창세기 19:25의 주석

'ויהפוך את הערים וגו AND HE OVERTHREW [THOSE CITIES] etc. — The four cities were situated on one rock and He turned them upside down, as it is said, (Job 28:9) “He putteth forth His hand upon the flinty rock [and overturneth the mountains by the roots]” (Genesis Rabbah 51:4).

ויהפוך, the earth as well as its inhabitants underwent a total chemical transformation being turned into brimstone and fire, similar to what David means in Psalms 105,29 “He turned their waters into blood.” The dew that rose from the earth prior to sunrise turned into salt. Compare Deut. 29,22 גפרית ומלח שרפה כל ארצה, meaning that the moisture descended back onto earth but this time mixed with solid burned particles.

ויהפך, He turned these cities and the valley from having been most fruitful to becoming most desolate. According to Job 28,6-8 the region had not only been good pasture land but its soil had yielded gold, gemstones, etc. The sulfur and brimstone which made up most of this rain made the earth forever incapable of producing crops or other matters of value to mankind. We know that even birds shun that region.

.ויהפך את הערים האל , “He overturned these towns.” The choice of the word האל to describe “these” instead of the more common ההם, is somewhat puzzling. The reason the Torah chose this expression may be that two of the names of the towns had been named before. By using the prefix ה before the word האל the Torah may hint that actually five towns were being overturned by the angel in charge of this destruction. The reason that Avraham at the time had commenced his plea by mentioning the number fifty was also because he was aware that each of five towns required a minimum quorum of ten good people each in order for the whole town to have any hope to escape immediate judgment.

He overturned these cities. The sulfur and fire only fell upon Sedom and Amorah, but the movement of the earth affected all the cities of the plain.

ויהפוך את הערים, “He overturned the cities;” it is clear from this verse that the destruction of these cities preceded Sarah’s death, whereas in the Talmud Sanhedrin 109 we read the opposite. The Talmud there relates; Eliezer the servant of Avraham once passed the place where Sodom had been located. He was invited to rest on a bed. He replied that he had made a vow ever since Sarah had died not to ever rest on a bed again. From this it is clear that Sarah had already died. We therefore have to assume that Eliezer was speaking about the town of Tzoar, one of the satellite towns of Sodom which had been spared by the prayer of Lot.

וצמח האדמה, “and the vegetation on the ground.” Rabbi Yoshua son of Levi stated that when a person takes soil from a piece of land that once was Sodom and he transplants it, it will never grow anything again.