²⁴If there be fifty just men in the city, shall they perish withal? and wilt thou not spare that place for the sake of the fifty just, if they be therein?

²⁵Far be it from thee to do this thing, and to slay the just with the wicked, and for the just to be in like case as the wicked; this is not beseeming thee: thou who judgest all the earth, wilt not make this judgment.

²⁶And the Lord said to him: If I find in Sodom fifty just within the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.

²⁷And Abraham answered, and said: Seeing I have once begun, I will speak to my Lord, whereas I am dust and ashes.

²⁸What if there be five less than fifty just persons? wilt thou for five and forty destroy the whole city: And he said: I will not destroy it, if I find five and forty.

²⁹And again he said to him: But if forty be found there, what wilt thou do? He said: I will not destroy it for the sake of forty.

³⁰Lord, saith he, be not angry, I beseech thee, if I speak: What if thirty shall be found there? He answered: I will not do it, if I find thirty there.

³¹Seeing, saith he, I have once begun, I will speak to my Lord: What if twenty be found there? He said: I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty.

³²I beseech thee, saith he, be not angry, Lord, if I speak yet once more: What if ten shall be found there? And he said: I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.

³³And the Lord departed, after he had left speaking to Abraham: and Abraham returned to his place.

Chapter 19

And the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of the city. And seeing them, he rose up and went to meet them: and worshipped prostrate to the ground.

²And said: I beseech you, my lords, turn in to the house of your servant, and lodge there: wash your feet, and in the morning you shall go on your way. And they said: No, but we will abide in the street.

³He pressed them very much to turn in unto him: and when they were come into his house, he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate:

⁴But before they went to bed, the men of the city beset the house, both young and old, all the people together.

⁵And they called Lot, and said to him: Where are the men that came in to thee at night? bring them out hither, that we may know them:

⁶Lot went out to them, and shut the door after him, and said:

⁷Do not so, I beseech you, my brethren, do not commit this evil.

⁸I have two daughters who, as yet, have not known man; I will bring them out to you, and abuse you them as it shall please you, so that you do no evil to these men, because they are come in under the shadow of my roof.

⁹But they said: Get thee back thither. And again: Thou camest in, said they, as a stranger, was it to be a judge? therefore we will afflict thee more than them. And they pressed very violently upon Lot: and they were even at the point of breaking open the doors.

¹⁰And behold the men put out their hand, and drew in Lot unto them, and shut the door.

¹¹And them, that were without, they struck with blindness from the least to the greatest, so that they could not find the door.

¹²And they said to Lot: Hast thou here any of thine? son in law, or sons, or daughters, all that are thine bring them out of this city:

¹³For we will destroy this place, because their cry is grown loud before the Lord, who hath sent us to destroy them.

¹⁴So Lot went out, and spoke to his sons in law that were to have his daughters, and said: Arise: get you out of this place, because the Lord will destroy this city. And he seemed to them to speak as it were in jest.

¹⁵And when it was morning, the angels pressed him, saying: Arise, take thy wife, and the two daughters that thou hast: lest thou also perish in the wickedness of the city.

¹⁶And as he lingered, they took his hand, and the hand of his wife, and of his two daughters, because the Lord spared him.

¹⁷And they brought him forth, and set him without the city: and there they spoke to him, saying: Save thy life: look not back, neither stay thou in all the country about: but save thy self in the mountain, lest thou be also consumed.

¹⁸And Lot said to them: I beseech thee, my Lord,

¹⁹Because thy servant hath found grace before thee, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewn to me, in saving my life, and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil seize me, and I die.

²⁰There is this city here at hand, to which I may flee, it is a little one, and I shall be saved in it: is it not a little one, and my soul shall live?

²¹And he said to him: Behold also in this, I have heard thy prayers, not to destroy the city for which thou hast spoken.

²²Make haste, and be saved there: because I cannot do any thing till thou go in thither. Therefore the name of that city was called Segor.

²³The sun was risen upon the earth, and Lot entered into Segor.

²⁴And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.

²⁵And he destroyed these cities, and all the country about, all the inhabitants of the cities, and all things that spring from the earth.

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