Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 19:11

"And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door." — Genesis 19:11 (ASV)

Blindness. —This word occurs elsewhere only in 2 Kings 6:18, and in both cases it is clear that actual blindness is not meant. If the men here had been struck with blindness, they would not have wearied themselves trying to find the door, but would either have gone away in terror at the visitation, or, if too hardened for that, would have groped about until they found it. So, if the Syrian army had been made actually blind, they would have surrendered themselves; nor would it have been practicable to guide an army of blind men on so long a march as that from Dothan to Samaria. In both cases, the men were unaware that anything had happened to them.

The people of Sodom thought they saw the door; the Syrians supposed that the locality was one well known to them, and only when the confusion was removed did they become conscious that they were at Samaria. The word really means a disturbance of vision caused by the eye not being in its proper connection with the brain. And so the men of Sodom always seemed just on the point of reaching the door; they pressed on, strove, and quarreled, but always failed. They did not know how, but they always supposed it was by one another’s fault. It is a strange picture of men given over to unbelief and sin, and who seeing see not, because they reject the true light.