excess of drinking. Here the history of Lot ends; after this we hear no more of him or of his daughters. We cannot but be sorry to leave them under so dark a cloud. He, indeed, we have reason to believe, lived to repent of his sin, otherwise St. Peter would not have spoken so honourably of him; but we have no proof that his daughters repented of theirs. And certainly the children thus desired, and in this unlawful way obtained, were monuments of their own and their father’s reproach, and the names they thought fit to give them, which descended to their posterity, perpetuated the memory of their sin and shame to all generations: Moab signifying, of my father, and Ben-Ammi, the son of my people.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For except he had been overcome with wine, he would never have done that abominable act.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 32. Come, let us make our father drink wine] On their flight from Zoar it is probable they had brought with them certain provisions to serve them for the time being, and the wine here mentioned among the rest.

After considering all that has been said to criminate both Lot and his daughters in this business, I cannot help thinking that the transaction itself will bear a more favourable construction than that which has been generally put on it.

1. It does not appear that it was through any base or sensual desires that the daughters of Lot wished to deceive their father.

2. They might have thought that it would have been criminal to have married into any other family, and they knew that their husbands elect, who were probably of the same kindred, had perished in the overthrow of Sodom.

3. They might have supposed that there was no other way left to preserve the family, and consequently that righteousness for which it had been remarkable, but the way which they now took.

4. They appear to have supposed that their father would not come into the measure, because he would have considered it as profane; yet, judging the measure to be expedient and necessary, they endeavoured to sanctify the improper means used, by the goodness of the end at which they aimed; a doctrine which, though resorted to by many, should be reprobated by all. Acting on this bad principle they caused their father to drink wine. See Clarke on Gen 19:38.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(32) That we may preserve seed of our father.—This was a very strong feeling in ancient times, and affords the sole excuse for the revolting conduct of these women. The utter degradation of Lot and his family is the most painful part of his story, which thus ends in his intense shame.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And they made their father drink wine that night,.... They persuaded him to drink liberally, urged him to it again, in order to make him drunk, and so complete their design; and Lot might be the more prevailed upon to drink freely, in order to remove his sorrow, and refresh his spirits under the loss of his wife, and his daughters, if he had any married in Sodom, as some suppose, and his sons-in-law, and of all his goods and substance; though this will not excuse his drinking to excess, nor can ignorance of the strength of wine be pleaded, since he must needs know it as well as his daughters, who, it is plain, did, and therefore plied him with it:

and the firstborn went in and lay with her father; went to his bed, and lay down by him, which she would not have dared to have done, but that she knew he was drunk and insensible:

and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose: never heard her come to bed nor get up, so dead drunk and fast asleep was he; but finding a woman in bed with him, lay with her, taking her to be his wife, forgetting, through the force of liquor, that she was dead. There is an extraordinary prick on the Vau in Kumah, rendered "she arose", which the Jews say (u) is to show that he knew her not when she lay down, but when she arose he knew her; and indeed it may be rendered, but in her rising up.

(u) T. Bab. Horayot, fol. 10. 2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Wine they carried with them, amongst other necessary provisions, either from Sodom or Zoar.

This, though an incestuous and abominable action, yet they thought was made lawful by the supposed necessity, as in the beginning of the world the marriage of brethren and sisters was lawful because necessary; and when it ceased to be necessary, because of the increase of mankind, it became incestuous.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Come, let us make our father drink wine, either, therefore, Lot had not left Sodom totally unprovided (Inglis), or some little time had elapsed after his escaping to the mountain cave, since his daughters are provided with this intoxicating beverageand we will He with him. Considering the town in which the daughters of Lot had been reared, the mother of whom they were the offspring, and the example they had received from their father (Ver. 8), "we can understand, though we cannot cease to abhor, their incestuous conduct" (Kalisch). Their proposal was revolting and unnatural in the extreme. By subsequent Mosaic legislation a transgression of such enormity was rendered punishable by death. Even in the present instance the perpetrators were not wholly unconscious of the wickedness of their conduct. The fact that they required a stratagem for the attainment of their purpose shows that at least they could not calculate on their father"s approbation. The entire story has been regarded as the invention of later Jewish hatred to the Moabites and Ammonites (De Wette), a conjecture believed by some to be not improbable (Rosenm but if so, how should the same writer exhibit Abraham (Gen_18:23) as filled with compassionate tenderness towards the cities of the plain? (Havernick). That we may preserve seed of our father. Literally, quicken or vivify seed (cf. Ver. 34). Lot"s daughters may be credited with whatever virtue may be supposed to reside in this motive for their conduct.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Come

Lot "pitched toward Sodom" Gen 13:12 for worldly advantage; then became a great man in Sodom Gen 19:1 at the cost of his daughter’s accepting the morals of Sodom.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

THAT WE MAY KEEP ALIVE SEED FROM OUR FATHER. The intent is perhaps that they said: “Let us do what we can, so that G-d should have mercy, and we shall give birth to a boy and a girl from whom the world shall be sustained, for the world will be built with kindness, and it is not in vain that G-d has saved us.” Now they were modest and did not want to tell their father to marry them, as a Noachide, Note 288. is permitted to take his daughter. It may be that the matter was extremely repulsive in the eyes of the people of those generations and was never done. Our Rabbis, in Agadic expositions, likewise discredit Lot very much.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

לכה, we have already explained the meaning of this expression on Genesis 11,9 as well as the meaning of the word לכו, the same in the plural mode.

נשקה את אבינו יין, enough to make him drunk, so that he will not know what to do when we sleep with him. He certainly would not agree to sleep with his daughters while in full possession of his faculties. Anyone subscribing to the cultural mores of an Avraham would not knowingly engage in such a practice. This story is related in order to teach us that even people not subscribing to the moral standards of the Torah would not stoop to this kind of sexual licentiousness. The entire story reveals the origin of the peoples of Ammon and Moav, two nations who will feature prominently in Jewish history from the time even before the Jews entered the Holy Land until the destruction of the first Temple. G’d prevented the Jewish people under Moses from attacking these nations seeing that their founder, Lot, had been a nephew of Avraham. Also, the Jewish people were not given any part of the lands occupied by these nations at the time when Moses and Joshua were involved in conquering the lands which became their home land.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.