Sodom and Gomorrah

Sodom and Gomorrah were cities destroyed by God for their severe wickedness, an event that becomes one of Scripture's most enduring symbols of divine judgment, referenced repeatedly throughout both the Old and New Testaments as a warning.

Abraham's nephew Lot settles in Sodom, and Genesis 18:20 records God informing Abraham that the cry against Sodom and Gomorrah was great, their sin "very grievous," prompting God's decision to investigate before bringing judgment.

Abraham intercedes on the cities' behalf in a remarkable extended negotiation, asking God repeatedly whether He would spare the cities if a decreasing number of righteous people could be found there, down to as few as ten, and God agrees each time, though even ten righteous people cannot ultimately be found.

Two angels visit Lot in Sodom, and the men of the city surround his house demanding to assault the visitors, a scene of severe moral corruption that confirms the judgment already determined, and the angels urgently warn Lot to flee with his family before the destruction begins.

Lot's wife, fleeing the city alongside her family, looks back despite explicit instruction not to, and is turned into a pillar of salt, a sobering detail Jesus later references directly when warning His own followers about the danger of clinging to what should be left behind.

God rains fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah, utterly destroying the cities and the surrounding plain, and Abraham, looking out the next morning, sees smoke rising "as the smoke of a furnace," a vivid, permanent image of the judgment that had taken place.

Sodom and Gomorrah become shorthand throughout the rest of Scripture for severe, deserved judgment, referenced by the prophets, by Jesus Himself when describing towns that reject His message, and by Peter and Jude as historical proof that God does, in fact, judge persistent, unrepentant wickedness.