THE LORD SENDS TWO ANGELS TO DESTROY SODOM AND GOMORRAH. LOT AND HIS TWO DAUGHTERS ARE SAVED, BUT HIS WIFE IS CHANGED INTO A PILLAR OF SALT. ISAAC IS BORN. ABRAHAM SENDS HAGAR AND ISHMAEL AWAY.
ABRAHAM was sitting one day at his tent-door, in the hot part of the day. And he looked up and saw three men standing: near him. Then he ran out to meet them and bowed down before them toward the ground, for so they used to welcome strangers in that land. And Abraham asked the men to rest under the tree, and to let some water be brought that they might wash their feet.
In those days people did not wear shoes such as we wear now: they went with bare feet, or else wore sandals. Sandals were like the soles of our shoes, and were tied on with strings. They kept the feet from being hurt by sharp stones, but did not keep off the dust and dirt as shoes do. Therefore it was pleasant for a person, after he had been walking on a warm day, to take off his sandals and wash his feet in cool water. And Abraham asked these three men to have water that they might wash their feet. He said he would bring them some bread also; and they told him to do as he said. And Abraham made haste into the tent to Sarah, and told her bake some cakes quickly. And he ran to the herd and brought to a calf that was tender and good, and had it killed. Then he took butter and milk, and the calf that had been cooked, and set it before the men, and they did eat, and Abraham stood by them to wait on them, under the tree. After they had eaten, they rose up and went toward the city of Sodom, and Abraham walked with them.
And yet, although we call them men, these three persons were not men. Two of them, we believe, were angels, and the other one was the Lord. You may ask, Could it be the Lord who looked and talked like a man? Yes, for he could come down to this world in the form of a man. And further on in the Bible we read, several times, of his coming, and staying for a little while, and speaking to men. And long afterward, he came and stayed many years, and walked about on the earth as a man, and made sick people well, and dead people alive, and died on the cross for our sins, and then went up to heaven again.
And now the Lord was going to send his angels to burn up Sodom and Gomorrah. Gomorrah was another city near to Sodom; the Lord was going to burn up both these cities, because the people who lived there were so wicked. And he was willing to tell Abraham what he would do; for Abraham loved God, and obeyed him, and taught his family to obey him. But when Abraham heard that Sodom, the city where Lot lived, was to be burned up, he felt grieved; for he feared that Lot might be burned up also. And he spoke to the Lord, and said, that perhaps there were some righteous persons living in the city, and he asked whether the righteous should be destroyed with the wicked. The Lord answered that if there were fifty righteous persons in the city, he would not destroy it. Then Abram said perhaps there might be a few less than fifty; there might be forty-five. The Lord told him that if there were but ten righteous persons in Sodom, he would not destroy it.
When the Lord was done talking with Abraham, he went from him, and Abraham came back to his tent.
And Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom in the evening. For in that country the cities had walls around them, to keep out robbers, or any enemies who might come to do the people harm. And these walls had gates, which were shut at night, or whenever there was danger. Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom, and two angels came there, but they looked like men. They were, we suppose, the same that had been with the Lord at Abraham's tent.
When Lot saw them he rose up to meet them, and bowed down with his face toward the ground. And he asked them to come into his house and stay there all night, and to wash their feet; in the morning, he said, they should go on their journey. They answered, No, we will stay in the street all night. But Lot begged them, until they consented; so they came, and he set out food, and baked bread for them, and they did eat.
Afterward they asked whether he had any sons or daughters in the city, beside those who were with him in the house; if he had, the angels said, he should go and take them out of Sodom, for the Lord had sent them to destroy it. Then Lot went and found his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said to them, Up, get you out of this place, for the Lord will destroy the city! But they would not believe his words, and Lot went back to his own home without them.
When it was morning the angels said to him, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, and make haste away, lest you be burned up with the wicked people of the city. And because Lot stayed a little while, perhaps to save something out of his house, the angels caught hold of his hand, and of his wife's hand, and of his two daughters' hands, and brought them out of Sodom. After they were brought out, they were commanded not to stay near, nor go slowly away, but to go very quickly, that they might not be burned. They were commanded not even to look behind them, but to make haste to the mountain where the fire could not reach them.
Now there was another city near Sodom, named Zoar; it was a little one. And Lot prayed that it might not be destroyed, because he would rather go there than up on the lonely mountain, where wild beasts or wicked men might kill him. Therefore God did not destroy that city. And Lot and his daughters fled toward Zoar, but his wife looked back toward Sodom, which she had been commanded not to do, and she died there because she looked back; and she was turned into a pillar of salt. But Lot came to Zoar, he and his daughters; the sun was risen up when they entered into Zoar.
Then the Lord rained down fire and brimstone out of heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and destroyed those cities, and all the plain where they stood, and the people who lived in them, and the things which grew on the ground. Yet he saved Lot and his two daughters alive, though his wife died for her disobedience. But of all his riches that he took with him, when he went from Abraham, we are not told that Lot had anything left.
Early the next morning Abraham went out from his tent and looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and he saw the smoke going up from the place where they had stood, like the smoke of a great furnace, but those wicked cities were not there. Then Abraham knew that God did not find even ten righteous persons in Sodom, because he had promised that if he found them, he would not destroy the city,
And Abraham moved away to another part of the land of Canaan, named Gerar, where a people called the Philistines lived. At first their king was unkind to Abraham, but God punished him for being so. Then the king confessed his fault, and made Abraham a present of some sheep and oxen, and told him he might live in any part of the land he chose.
And God gave to Abraham and Sarah the son he had promised them, and Abraham called his name Isaac, as God had commanded. Abraham was one hundred years old when Isaac was born; and he and Sarah were glad, because God had given them a son. And the child grew, and when he came to be a larger boy, Abraham made him a feast. And Sarah saw Ishmael, Hagar's son, mocking Isaac. Therefore Sarah was displeased with Ishmael, and she asked Abraham to send him and his mother away. But Abraham did not wish to send them away, and it troubled him when Sarah asked him to do this. Then God spoke to Abraham and told him to do as Sarah had said. So he rose up early in the morning and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave them to Hagar, Ishmael's mother. The bottles of that country were what we would call sacks, or bags. They were made of goat-skins, folded over and sewed tightly together around the edges, except at the neck, which was left open for the water to pass through. And when Abraham had given Hagar some bread, and a bottle of water, putting it on her shoulder, he sent her and her son away.
Then Hagar took her boy and went into the wilderness. And when all the water in the bottle was gone, and they had no more to drink, the child grew weak, and Hagar thought he would die. And she laid him under a bush, in the shade, and went a little way off and sat down and wept, for she did not want to see her boy die. And God heard her weeping; and the angel of God called to her out of heaven and said, What aileth thee, Hagar? Then the angel told her not to be afraid, but to lift up Ishmael from the place where she had laid him, and to hold him in her arms. And God shewed her a well of water that was there in the wilderness, and she went to it and filled the bottle and gave her son drink, and he became strong and well again. After this God was kind to Ishmael, and he grew and lived in the wilderness, and was an archer; he shot with a bow and arrow. And his mother took a wife for him out of the land of Egypt, where she used to live.
Now the king of the Philistines, in whose land Abraham was staying, saw that God was kind to Abraham and was his friend. Therefore he came and asked Abraham to promise that he would never do him, or his children, any harm. And Abraham promised that he would not; yet he found fault with the king because some of his servants had taken away a well of water which Abraham's servants had digged. For the rivers and streams did not run through the fields in that country as they do in ours. People had to dig in the ground to find water, and when they had found it, and made a well, that well belonged to them, and they valued it and did not like to have it taken from them.
And now Abraham said that the king's servants had taken away his well. But the king answered that he did not know who had done it and that he had never heard of it before. Then Abraham took seven lambs from his flock and set them in a place by themselves. When the king saw them, he asked why they were there. Abraham replied that those seven lambs were for the king, that he might take them and keep them for his own, to make him remember that it was Abraham who had digged that well.
So the king and Abraham made an agreement, or covenant, together, to be friends with each other. And Abraham planted a grove of trees, to give a pleasant shade about the well. And he called the name of the place Beer-sheba, which means, the well of the oath, or promise; because there, he and the king had promised that they would do each other no harm. And there Abraham worshipped the Lord. And he stayed in the land of the Philistines many days.