Oftentimes people will use the word “sodomy” about same-sex intercourse and “sodomite” about those that engage in it. Let’s make a note that Sodom and Gomorrah were guilty of far more than just that. Sodom and Gomorrah are mentioned in Ezekiel 16:49 for various sins, like pride and abusing the poor. In Jeremiah 23:14, they are compared to the sins of priests in pre-exile Israel who committed adultery and idolatry. In Matthew 11:24, Jesus even compares his generation of Jews to Sodom and says they are more stubborn and hard-hearted. Therefore, Sodom and Gomorrah were guilty of more than just sexual sin.
Sexual immortality is a part of the reason they were judged. Sodom and Gomorrah were in Canaan, and the Canaanites were collectively associated with grievous sin, and God determined that they were to be exiled and destroyed. The Canaanite region during the time of Abraham was still plagued by the same sins when Moses arrived, long after Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. The illicit sex practices mentioned in Leviticus didn’t end or begin with Sodom and Gomorrah. That’s why Chapters 18 and 20 of Leviticus include a disclaimer stating that many of the listed sins were practiced in Egypt and Canaan.
Chapter 18 of Leviticus begins with (NLT) “1 Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 ‘Give the following instructions to the people of Israel.” I am the Lord your God. 3 So do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life. 4 You must obey all my regulations and be careful to obey my decrees, for I am the Lord your God. 5 If you obey my decrees and my regulations, you will find life through them. I am the Lord.”
Verse 23 of Chapter 20 says, “Do not live according to the customs of the people I am driving out before you. It is because they do these shameful things that I detest them.”
Just as Jesus compares 1st-century Israelites to Sodom by saying that Sodom would have received him (Matthew 11:23-24), he also compares the Israelites of his day to the Ninevites from the story of Jonah (Matthew 12:39-42). Unlike Sodom, however, the Ninevites repented when Jonah warned them of judgment. Since Jesus references both, one could infer that pre-Abrahamic prophets were sent to Sodom, but they didn’t listen, and now they serve as a cautionary tale.
Matthew 11:23 “And you people of Capernaum, will you be honored in heaven? No, you will go down to the place of the dead. For if the miracles I did for you had been done in wicked Sodom, it would still be here today. 24 I tell you, even Sodom will be better off on judgment day than you.”
Matthew 12:39 But Jesus replied, “Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. 41 “The people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent. 42 The queen of Sheba[e] will also stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for she came from a distant land to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Now someone greater than Solomon is here—but you refuse to listen.
A repetition of Sodom’s practices is found in the tribe of Benjamin, as described in Judges 19-21, which sheds further light on the activities of Sodom and Gomorrah. It was a hazing ritual, and the tribe of Benjamin decided it was okay to copy this practice in Gibeah. The citizens would deny lodging to foreigners, forcing them to sleep outside in the town square, and then rape them that night. In both stories, there was at least one man who broke with tradition and offered lodging as a means of protection. Then in both cases, the locals came to the host’s house to rape the guest, and the host would offer his daughter(s) to them to be raped instead. In the case of the story in Judges 19-21, the host offered his daughter and his guest’s wife (a Levite’s wife) (Judges 19:24). In Genesis 19, the two angels overpowered the men of Sodom, and then Lot and his daughters escaped the fiery judgment that was coming. However in Judges 19, the Levite visitor threw his wife outside and shut the door, and the rapists settled for her and abused her all night instead. She died from the assault, and the Levite hacked her body into pieces and mailed her body parts to the other tribes and told them what happened. Almost all of Israel went to punish the rapists, and many of the Benjamites defended the perpetrators and refused to hand them over, so there was a war. The Benjamites were defeated, and only about 600 Benjamite men remained. The other tribes had vowed not to give them wives, but there was a town that neither participated in the battle nor took the oath, which had 400 available women. The other 200 took (as in kidnapped) 200 women dancers at Shiloh to be their wives.
When reading both stories, it becomes clearer that Sodom and Gomorrah were savages who got what they deserved, especially since they ignored God’s warnings. God even said in Gen 18:20-21, “I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah because their sin is so flagrant. I am going down to see if their actions are as wicked as I have heard. If not, I want to know.”
When God referred to an outcry, it should trigger us to think of the victims that we aren’t told about. That phrase “outcry” previously appears in Genesis about Abel’s blood, “crying out to God from the ground” in Gen 4:10 after Cain murdered him. These people weren’t just rapists, they were murderers. The Levite’s wife in Judges 19 died the next morning after being gang-raped all night. Since then, the tribe of Benjamin in Gibeah copied their sexual customs, implying that other Canaanites may have continued the tradition or at least retold the stories of Sodom and Gomorrah. Then, for some reason, the Benjamites decided this was something they wanted to repeat despite the final judgment Sodom and Gomorrah got. This is why God told the Israelites to destroy Canaan’s culture and not copy their customs in Leviticus chapters 18 & 20. The Benjamites, too, were judged for it and nearly exterminated. God only preserved them out of mercy because of his covenant with Israel. God’s judgments in the Bible are ALWAYS justified.