The Destruction Of Sodom And Gomorrah

And the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. And Lot saw them, and he rose to meet them, and bowed down with his face to the ground. And he said: Behold now, my lords, turn aside, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry the night, and wash your feet, and you shall rise early and go on your way. And they said: No, but we will spend the night in the open square. And he pressed upon them greatly, and they turned aside to him, and came into his house; and he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, from young to old, all the people from every quarter. And they called to Lot and said to him: Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them. And Lot went out to them to the entrance, and shut the door behind him. And he said: I pray you, my brothers, do not act wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; let me bring them out to you, and do to them as is good in your eyes; only to these men do nothing, for they have come under the shadow of my roof. And they said: Stand back. And they said: This one came to sojourn, and he keeps acting as a judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them. And they pressed hard upon the man, upon Lot, and drew near to break the door. And the men put forth their hand and brought Lot in to them into the house, and shut the door. And the men who were at the entrance of the house they struck with blindness, from small to great, so that they wearied themselves to find the entrance. And the men said to Lot: Whom else have you here? A son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place. For we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become great before the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it. And Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said: Arise, get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city. But he seemed like one who jests in the eyes of his sons-in-law. And as the dawn broke, the angels urged Lot, saying: Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are present here, lest you be swept away in the iniquity of the city. And he lingered; so the men seized his hand, and the hand of his wife, and the hand of his two daughters, in the LORD's mercy upon him; and they brought him out and set him outside the city. And it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said: Escape for your life; do not look behind you, and do not stop anywhere in the plain; escape to the mountain, lest you be swept away. And Lot said to them: Oh no, my lord. Behold now, your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me, which you did with me in keeping my life alive; but I cannot escape to the mountain, lest the evil overtake me and I die. Behold now, this city is near enough to flee there, and it is a small thing; let me escape there, pray, is it not a small thing? And my life shall be spared. And he said to him: See, I have granted your request in this matter also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. Hurry, escape there, for I can do nothing until you arrive there. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar. And the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven. And He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. And his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham rose early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD. And he looked out over Sodom and Gomorrah, and over all the face of the land of the plain, and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.