Patriarchs
Old TestamentSodom & Gomorrah
Judgement on the plain
A negotiation over justice, a night of hospitality refused, and the destruction of the cities of the plain.
Reading plan
How the story unfolds
- 1
Bargaining for the city
Abraham presses the question of whether the just should perish with the unjust.
- 2
Lot's visitors
Two messengers arrive in Sodom and are threatened.
- 3
Escape and destruction
Lot's family flees; the cities are overthrown.
Context & interpretation
Debated
Proposed identifications of the cities near the southern Dead Sea remain contested.
Scriptured labels editorial context separately from Scripture, and never presents interpretation as consensus.