Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron)
And the elder said to the younger: Our father is old, and there is no man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth; come, let us make him drink wine, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed from our father. And it was related how the daughters of Lot, by making him drunk with wine, lay with him, and conceived and bore Moab and Ammon, the patriarchs of the Moabites and the Ammonites. This story indeed seems to be against the natural custom of human conception, but it cannot be doubted as a fact, because such great authority reports it to have happened. Lot can be seen as excusable, because he suffered such a crime of incest unknowingly rather than committed it; but he is not excused in that, forgetting the recent extermination of the impious, he indulged in wine so much that he could not perceive what was being done to him. The daughters also seem excusable, because they did not commit incest with their father due to lust; but because they believed no men were left on earth, thinking all had been consumed by the same fiery punishment; and they suspected that just as after the flood the human race was restored through the three sons of Noah and as many daughters-in-law, now through themselves and their father, who alone had survived the fires, it must be restored anew; thus they thought it should be done rather in sleep, lest the father, knowing such a marriage, would shun and reject it in scorn. So they can thus seem excusable, for they believed they were performing an act of obedience to divine disposition; but they are not excused in that they neither sought the will or counsel of their father in such a matter, nor waited for time to pass until they could learn more certainly what had happened regarding the human race throughout the earth. In a moral sense, we can understand from this event that no state of earthly habitation, however exalted it may appear, can be free from the contagion of tempting guilt. For behold, the blessed Lot escaped the stinking flames of Sodom, avoided the ruin of the equally sinful city of Zohar, and ascended the peak of a mountain; but where you might think him positioned in the lofty summit of virtues, there you see him, by night, drunk and suddenly defiled by his daughters, because it often happens that those who have conquered other temptations of vice through the enlightenment of heavenly grace, again succumb weakly to others through the inertia of their own weakness. For the assistance of angelic guidance signifies heavenly aid by which we are freed from the dangers of sin; while the daughters of blessed Lot represent even the carnal thoughts of exalted men, which by neglect sometimes subdue them; so that from a pious heart an unworthy word or deed, like nefarious offspring, is conceived. Nor is it to be doubted that the sons born to Lot by his daughters, who begot Gentile peoples and alien to the faith of their father, represent those works of the saints which do not pertain to the rule of holiness, but rather to the depravity of the wicked; such was the adultery of David, the arrogance of King Hezekiah, the rash march of King Josiah to the battle in which he would perish and subsequently betray the Davidic kingdom to enemies; and then the denial of the most blessed prince of the apostles. The times so often correspond with events; for Lot, who had been rescued from Sodom at dawn, was drunk and deceived at night, because of course what saves us from dangers is the grace of God illuminating us; what makes us relapse into vices is our own blindness and weakness. Moab and Ammon are born of Lot's daughters, who also signify sins, as testified by that law's commandment which says: The Moabite and Ammonite shall not enter into the Church of the Lord until the third and fourth generation, and forever, because errors and vices, as we said, of the elect are by no means counted among the virtues by which the Church is perfected and adorned, but are rather covered by an abundance of good works so as not to appear. But the names of Lot's sons, the first of whom is interpreted as "from the father," and the second "my people," are fittingly applied to the nature of vices; which I find divinely implanted not from the Creator God in us, but originating from the first cause of our condition. I call Ammon also "my people," because this also pertains to me, and I recognize that it is not to be ascribed to the Creator of natures. Behold it should be noted that the people are properly interpreted as merosus (rebellious). My people are called Ammon even if this too does not differ from the significance of sins. For just as we should rejoice in the fruit of virtues that are given to us by the Lord, so it is necessary that we be pricked with salutary sorrow at the emergence of vices, which is known to arise from the corruption of our nature. And these are indeed the sons of Lot conceived in incest. But Isaac, who was born of the promise and is interpreted as Joy, designates the grace of virtues.
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