And the house of Joseph sent to descry Bethel. (Now the name of the city before [was] Luz.)
Ver. 23. Now the name of the city before was Luz,] i.e., An almond, or a filbert; perhaps from the plenty of such fruits there growing: like as Cerasus in Pontus had its name from cherries, Elaea from olives, &c.
And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
Ver. 23. Out of the fire] viz. of hell; as the angel pulled Lot out of Sodom, as ye would save a drowning man, though ye pulled off some of his hair to save him. a Hic est depingendus Satan et Tartarus, et career atrocissimus et luctuoaus, in quo vere sit strider dentium et fletus, saith Aretins. Those that are obstinate, and receive not reproofs, are to be terrified and told of the horror of hell, those seas of vengeance, that worm that never dieth, torments without end and past imagination.
Even the garment spotted] As Nero's was, when he rode in the same horse litter with his own mother. (Sueton.) The phrase is thought to be taken either from legal impurities of leprous garments, by touching of which men were defiled, Leviticus 14:54,57; or else from the profuse drunkenness and filthiness of the Gnostics, which sometimes defiled their garments.
a Haec est sancta violentia, optabilis rapina. Jerome.