And the LORD said,
Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave;
All Commentaries on Genesis 18:20 Go To Genesis 18
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Then, to teach the whole human race that even if their sins are exceedingly great and confessed to be such, he does not pronounce sentence before proof is manifest, he says, “I am going down to see if their deeds correspond to the outcry reaching me, so as to know if it is true or not.” What is meant by the deliberation of the expression? “I am going down to see if their deeds correspond to the outcry reaching me, so as to know if it is true or not.” What is meant by the considerateness of the expression? “I am going down to see.” I mean, does the God of all move from place to place? No indeed! It doesn’t mean this; instead, as I have often remarked, he wants to teach us by the concreteness of the expression that there is need to apply precision and that sinners are not condemned on hearsay nor is sentence pronounced without proof.
