GOD PUNISHES MANKIND FOR SIN

The Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 28

which I command thee this day, all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee.

16 Cursed shalt thou be in the city, cursed in the field.

17 Cursed shall be thy barn, and cursed thy stores.

18 Cursed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, the herds of thy oxen, and the flocks of thy

sheep.

19 Cursed shalt thou be coming in, and cursed going out.

20 The Lord shall send upon thee famine and hunger, and a rebuke upon all the works which thou shalt do: until he

consume and destroy thee quickly, for thy most wicked inventions, by which thou hast forsaken me.

21 May the Lord set the pestilence upon thee, until he consume thee out of the land, which thou shalt go in to possess.

22 May the Lord afflict thee with miser- able want, with the fever and with cold, with burning and with heat, and with

corrupted air and with blasting, and pursue thee till thou perish.

23 Be the heaven, that is over thee, of brass: and the ground thou treadest on, of iron.

24 The Lord give thee dust for rain upon thy land, and let ashes come down from heaven upon thee, till thou be consumed.

25 The Lord make thee to fall down before thy enemies, one way mayst thou go out against them, and flee seven ways,

and be scattered throughout all the kingdoms of the earth.

26 And be thy carcass meat for all the Fowls of the air, and the beasts of the earth, and be there none to drive them

away.

27 The Lord strike thee with the ulcer of Egypt, and the part of thy body, by which the dung is cast out, with the scab

and with the itch : so that thou canst not be healed.

28 The Lord strike thee with madness and blindness and fury of mind.

29 And mayst thou grope at midday as the blind is wont to grope in the dark, and not make straight thy ways. And

mayst thou at all times suffer wrong, and be oppressed with violence, and mayst thou have no one to deliver thee.

30 Mayst thou take a wife, and another sleep with her. Mayst thou build a house, and not dwell therein. Mayest thou

plant a vineyard and not gather the vintage thereof.

31 May thy ox be slain before thee, and thou not eat thereof. May thy ass be taken away in thy sight, and not restored

to thee. May thy sheep be given to thy enemies, and may there be none to help thee.

32 May thy sons and thy daughters be given to another people, thy eyes looking on, and languishing at the sight of them

all the day, and may there be no strength in thy hand.

33 May a people which thou knowest not, eat the fruits of thy land, and all thy labours: and mayst thou always suffer

oppression, and be crushed at all times.

34 And be astonished at the terror of those things which thy eyes shall see:

35 May the Lord strike thee with a very sore ulcer in the knees and in the legs, and be thou incurable from the sole

of the foot to the top of the head.

36 The Lord shall bring thee, and thy king, whom thou shalt have appointed over thee, into a nation which thou and thy

fathers know not: and there thou shalt serve strange gods, wood and stone.

37 And thou shalt be lost, as a proverb and a byword to all people, among whom the Lord shall bring thee in.

38 Thou shalt cast much seed into the ground, and gather little: because the locusts shall consume all.

39 Thou shalt plant a vineyard, and dig it, and shalt not drink the wine, nor gather any thing thereof: because it

shall be wasted with worms.

40 Thou shalt have olive trees in all thy borders, and shalt not be anointed with the oil: for the olives shall fall

off and perish.

41 Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, and shalt not enjoy them: because they shall be led into captivity.

42 The blast shall consume all the trees and the fruits of thy ground.

43 The stranger that liveth with thee in the land, shall rise up over thee, and shall be higher: and thou shalt go down,

and be lower.

44 He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him. He shall be as the head, and thou shalt be the tail.

45 And all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue and overtake thee, till thou perish: because thou

heardst not the voice of the Lord thy God, and didst not keep his commandments and ceremonies which he commanded

thee.

20 And the Lord said: The cry of Sodom and Gomorrha is multiplied, and their sin is become exceedingly grievous.

21 I will go down and see whether they have done according to the cry that is come to me: or whether it be not so, that

I may know.

22 And they turned themselves from thence, and went their way to Sodom: but Abraham as yet stood before the Lord.

23 And drawing nigh he said: Wilt thou destroy the just with the wicked?

24 If 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?

25 Far 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.

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

sake.

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

28 What 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.

29 And 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.

30 Lord, 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.

31 Seeing, 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.

32 I beseech thee, saith he, be not angry, Lord, if I speak yet once more: What if ten should be found there ? And he

said: I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.

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

The Book of Genesis, Chapter 19

Lot, entertaining Angels in his house, is delivered from Sodom, which is destroyed: his wife for looking back is turned into

a statue of salt.

1 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,

2 And 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.

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

baked unleavened bread and they ate:

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

5 And 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:

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

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

8 I 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.

9 But 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.

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

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

find the door.

12 And 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:

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

14 So 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.

15 And when it was morning, the angels pressed him, saying: Arise, take thy wife, and the two daughters which thou

hast: lest thou also perish in the wickedness of the city. 16 And as he lingered, they took his hand, and the hand of

his wife, and of his two daughters, because the Lord spared him.

17 And 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 thyself in the mountain, lest thou be also consumed.

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

19 Because 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 :

20 There 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?

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

spoken.

22 Make 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.

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

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

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

spring from the earth.

26 And his wife looking behind her, was turned into a statue of salt.

27 And Abraham got up early in the morning and in the place where he had stood before with the Lord,

28 He looked towards Sodom and Gomorrha, and the whole land of that country: and he saw the ashes rise up from the

earth as the smoke of a furnace.

29 Now when God destroyed the cities of that country, remembering Abraham, he delivered Lot out of the

destruction of the cities wherein he had dwelt.