Setting: Genesis 19:12-26
Extra-biblical Sources: Sefer ha-Yashar, Vayera 8
They asked me, “have you any here besides these? Any sons-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and whoever else is yours in this city, bring them out of here, for we will destroy this place, for the cry of the victims of this place is great before the face of Adonai, and Adonai has sent us to destroy it."
How sweet to hear the name of Adonai on the lips of others in our city, but how bitter to hear that this place was designated to destruction.
I confess that I had already drank too much wine, and in my bewilderment I drank still more as I walked out the back of our house and across the large courtyard of our family compound, to the households of Warad and Niqmaddu.
“Up!” I said, “get yourselves out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city!” They laughed and slapped me on the back and told me that I was drunk with sweet wine. It seemed the more I pleaded the more they saw it as a jest, and I left in shame, knowing that my wife and my sons-in-law did not fear me, nor Adonai.
When I awoke, the first hint of a pink dawn was creeping across the horizon and the cold of night was just beginning to ease. I was lying on my back in the middle of the courtyard. The men of God stood over me and I cannot remember what they said, but there was great urgency in their tone.
I drowsily got to my feet and went to my house so that my wife might serve me breakfast. They followed, insisting that we must leave this city at once. What for? I thought to myself. To spend my days huddled in some cave with my heathen wife and sons-in-law, and the daughters I nearly sold into prostitution? Better perhaps to die in the city we called home.
At some point, they grabbed us by the hands; one grabbed my right and Adith’s left, and the other seized the hands of my daughters , and by the mercy of Adonai, they more or less dragged us from the city, and sent us on our way into the desert to be pilgrims.
“Escape for your life,” said the man who led me forth, “and look not behind you nor stay in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed.”
I am not a man of the wilderness. I am a man who loves the company of others. Outwardly I spoke to these men but in my heart I spoke to God: “Oh Adonai, please, not this! Look now, your servant has found grace in your eyes, and you have magnified your mercy, which you have demonstrated in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die. Look now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape there, is it not a little one? and my soul shall live.”
And I perceived that they were not just prophets, but angelic beings, for they answered me, it seemed, in God’s behalf: “See, I have accepted you concerning this matter also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which you have spoken. Hurry yourself and escape there, for I cannot do anything till you arrive there.”
So we came to the little, insignificant city. And we named it thus, Zoar. And the sun was fully above the horizon as we entered into Zoar. Even so, the fire of Adonai which fell from heaven upon the cities was so bright that our shadows were cast toward the sun. And Adith looked back at the cities, and she gawked at the spectacle rather than hurrying inside the walls of Zoar, and I told her not to, for the men of God had told us plainly that we must not look back or stay in the plain, lest we be destroyed. But she would not listen, for she felt compassion for her friends, and she became a pillar of salt.
When I look out from my cave, which is not often, I see her still to this day. Maleb tells me that the oxen which stand in that place daily lick up the salt of her hands and feet so that she is deformed, and yet in the morning she is whole again, and they again lick it up day by day.