The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
After the men had eaten of the food which Abraham and Sarah had given them under a tree before the door of the tent, the men arose to depart, and Abraham went with them on their journey towards Sodom.
These three persons were not really men but we can suppose that they were angels sent by the Lord to tell Abraham how great a nation his children were to become and also to tell him what was going to happen to the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
As the men walked with Abraham they told him that the Lord intended to destroy these cities because they were so wicked. Abraham was grieved because he knew that Lot and his family lived in the plains of Jordan. He thought there must be some good men in Sodom who ought not to be destroyed along with the wicked people, therefore, after the angels had left him, he said unto the Lord:
"Will you destroy the righteous with the wicked? If there be fifty righteous people within the city, will you not spare the city because there are fifty righteous there?"
The Lord said to Abraham: "If I find in Sodom fifty righteous people within the city, then I will spare Sodom."
"If there be forty-five righteous people in Sodom, will you spare the city?" And the Lord said He would spare Sodom if there were that many righteous people.
Again Abraham asked the Lord if He would spare Sodom if there were forty righteous people there. And the Lord said He would not destroy Sodom if that many could be found. Then He promised to save the city if thirty righteous people could be found, or even ten righteous people could be found. Abraham then returned unto his tent.
Now Lot and his wife were living in Sodom together with their children. One day Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom and two angels that looked like men appeared to him. They might have been the same ones that appeared unto Abraham. When Lot saw them he rose up to meet them and bowed himself to the ground and begged them to come into his house and tarry the night so that they might go on their way refreshed, but the angels said: "No, we will abide in the city all night."
Lot insisted that they should come into his house and when they came in he made them a feast and baked bread and set before them meat and drink, and the men ate of the food that Lot had given them.
The people of Sodom seeing that Lot had entertained two strangers, came to his door and called unto Lot: "Where are the two men that came to you this night; bring them out that we may know them." Lot went to the door of his house and begged the people to do no harm to the strangers, but the men of Sodom pressed upon Lot and told him to stand back and came near breaking down the door of his house.
The strangers inside hearing all the noise without arose and came to the door. Seeing the intent of the wicked people the men put forth their hands and pulled Lot into the house and shut the door. Then they smote the men outside with blindness, so that they could not find their way and they cried out with great rage against Lot and the strangers within his house.
The men said unto Lot: "Sodom is a very wicked city and we will destroy this place. The Lord has sent us to destroy this people because they are wicked and do not serve him, but you must arise with your family and quickly escape, for fire and brimstone shall be rained upon the city and all therein shall be quickly destroyed."
When the morning came the angels told Lot to rise and take his wife and two daughters and escape out of the city, but Lot lingered for he did not wish to leave his home and all of his possessions behind him though he felt that it was the word of the Lord and he ought to go. Therefore, the men took him by the hand and led him out of the city and said to him and his wife: "Escape for your lives but look not behind you nor rest a single moment for if you do you will be consumed."
THE BURNING OF SODOM.
Then Lot fled to the little town of Zoar. Hardly had Lot and his wife gotten out of Sodom before the heavens opened and a great rain of fire and brimstone began to fall. The houses caught fire and the wicked people were consumed in them or were burned in the streets. Not only upon Sodom but also upon Gomorrah and the other villages of the plain did the fire and brimstone fall, until there was not left any living thing in all the plain. Lot and his wife and his two daughters fled before the awful fire, escaping for their lives as the angels of the Lord had told them to do.
The angels had told them to flee for their lives and not to look behind them, but Lot's wife was overcome with a desire to see the destruction of the city where she lived. She stopped and looked behind her, disobeying the words of the angels. When she did so she was turned into a pillar of salt so that Lot and his two daughters alone were left to escape from the burning cities of the plain. All his cattle and goods of every sort were destroyed, but he was thankful that the Lord had given him warning of the great destruction that was to come upon the wicked cities.
The next morning Abraham looked out from his tent towards Sodom and Gomorrah and saw the smoking ruins of those cities. Then he knew that there were not even ten righteous people in all that plain who served the Lord, and that the wicked cities and all the people in them had been destroyed.