t and advanced to break the
door. But the men reached out and drew Lot to them into the house and
shut the door. Then they smote the men who were at the door of the
house, both small and great, with blindness, so that they grew tired of
searching for the door.

Then the men said to Lot, "Have you any one else here? Bring your
sons-in-law, your sons, and daughters, and whoever you have in the city
out of this place, for we are about to destroy it, because great
complaint concerning the people has come to Jehovah and he has sent us
to destroy it." So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, "Up, go out
of this place, for Jehovah will destroy the city." But his sons-in-law
thought he was only jesting.

When the dawn appeared, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Get up, take your
wife and your two daughters that you may not be swept away in the
punishment of the city." When he hesitated, the men took him by the hand
and led him and his wife and his two daughters outside the city, for
Jehovah was merciful to him.

When they had brought them outside, they said, "Run for your life; do
not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the
heights, that you may not be swept away!" But Lot said to them, "Oh,
sirs, not so! See, your servant has found favor with you, and you have
shown great mercy to me in saving my life. I cannot escape to the
heights, lest some evil overtake me, and I die. See now, this village is
near enough to run to, and it is small. Oh, let me escape there, and my
life will be saved." Jehovah said to him, "I have also granted you this
favor, in that I will not destroy the village of which you have spoken.
Make haste, escape to it, for I can do nothing until you arrive there."

The sun had risen when Lot came to Zoar. Then Jehovah caused brimstone
and fire from heaven to rain upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and he destroyed
those cities and all the plain, with all the people who lived in it and
all that grew on the ground. But Lot's wife, who was following him,
looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Early in the morning Abraham rose and went to the place where he had
stood before Jehovah; and as he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and
all the plain, he saw the smoke of the land going up as the smoke of a
smelting-furnace.

GOD'S CARE FOR THE BOY ISHMAEL

Jehovah remembered what he had told Sarah, and he did as he had
promised. So Sarah had a son, and when the child grew up, Abraham made a
g