³⁰ “I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall^(A) and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one.^(B)

Not One Is Upright

15 Then the Lord said to me: “Even if Moses^(A) and Samuel^(B) were to stand before me, my heart would not go out to this people.^(C) Send them away from my presence!^(D) Let them go!

¹⁰ Now leave me alone^(A) so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy^(B) them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”^(C)

¹¹ But Moses sought the favor^(D) of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?^{(E) 12} Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’?^(F) Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster^(G) on your people. ¹³ Remember^(H) your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self:^(I) ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars^(J) in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land^(K) I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” ¹⁴ Then the Lord relented^(L) and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

⁵ You have not gone up to the breaches in the wall to repair^(A) it for the people of Israel so that it will stand firm in the battle on the day of the Lord.^(B)

²³ Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?^{(A) 24} What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare^[a] the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?^{(B) 25} Far be it from you to do such a thing^(C)—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous^(D) and the wicked alike.^(E) Far be it from you! Will not the Judge^(F) of all the earth do right?”^(G)

²⁶ The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.^(H)”

²⁷ Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes,^{(I) 28} what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?”

“If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”

²⁹ Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?”

He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”

³⁰ Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry,^(J) but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?”

He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

³¹ Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?”

He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”

³² Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more.^(K) What if only ten can be found there?”

He answered, “For the sake of ten,^(L) I will not destroy it.”