Part 127 (1/2)

And he said, ”I will not destroy it for the ten's sake.” And the Lord went his way, as soon as he had done communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.

DESTRUCTION OF THE CITIES OF THE PLAIN.

_The Fate of Sodom and Gomorrah_.

And the two angels came to Sodom at evening; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot saw them and rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face to the earth; and he said, ”Behold now, my lords, turn aside, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your way.”

And they said, ”Nay; but we will abide in the street all night.”

And he urged them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

And the men said unto Lot, ”Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whomsoever thou hast in the city; bring them out of the place: for we will destroy this place, because the cry of them has grown great before the Lord; and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it.”

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THE DEAD SEA

The five ”Cities of the Plain” are supposed to have been situated to the north of the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is 47 miles long, with an extreme breadth of about 10 miles. It lies 1290 feet below the sea level and is itself 1300 feet deep in the deepest part. (See note on page 257) [End ill.u.s.tration]

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And Lot went out, and spoke to his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, ”Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons in law as one who mocked.

And when the morning came, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, ”Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters who are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.”

But he lingered; and the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the Lord being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.

And it came to pa.s.s, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, ”Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the Plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.”

And Lot said to them, ”Oh, not so, my lord: behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast showed unto me in saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die: behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.”

And he said unto him, ”See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which thou hast spoken.

Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do anything till thou be come thither.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar, that is, ”Little.”

The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah {36} 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 that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

And Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord: and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the Plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.

And it came to pa.s.s, when G.o.d destroyed the cities of the Plain, that G.o.d remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt.

BIRTH OF ISAAC.

_Hagar and Ishmael Are Cast Out. Treaty with Abimelech_.

And a child was born to Sarah, according as the Lord had promised, and Abraham called the name of his son, Isaac. And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, which she had borne unto Abraham, mocking. Wherefore she said unto Abraham, ”Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.”

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