Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot,.... When he lived in Sodom, and before, and at the time of the destruction of that city with other neighbouring ones: they did eat, they drank; See Gill on Luk 17:27, and Eze 16:49. This is to be understood of the inhabitants of Sodom, and the other cities that perished with it: they bought, they sold: they traded among themselves, and with their neighbours; and, as it appears from the text referred to, they had no regard to the poor and needy; they made no conscience of defrauding and oppressing them: they planted; vineyards, and fruit trees; living in a very fruitful soil, like the garden of God, Gen 13:10 they builded; houses for themselves and posterity; and thus, as a Jewish writer (h) observes of them, in agreement with our Lord's design in all this, being filled with the increase of the earth, they lived in security, peace, and tranquillity. (h) Pirke Eliezer, c. 25.