“The punishments did not come upon the sinners
Without prior signs
With the violence of thunder.
They justly suffered
Because of their wicked acts.
They practiced a more bitter hatred of strangers.
Others had refused to receive strangers
When they came to them.
But these made slaves of guests
Who were their benefactors.
Not only so,
While punishment of some sort
Will come upon the former
For having received strangers with hostility,
The latter,
Having first received them with festal celebrations,
Afterward afflicted them with terrible sufferings.
They had already shared the same rights.
They were stricken also with loss of sight.
Just as were those at the door of the righteous man.
When surrounded by yawning darkness,
Each tried to find the way through their own door.”
Who was worse, the Egyptians or the Sodomites from Genesis, chapters 18-19? Did the Egyptians deserve to be punished? The decision rested on how they treated strangers. Interesting enough, the argument is not about immorality but about hospitality. There is no explicit mention of Sodom or Egypt, but the implications are clear. These Egyptians were clearly warned with the various plagues. Instead of refusing strangers, the Egyptians had welcomed the Israelites, especially based on the stories about Joseph in Genesis, chapters 37-47. There his whole family, father and brothers, the sons of Jacob were welcomed into Egypt. However, as pointed out at the beginning of Exodus, chapters 1 and 5, they then enslaved them and tried to kill the Israelite male babies. Unlike the Sodomites they were not blind, but simply lived in darkness. This story about blindness is clearly from the Sodomite story in Genesis.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 