Genesis 18:21 Study Bible: I will go down now, and see whether they have done entirely according to the outcry which has come to me. And if not, I will know."

◄ Genesis 18:21 ►

I will go down to see if their actions fully justify the outcry that has reached Me. If not, I will find out."

I will go down
This phrase indicates a divine action where God expresses His intention to investigate the situation personally. The Hebrew root for "go down" is "יָרַד" (yarad), which often signifies a movement from a higher place to a lower one. In the context of Genesis, it reflects God's willingness to engage directly with human affairs, emphasizing His justice and personal involvement. This anthropomorphic expression reassures believers of God's intimate concern for righteousness and justice on earth.

to see
The Hebrew word "רָאָה" (ra'ah) means "to see" or "to perceive." This suggests not just a physical observation but a deeper understanding and discernment. In the biblical context, God's "seeing" is comprehensive, encompassing all aspects of human behavior and motives. It reassures believers that God is not distant or unaware but is actively observing and understanding the moral state of humanity.

if their actions fully justify
The phrase "fully justify" is derived from the Hebrew "כָּלָה" (kalah), meaning "to complete" or "to finish." This implies a thorough examination of the actions of Sodom and Gomorrah to determine if they are as grievous as reported. It highlights God's fairness and His commitment to justice, ensuring that any judgment is based on complete and accurate information.

the outcry
The term "outcry" comes from the Hebrew "זְעָקָה" (ze'aqah), which refers to a cry for help or a call for justice. This word is often associated with the suffering of the oppressed and the demand for divine intervention. It underscores the biblical theme that God is attentive to the cries of those who suffer injustice and is moved to act on their behalf.

that has reached Me
This phrase indicates that the outcry has come to God's attention, suggesting a divine awareness of human suffering and sin. The Hebrew concept here is one of communication reaching the divine ear, emphasizing God's responsiveness to human conditions. It reassures believers that no injustice goes unnoticed by God.

If not, I will find out
The concluding phrase underscores God's commitment to truth and justice. The Hebrew "יָדַע" (yada) means "to know," indicating a process of acquiring knowledge. This reflects God's thorough and fair approach to judgment, ensuring that any action taken is based on complete understanding. It serves as a reminder of God's omniscience and His just nature, providing comfort to believers that God's judgments are always righteous and well-founded.

Persons / Places / Events

1. The LORD
The speaker in this verse, who is expressing His intention to investigate the situation in Sodom and Gomorrah.

2. Sodom and Gomorrah
The cities whose actions have prompted an outcry to the LORD, leading to His decision to investigate.

3. Outcry
The term used to describe the grievous sin and injustice occurring in Sodom and Gomorrah, which has reached the LORD.

4. Abraham
Although not directly mentioned in this verse, he is the recipient of the LORD's revelation and intercedes for the cities.

5. Angelic Visitors
The messengers who accompany the LORD and later visit Sodom to carry out the investigation.

Teaching Points

God's Justice and Mercy
God is both just and merciful. His decision to investigate Sodom and Gomorrah shows His commitment to justice, ensuring that His actions are based on truth.

Divine Investigation
The LORD's statement about going down to see reflects His thoroughness and fairness. Believers can trust that God is aware of all situations and acts with perfect knowledge.

Intercession
Abraham's role in the surrounding account highlights the power and importance of intercessory prayer. Believers are encouraged to pray for others, especially those in dire situations.

Accountability
The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah serves as a reminder that sin has consequences and that communities are accountable to God for their actions.

God's Awareness
The verse reassures believers that God is not distant or unaware of human suffering and injustice. He is actively involved in the world and responds to the cries of the oppressed.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does the concept of an "outcry" in Genesis 18:21 relate to other instances in the Bible where God responds to cries for justice?

2. In what ways does Abraham's intercession for Sodom and Gomorrah challenge us to pray for our communities today?

3. How can we reconcile God's justice with His mercy as seen in His approach to Sodom and Gomorrah?

4. What does this passage teach us about God's awareness and involvement in the injustices of the world?

5. How can we apply the principle of divine investigation in our own lives, ensuring that we act justly and with integrity?

Connections to Other Scriptures

Genesis 4:10
The concept of an "outcry" is similar to Abel's blood crying out from the ground, indicating a call for divine justice.

Exodus 3:7-8
God's response to the outcry of the Israelites in Egypt, showing His concern for justice and deliverance.

Psalm 11:4-5
God's examination of the righteous and the wicked, emphasizing His role as a just judge.

James 5:4
The cries of the oppressed reaching the ears of the Lord, highlighting God's awareness of injustice.

Sermons

Abraham's Intercession for Sodom

R.A. Redford

Genesis 18:16-33

People

Abraham, Mamre, Sarah

Places

Canaan, Gomorrah, Sodom, Sodom and Gomorrah

Topics

Acts, Altogether, Bad, Completely, Cry, Deeds, Entirely, Outcry, Reached, Reports, Seem, Whether

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Genesis 18:1-22

1454 theophany
5076 Abraham, life of

Genesis 18:1-33

1511 Trinity, relationships in

Genesis 18:16-32

4275 Sodom and Gomorrah

Genesis 18:16-33

1095 God, patience of
5077 Abraham, character

Genesis 18:17-33

4224 cities of the plain

Genesis 18:20-21

8332 reputation

Genesis 18:20-32

4113 angels, agents of judgment
7150 righteous, the

Genesis 18:20-33

5076 Abraham, life of
6655 forgiveness, application

Library

January 5. "I Know Him that He Will do the Law" (Gen. xviii. 19).
"I know him that he will do the law" (Gen. xviii. 19). God wants people that He can depend upon. He could say of Abraham, "I know him, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham all that He hath spoken." God can be depended upon; He wants us to be just as decided, as reliable, as stable. This is just what faith means. God is looking for men on whom He can put the weight of all His love, and power, and faithful promises. When God finds such a soul there is nothing He will not do for him. God's engines are …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

'Because of his Importunity'
'And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom: and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him! For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Meditations for Household Piety.
1. If thou be called to the government of a family, thou must not hold it sufficient to serve God and live uprightly in thy own person, unless thou cause all under thy charge to do the same with thee. For the performance of this duty God was so well pleased with Abraham, that he would not hide from him his counsel: "For," saith God, "I know him that he will command his sons and his household after him that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

There is a Great Question About Lying, which Often Arises in the Midst Of...
1. There is a great question about Lying, which often arises in the midst of our every day business, and gives us much trouble, that we may not either rashly call that a lie which is not such, or decide that it is sometimes right to tell a lie, that is, a kind of honest, well-meant, charitable lie. This question we will painfully discuss by seeking with them that seek: whether to any good purpose, we need not take upon ourselves to affirm, for the attentive reader will sufficiently gather from the …
St. Augustine—On Lying

Whether the Proofs which Christ Made Use of Manifested Sufficiently the Truth of his Resurrection?
Objection 1: It would seem that the proofs which Christ made use of did not sufficiently manifest the truth of His Resurrection. For after the Resurrection Christ showed nothing to His disciples which angels appearing to men did not or could not show; because angels have frequently shown themselves to men under human aspect, have spoken and lived with them, and eaten with them, just as if they were truly men, as is evident from Genesis 18, of the angels whom Abraham entertained. and in the Book of …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Epistle Lii. To Natalis, Bishop .
To Natalis, Bishop [1463] . Gregory to Natalis, Bishop of Salona. As though forgetting the tenour of former letters, I had determined to say nothing to your Blessedness but what should savour of sweetness: but, now that in your epistle you have recurred in the way of argumentation to preceding letters, I am once more compelled to say perhaps some things that I had rather not have said. For in defence of feasts your Fraternity mentions the feast of Abraham, in which by the testimony of Holy Scripture …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

Miscellaneous.
THE SABBATH. THIS day is called the Lord's day, the day in which he rose from the dead. The Lord's day: every day, say some, is the Lord's day. Indeed this, for discourse' sake, may he granted; but strictly, no day can so properly be called the Lord's day, as this first day of the week; for that no day of the week, or of the year, has those hadges of the Lord's glory upon it, nor such divine grace put upon it, as his first day of the week. There is nothing, as I know of, that bears this title but …
John Bunyan—The Riches of Bunyan

The Leaven.
"Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened."--MATT. xiii. 33. In the mustard-seed we saw the kingdom growing great by its inherent vitality; in the leaven we see it growing great by a contagious influence. There, the increase was attained by development from within; here, by acquisitions from without. It is not that there are two distinct ways in which the Gospel may gain complete …
William Arnot—The Parables of Our Lord

Sanctification and Justification.
"Yield your members servants to righteousness unto sanctification." --Rom. vi. 19. Sanctification must remain sanctification. It may not arbitrarily be robbed of its significance, nor be exchanged for something else. It must always signify the making holy of what is unholy or less holy. Care must be taken not to confound sanctification with justification; a common mistake, frequently made by thoughtless Scripture readers. Hence the importance of a thorough understanding of this difference. Being …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Mothers, Daughters, and Wives in Israel
In order accurately to understand the position of woman in Israel, it is only necessary carefully to peruse the New Testament. The picture of social life there presented gives a full view of the place which she held in private and in public life. Here we do not find that separation, so common among Orientals at all times, but a woman mingles freely with others both at home and abroad. So far from suffering under social inferiority, she takes influential and often leading part in all movements, specially …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life

The Debt of Irenæus to Justin Martyr
If we are to proceed with safety in forming a judgment as to the relation between Justin and Irenæus in respect of the matter which they have in common, it will be necessary not merely to consider a number of selected parallels, but also to examine the treatment of a particular theme in the two writers. Let us set side by side, for example, c. 32 of Justin's First Apology with c. 57 of the Demonstration. Justin has been explaining to his Roman readers who the Jewish prophets were, and then …
Irenæus—The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching

Difficulties and Objections
"Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not My way equal? are not your ways unequal?" (Ezek. 18:25). A convenient point has been reached when we may now examine, more definitely, some of the difficulties encountered and the objections which might be advanced against what we have written in previous pages. The author deemed it better to reserve these for a separate consideration rather than deal with them as he went along, requiring as that would have done the …
Arthur W. Pink—The Sovereignty of God

How those are to be Admonished who Praise the Unlawful Things of which they are Conscious, and those who While Condemning Them, in no Wise Guard
(Admonition 32.) Differently to be admonished are they who even praise the unlawful things which they do, and those who censure what is wrong, and yet avoid it not. For they who even praise the unlawful things which they do are to be admonished to consider how for the most part they offend more by the mouth than by deeds. For by deeds they perpetrate wrong things in their own persons only; but with the mouth they bring out wickedness in the persons of as many as there are souls of hearers, to …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

Fifteenth Day for Schools and Colleges
WHAT TO PRAY.--For Schools and Colleges "As for Me, this is My covenant with them, saith the Lord: My Spirit that is upon thee, and My words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LoThe future of the Church and the world depends, to an extent we little conceive, on the education of the day. The Church may be seeking to evangelise the heathen, and be giving up her own children to secular …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

Prayer Taught and Encouraged.
(Probably Judæa.) ^C Luke XI. 1-13. ^c 1 And it came to pass, as he was praying in a certain place, that when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, even as John also taught his disciples. [Jesus had already taught his disciples how to pray in the Sermon on the Mount. This disciple probably thought that the prayer already taught was too brief to be sufficient, especially as Jesus often prayed so long. It was customary for the rabbis to give their disciples forms …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Sundry Exhortations.
HEBREWS xiii. Let love of the brethren continue. Forget not to shew love unto strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; them that are evil entreated, as being yourselves also in the body. Let marriage be had in honour among all, and let the bed be undefiled: for fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Be ye free from the love of money; content with such things as ye have: for Himself hath said, I will in no wise fail thee, …
Thomas Charles Edwards—The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Hebrews

Degrees of Sin
Are all transgressions of the law equally heinous? Some sins in themselves, and by reason of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than others. He that delivered me unto thee, has the greater sin.' John 19: 11. The Stoic philosophers held that all sins were equal; but this Scripture clearly holds forth that there is a gradual difference in sin; some are greater than others; some are mighty sins,' and crying sins.' Amos 5: 12; Gen 18: 21. Every sin has a voice to speak, but some …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

In the Present Crusade against the Bible and the Faith of Christian Men...
IN the present crusade against the Bible and the Faith of Christian men, the task of destroying confidence in the first chapter of Genesis has been undertaken by Mr. C. W. Goodwin, M.A. He requires us to "regard it as the speculation of some Hebrew Descartes or Newton, promulgated in all good faith as the best and most probable account that could be then given of God's Universe." (p. 252.) Mr. Goodwin remarks with scorn, that "we are asked to believe that a vision of Creation was presented to him …
John William Burgon—Inspiration and Interpretation

The Baptismal Covenant Can be Kept Unbroken. Aim and Responsibility of Parents.
We have gone "to the Law and to the Testimony" to find out what the nature and benefits of Baptism are. We have gathered out of the Word all the principal passages bearing on this subject. We have grouped them together, and studied them side by side. We have noticed that their sense is uniform, clear, and strong. Unless we are willing to throw aside all sound principles of interpretation, we can extract from the words of inspiration only one meaning, and that is that the baptized child is, by virtue …
G. H. Gerberding—The Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church

The Justice of God
The next attribute is God's justice. All God's attributes are identical, and are the same with his essence. Though he has several attributes whereby he is made known to us, yet he has but one essence. A cedar tree may have several branches, yet it is but one cedar. So there are several attributes of God whereby we conceive of him, but only one entire essence. Well, then, concerning God's justice. Deut 32:4. Just and right is he.' Job 37:23. Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

"And There is None that Calleth Upon Thy Name, that Stirreth up Himself to Take Hold on Thee,"
Isaiah lxiv. 7.--"And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee," &c. They go on in the confession of their sins. Many a man hath soon done with that a general notion of sin is the highest advancement in repentance that many attain to. You may see here sin and judgment mixed in thorough other(315) in their complaint. They do not so fix their eyes upon their desolate estate of captivity, as to forget their provocations. Many a man would spend more affection, …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Wonderful.
Isaiah ix:6. HIS name shall be called "Wonderful" (Isaiah ix:6). And long before Isaiah had uttered this divine prediction the angel of the Lord had announced his name to be Wonderful. As such He appeared to Manoah. And Manoah said unto the angel of Jehovah, What is thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass we may do thee honor. And the angel of Jehovah said unto Him "why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is Wonderful" (margin, Judges xiii:17-18). This angel of Jehovah, the Person who …
Arno Gaebelein—The Lord of Glory

Wisdom and Revelation.
"Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness …
W. H. Griffith Thomas—The Prayers of St. Paul

Links

Genesis 18:21 NIV
Genesis 18:21 NLT
Genesis 18:21 ESV
Genesis 18:21 NASB
Genesis 18:21 KJV

Genesis 18:21 Commentaries

Bible Hub