And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.
Ver. 28. And he looked.] Abraham might look upon the smoke of Sodom; Lot might not; because it would work more on Lot's heart, than on Abraham's, who had more grace.
The smoke of the country.] Nothing else was now to be seen of that fair and fruitful plain. Sic transit gloria mundi. When we most greedily grasp earthly things, we embrace nothing but smoke, which wrings tears from our eyes, and soon vanisheth into nothing.