And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes,.... By raining brimstone and fire upon them from heaven, Ge 19:24 which soon reduced them to ashes, with Admah and Zeboiim, De 29:25, cities delightfully situated, which were as the garden of God, and the land of Egypt, together with the inhabitants of them; and after they had received a signal mercy, in being rescued by Abraham from the kings who had carried them captive; and though Abraham, the friend of God, interceded for them, and righteous Lot dwelt among them.
The first of these cities is in the Hebrew language called Sedom; Philo the Jew calls it Sodoma, as in Ro 9:29 and in the Septuagint on Ge 13:10 here it is said to be a city, and Josephus always calls it the city of the Sodomites, but in Mt 10:15 we read of the land of Sodom; and so Philo the Jew speaks of cwra, the region or country of the Sodomites; here the word is of the plural number, as in Mt 10:15 as it is also in the Septuagint in Ge 10:19 and in Philo the Jew , and so is Gomorrah in some copies of this, place, as in Mt 10:15.
Solinus, the historian, gives an account of these cities, in agreement with this;"a good way off of Jerusalem (he says ) is opened a sorrowful gulf, which the black ground, "in cinerem soluta", "reduced to ashes", shows it to be touched by heaven; there were two towns, or cities, the one called Sodom, and the other Gomorrah; where an apple is produced, which, although it has an appearance of ripeness, cannot be eaten; for the outward skin that encompasses it only contains a sort of soot, or embers within, which, ever so lightly squeezed, evaporates into smoke and dust;''and so the author of the book of Wisdom 10:7 speaking of the five cities, on which fire fell, says,"of whose wickedness, even to this day, the waste land that smoketh is a testimony; and plants bearing fruit, that never come to ripeness.'