come and rest in his house, and abide there and wash
their feet. And they said: Nay, we shall
abide here in the street, and Lot constrained them
and brought them into his house and made a feast to
them. Then said the angels to Lot: If thou
have here of thy kindred, sons or daughters, all them
that long to thee, lead out of this city, we shall
destroy this place, for the cry thereof is come to
our Lord, which hath sent us for to destroy them.
Lot went unto his kinsmen and said: Arise and
take your children, and go out of this city, for our
Lord shall destroy it. And they supposed that
he had raved or japed [jested]. And as soon as
it was day the angels said to Lot: Arise, and
take thy wife and thy two daughters, and go out of
this town lest ye perish with them. Yet he dissimuling,
they took him by the hand and his wife and two daughters,
because that God should spare them, and led them out
of the city. And there they said to him:
Save thy soul and look not behind thee lest thou perish
also, but save thee in the mountain. Lot said
to them: I beseech thee, my Lord, forasmuch as
thy servant hath found grace before thee, and that
thou hast showed thy mercy to me, and that peradventure
I might take harm on the hill, that I may go into the
little city hereby and may be saved there. He
said to Lot: I have heard thy prayers, and for
thy sake I shall not subvert this town for which thou
hast prayed, hie thee and save thyself there, for I
may do nothing till thou be therein. Therefore
that town is called Zoar. So Lot went in to Zoar;
and the sun arose, and our Lord rained from heaven
upon Sodom and Gomorrah sulphur and fire, and subverted
the cities and all the dwellers of the towns about
that region, and all that was there growing and burgeoning.
Lot’s wife turned her and looked toward the
cities, and anon she was turned into a statue or image
of salt, which abideth so unto this day. Abraham
arose in the morning early, and looked toward the
cities, and saw the smoke ascending from the places,
like as it had been the light of a furnace. What
time our Lord subverted these cities he remembered
Abraham, and delivered Lot from the vengeance of the
cities in which he dwelled. Then Lot ascended
from Zoar and dwelled in the mountain, and his two
daughters with him. He dreaded to abide any longer
in the town, but dwelled in a cave, he and his two
daughters with him.
Abraham departed from thence and went southward and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and went a pilgrimage to Gerar. He said that his wife was his sister. Abimelech the king of Gerar sent for her and took her. God came to Abimelech in his sleep and said: Thou shalt be dead for the woman that thou hast taken, she hath an husband. Abimelech said: Lord, wilt thou slay a man ignorant and rightful? She said that she was his sister, in the simpleness of my heart and cleanness of my hands I did this. And God said to him: I know well that with a simple heart thou didst it, and therefore I have kept thee