Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed

The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.

Ephron the Hittite was sitting among his people and he replied to Abraham in the hearing of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city.

to Abraham as his property in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of the city.

He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city to speak to the men of their city.

All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male in the city was circumcised.

All these cities were fortified with high walls and with gates and bars, and there were also a great many unwalled villages.

Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates,

take the man or woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death.

If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you.

his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town.

then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring to the town elders at the gate proof that she was a virgin.

you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.

However, if a man does not want to marry his brother’s wife, she shall go to the elders at the town gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to carry on his brother’s name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me.”

The bolts of your gates will be iron and bronze, and your strength will equal your days.

At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.”

So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.

Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.

At that time Joshua pronounced this solemn oath: “Cursed before the Lord is the one who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho: “At the cost of his firstborn son he will lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest he will set up its gates.”

who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted in fear and became like water.

He impaled the body of the king of Ai on a pole and left it there until evening. At sunset, Joshua ordered them to take the body from the pole and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And they raised a large pile of rocks over it, which remains to this day.

When they flee to one of these cities, they are to stand in the entrance of the city gate and state their case before the elders of that city. Then the elders are to admit the fugitive into their city and provide a place to live among them.

God chose new leaders when war came to the city gates, but not a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel.

the voice of the singers at the watering places. They recite the victories of the Lord, the victories of his villagers in Israel. “Then the people of the Lord went down to the city gates.