Whenever a round of banqueting was over, Job would send [for his children] and purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought: Perhaps my children have sinned, having cursed God in their hearts. This was Job's regular practice.

He was still speaking when another [messenger] came and reported: "Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house.

Suddenly a powerful wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on the young people so that they died, and I alone have escaped to tell you!"

His children are far from safety. They are crushed at the [city] gate, with no one to defend [them].

His roots below dry up, and his branches above wither away.

He is driven from light to darkness and chased from the inhabited world.

Now the men of Sodom were evil, sinning greatly against the LORD.

for we are about to destroy this place because the outcry against its people is great before the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it."

At the crack of dawn the angels urged Lot on: "Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city."

As soon as the angels got them outside, one of them said, "Run for your lives! Don't look back and don't stop anywhere on the plain! Run to the mountains, or you will be swept away!"

Your servant has indeed found favor in Your sight, and You have shown me great kindness by saving my life. But I can't run to the mountains; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die.

And he said to him, "All right, I'll grant your request about this matter too, and will not overthrow the town you mentioned.

The sun had risen over the land when Lot reached Zoar.

He overthrew these cities, the entire plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and whatever grew on the ground.