²¹ And the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and said: I will no more curse the earth for the sake of man: for the imagination and thought of man's heart are prone to evil from his youth: therefore I will no more destroy every living soul as I have done.

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.

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.

²⁴ And he heard their groaning, and remembered the covenant which he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

²⁵ And the Lord looked upon the children of Israel, and he knew them.

¹³ In thy mercy thou hast been a leader to the people which thou hast redeemed: and in thy strength thou hast carried them to thy holy habitation.

² I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.