“The elder said to the younger: Our father is old, and there is no man on the earth to consort with us in the way of the world” (Genesis 19:31). “The elder said to the younger: Our father is old, [and there is no man on the earth]…” – because they believed that the entire world had come to an end, as in the generation of the Flood. “Let us give our father wine to drink, and we will lie with him, and we will give life to offspring from our father” (Genesis 19:32).
“Let us give our father wine to drink…” – Rabbi Tanḥuma in the name of Rabbi Shmuel: “We will give life to offspring from our father.” “We will give life to a child from our father” is not written here, but rather, “we will give life to offspring from our father” – that offspring that will come from another place. Which is that? The messianic king.20The Messiah, scion of David, will be a distant descendant of Lot, through Moav and Ruth.
“They gave their father wine to drink that night. The elder came and lay with her father and he was not aware when she lay and when she arose” (Genesis 19:33). “They gave their father wine…[and when she arose [uvkuma]]” – there is a dot over the vav of uvkuma, [intimating] that when she lay he was not aware, but when she arose he was aware. “It was the next day, and the elder said to the younger: Behold, I lay last night with my father.
Let us give him wine to drink tonight as well and come and lie with him, and we will give life to offspring from our father” (Genesis 19:34). “It was the next day and the elder said to the younger…. [Let us give him wine]” – from where did they get wine in the cave? Because they [the people of Sodom] had a preponderance of wine, they would hide it away in caves. Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon said: Something resembling a sample of the World to Come was provided for them,21It came there miraculously, so that Lot’s daughters could intoxicate him and have children through him, from whom David would descend. just as it says: “It will be on that day,22In Messianic times. that the mountains will drip with juice” (Joel 4:18).