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Chapter XIX.

ABRAHAM'S INTERCESSION FOR SODOM.

AFTER this the Lord appeared to Abraham again.

And the Lord said, that He would not hide from Abraham the thing which He was going to do, because Abraham did the will of the Lord, and taught all his household to do so too.

So the Lord told Abraham, that He was going to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, because their wickedness was very great.

Then Abraham stood before the Lord, and prayed Him not to destroy the righteous with the wicked; and he besought the Lord that He would spare the city of Sodom where Lot dwelt, if there were fifty good men in it.

God listened to Abraham's prayer. And God said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the city for their sakes."

Then Abraham prayed that God would not destroy the city, if there should be only five

less than fifty good men there; and the Lord said, “If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it."

And Abraham again said to God, "Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there." And God said, "I will not do it, if I find thirty there."

At last, Abraham prayed God not to destroy Sodom, if there were ten righteous men in it. And God said, "I will not destroy it for ten's sake."

But in all the city of Sodom there were not so many as ten righteous persons.

Peradventure, means perhaps.

IT

Chapter XX.

THE DESTRUCTION OF SODOM.

was evening when two angels came to Sodom.

And Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and when he

saw the two angels, he thought that they were men travelling. So Lot rose up to meet them, and begged them to come into his house, and rest there that night, and wash their feet. Then the angels went with Lot into his house, and he made cakes for them to eat.

It was right and good of Lot to wish to be kind to strangers, and God rewarded Lot for it.

Before the angels went to rest that night, they told Lot, that God had sent them to destroy the city of Sodom, because the people in it were very wicked. And the angels said to Lot, "Hast thou here any besides? son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place: for the Lord hath sent us to destroy it."

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Then Lot went out and spoke to his sons-inlaw, who had married his daughters, and said, 'Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city." But Lot seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law. They thought that he was foolish, and was telling them idle tales, when he told them of God's anger against the

wicked people, and how He was going to punish them. They were like the people whom Noah warned before the flood. And so, when God rained down fire and brimstone from heaven to destroy the city, they perished with the rest of the people in it.

When the morning came, the angels told Lot to make haste, and to take his wife and his two daughters, and go out of the city, that they might not all be killed. Lot was sorry to leave Sodom, and all that he had there. But God was very merciful to him, and while he lingered, the angels laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and of his two daughters, and led them forth out of the city. And when they had brought them out of the city, the Lord said, "Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed."

As soon as Lot was safe, the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah fire and brimstone out of heaven. And the fire destroyed those cities, and all the people that lived in the cities, and the trees,

and the plants, and everything that grew upon the ground.

When the angels led Lot and his wife and his two daughters out of Sodom, the Lord had said, that they must not look back. But Lot's wife did look back. And she was turned into a pillar of salt. But Lot and his two daughters were saved alive.

Lot had not become wicked like the people of Sodom, so God did not destroy him. God also had mercy on Lot for Abraham's sake'. But Lot had lost all his goods, and all that he had. He had chosen to go and live among the wicked people of Sodom, because the country was rich; but now he had lost the riches which he had loved too well: the fire and brimstone from heaven had destroyed his flocks, and his herds, and his silver, and his gold.

Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. "And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and beheld,

1 Gen. xix. 29.

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