Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed GEN 19:24

Warned that Sodom is about to be judged, Abraham pleads with God, negotiating the number of righteous people needed to spare the city down from fifty to ten. Ten righteous are not found, so two messengers pull Lot and his daughters out by the hand at dawn before fire falls on the cities of the plain. Lot's wife looks back during the escape, an act the text records without explanation.

Abraham does not accept the news quietly; he asks God whether the city would be destroyed if fifty righteous were in it, then keeps lowering the number through forty-five, thirty, twenty, and ten. Each time God answers that for the sake of that number he will not destroy the place, showing a willingness to spare the many for the few. The bargaining stops at ten, and even that many righteous cannot be found in Sodom.

It is easy to assume the passage spells out exactly what Sodom's wickedness consisted of, but the text as summarized here centers on the search for righteous people and the certainty that judgment is deserved, not on cataloguing offenses. Christians read the broader question of Sodom's sin differently elsewhere in Scripture, so this passage should not be stretched beyond what it says. What it does make clear is that ten righteous could not be found in the whole city.

As Lot and his daughters are led to safety at dawn, Lot's wife looks back toward the city in the middle of the rescue. The text gives no reason for the glance, and readers differ on whether it reflects grief, reluctance to leave, or disobedience to the warning. The detail has stayed attached to the story as a quiet caution about looking back toward what is being judged.