braham had to do,
was some created angel, we cannot well understand how, in chap. xviii.
17 seq., the judgment over Sodom could, throughout, be ascribed to him.
_He_ could not, in the name of the Lord, speak of that judgment, as not
he, but the two other angels who went to Sodom, were the instruments of
its execution. Hence it only remains to ascribe the judgment to him as
the _causa principalis_.--If the three angels were equals, it would be
impossible to explain the adversative clause in chap. xviii. 22: "And
the men turned from thence and went to Sodom; _but Abraham stood yet
before the Lord._" Jehovah and the two angels are here contrasted. It
is true that, in the two angels also, it is Jehovah who acts. This is
evident from xviii. 21: "I will go down and see"--where the going down
does not refer to descending to the valley of Jordan, the position of
which was lower (thus _Delitzsch_); but, according to xi. 7, it refers
to a descent from heaven to earth. That Jehovah, though on earth,
should declare His resolution to go down, as in xi. 7, may be explained
from the [Greek: ho on en to ourano] in John iii. 13. God, even when He
is on earth, remains in heaven, and it is thence that He manifests
Himself. Moreover, the words immediately following show in what sense
this going down is to be understood,--that it is not in His own person,
but through the medium of His messengers. The resolution, "I will go
down," is carried into effect by the going down of the angels to Sodom.

By the Jehovah who, from Jehovah out of heaven, caused brimstone and
fire to rain upon Sodom and Gomorrah (xix. 24), we are not at liberty
to understand the two angels only,[2] but, [Pg 122] agreeably to the
views of sound Christian expositors generally, Christ,--with this
modification, however, that the two angels are to be considered as His
servants, and that what they do is His work also. It is true that the
angels say, in xix. 13, "We will destroy," etc.; but much more
emphatically and frequently does he with whom Abraham has to do,
ascribe the work of destruction to himself. (Compare xviii. 17, where
Jehovah says, "How can I hide from Abraham that thing which I am
doing?" vers. 24-28, etc.) If in xix. 24 there be involved the contrast
between, so to speak, the heavenly and earthly Jehovah,--between the
hidden God and Him who manifests Himself on earth,--then so much the
more must we seek the latter in chap. xviii., as in ver. 22, compared
with v