פירוש על בראשית 19:5

ונדעה אותם AND WE SHALL KNOW THEM — with homosexuality, as in "who have not known a man" (Genesis Rabbah 50:5).

AND WE SHALL KNOW THEM. Their intention was to stop people from coming among them, as our Rabbis have said,¹⁷⁴Sanhedrin 109a. for they thought that because of the excellence of their land, which was as the garden of the Eternal,¹⁷⁵Above, 13:10. many will come there, and they despised charity. Lot, however, came to them with his riches and wealth [and was given permission to live in Sodom because] he either asked permission of them, or that they accepted him in honor of Abraham.
Now Scripture testifies that this was the intent of the people of Sodom, as it is said, Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and careless ease was in her and in her daughters; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.¹⁷⁶Ezekiel 16:49. The verse stating, And the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners against the Eternal exceedingly,¹⁷⁷Above, 13:13. This would seem to indicate that they sinned only against G-d but not against their fellow man. really means that they continued provoking and rebelling against Him with their ease and the oppression of the poor. It is this thought which Scripture expresses by saying, And they were haughty, and committed abomination before Me; therefore I removed them when I saw it.¹⁷⁸Ezekiel 16:50.
In the opinion of our Rabbis,¹⁷⁹Sanhedrin 109a. all evil practices¹⁸⁰Such as blasphemy, bloodshed, etc. (Ibid.) were rampant among them. Yet their fate was sealed because of this sin — i.e., they did not strengthen the hand of the poor and needy — since this sin represented their usual behavior more than any other. Besides, since all peoples act righteously towards their friends and their poor, there was none among all the nations who matched Sodom in cruelty.
Know that the judgment of Sodom was due to the superiority of the Land of Israel since Sodom is part of the inheritance of the Eternal,¹⁸¹II Samuel 20:19. and it does not suffer men of abominations. And just as it later vomited out a whole nation on account of their abominations,¹⁸²See Leviticus 18:25. so it now anticipated and saw that this entire people behaved worse than all nations towards Heaven and mankind. It thus laid waste heaven and earth for them, and the land was destroyed forever, never to be restored, since they became haughty on account of the goodness that was bestowed on them. The Holy One, blessed be He, thus made Sodom a token against the rebellious children,¹⁸³Numbers 17:25. that is, against the children of Israel who were destined to inherit it, even as He warned them: The whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and a burning… like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Eternal overthrew in His anger, and in His wrath.¹⁸⁴Deuteronomy 29:22. For there have been among nations those who were evil and exceedingly sinful, and yet He did not do to them as He did to Sodom. However it was all on account of the superiority of this land for there is the temple of the Eternal.¹⁸⁵Jeremiah 7:4. I plan to explain this in Seder Achrei Moth,¹⁸⁶Leviticus 18:24. if He Who taketh life and giveth life will sustain me in life.

ונדעה אותם. A euphemism for committing sodomy with these strangers. The same expression as a euphemism is also found in Judges 19,22.

ויקראו...ונדעה אותם, who these people are, and how such people had dared to enter our town at night in spite of our reputation. The word ונדעה is a euphemism for the intention to kill these people, just as it is in Judges 19,22 as reported by a party involved there in 20,5 Other commentators believe that the euphemism concerns the intention of sodomising these men.

ונדעה אותם, “so that we can become intimate with them.” They meant to indulge in homosexual relations with these strangers. According to the plain meaning of the text, they wanted to examine if these men were spies.

For the purpose of homosexuality... You might ask: How does Rashi know this? The answer is: It says afterward, “Behold! I have two daughters...” This implies that from the beginning they sought something similar, i.e., homosexual relations.

ונדעה אותם, “so that we may engage in homosexual relations with them;” the word ידע is familiar to us from Genesis 4,1 where it described Adam in engaging in carnal relations with Chavah. Besides, it is clear from Lot’s offer of his two virgin daughters as an alternative to satisfy the carnal desires of the men of Sodom (19,8), that these men were planning a criminal activity.