Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

There were also sodomites in the land - קדשים kedeshim, consecrated persons; persons who had devoted themselves, in practices of the greatest impurity, to the service of the most impure idols.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Sodomites - literally, ” (men) consecrated.” The men in question were in fact “consecrated” to the mother of the gods, the famous “Dea Syra,” whose priests, or rather devotees, they were considered to be. The nature of the ancient idolatries is best understood by recollecting that persons of this degraded class practiced their abominable trade under a religious sanction.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And there were also Sodomites in the land, Such as were addicted to unnatural lusts between men and men, which the men of Sodom were guilty of, from whence they had their name: Jarchi interprets the word adultery and some versions render it whoremongers; and filthy actions of this nature, both by men and women, usually attended idolatrous practices among the heathens; in their temples and groves such wickednesses were privately perpetrated:

and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel; the Canaanites, of whose uncleannesses, incests, and bestialities, see Leviticus 18:1.

Geneva Study Bible

(q) Where idolatry reigns, all horrible vices are committed, till at length God's just judgment destroys them completely.

Wesley's Explanatory Notes

And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.

Abomination — They dishonoured God by one sin, and then God left them to dishonour themselves by another.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

1 Kings 14:24 And there were also sodomites in the land: [and] they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.

Ver. 24. And there were also sodomites in the land.] Meritorii, male harlots, unnaturally filthy. The word here used signifieth holy ones: either by antiphrasis in a contrary meaning, or because such abomination was committed under a pretext of religion. These abandoned their bodies to suffer abominable lust. This is common in Turkey, and under the Papacy.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Sodomites, i.e. males, who prostituted their bodies to the filthy lusts of others; of whom See Poole "Deuteronomy 23:17"; who also did this in the worship and to the honour of their idols as also the women did, Numbers 25:1,2. And this might be one occasion of so great a spreading of idolatry among the lustful Israelites. And, on the other side, God doth frequently punish idolatry with corporeal uncleanness, Romans 1:21,28. See 1 Kings 15:12 22:46 2 Kings 23:7.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

24.Sodomites — The consecrated ones; that is, persons (male prostitutes) consecrated to the practice of lewdness as a religious rite. The English word implies that this was the abominable crime against nature from which the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah have derived their lasting infamy. This abominable consecration to unnatural lust was practised among many of the ancient nations, and even, as appears from this verse, infected the chosen people.

In the land — Guilty before God must have been those Israelites who would tolerate sodomy among them. It is not said that any of the Israelites themselves practised sodomy, though, perhaps, this was in some instances the case; but the nation that tolerated such abominations, even in the heathen dwelling in their land, was virtually a partaker of their sins.

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments

1 Kings 14:24. There were also sodomites in the land — The kind of wickedness here referred to often attended idolatry, 1 Kings 15:12; 2 Kings 23:7; for among the heathen the most filthy things were practised in these shady, dark places, their groves: and such wickedness, it appears from the passages now quoted, existed at this time among the Israelites, who, out of devotion to some false god or other, prostituted their bodies, contrary to nature, to be abused in honour of those gods, in direct opposition to the law, Deuteronomy 23:17. They did according to all the abominations of the nations, &c. — They dishonoured God by the sin of idolatry, and therefore God left them to dishonour their own bodies in this abominable manner.

George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

The effeminate. Catamites, or men addicted to unnatural lust. (Challoner) --- This crime had been punished in the Sodomites, and in the people of Chanaan, and of Benjamin. Yet they continued prevalent in the country, chap. xv. 12., and 4 Kings xxiii. 7., and Isaias ii. 6., and 2 Machabees iv. 12. (Calmet) --- These were perpetrated in honour of Venus, Priapus, &c. (Menochius) See Deuteronomy xxiii. 17. (Haydock)

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

sodomites. Committers of the sin of Sodom (Gen 19). Male prostitutes, dedicated to idolatry involving this sin. Connected with the "Asherah. App-42. Compare Deuteronomy 23:17. Deuteronomy 15:12; Deuteronomy 22:46.

children = sons.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged

And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.

No JFB commentary on this verse.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(24) Sodomites.—See 1 Kings 15:12; 2 Kings 23:7. There is a horrible significance in the derivation of this word, which is properly “consecrated,” or “devoted;” for it indicates the license, and even the sanction, of unnatural lusts in those consecrated to the abominations of Nature-worship. The appearance of such in the land, whether Canaanites or apostate Israelites, is evidently noted as the climax of the infinite corruption which had set in, rivalling—and, if rivalling, exceeding in depth of wickedness—the abominations of the old inhabitants of the land. That such horrors are not incompatible with advance in knowledge and material civilisation, history tells us but too plainly. To find them sanctioned under cover of religious ritual marks, however, a lower depth still.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

And there

15:12; 22:46; Genesis 19:5; Deuteronomy 23:17; Judges 19:22; 2 Kings 23:7; Romans 1:24-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9