Blood Covenant Origins

by C. A. Gray

  Sodom and Gomorrah: from Abraham’s and Lot’s Perspectives

  Abraham

  Once they had finished the meal Sarah and I had provided for them, the Lord and the two men with him rose and went their way in the direction of Sodom, where my nephew Lot lived. I rose with them and fell into step beside the one I deemed to be the Lord.

  “What business have you with Sodom, Lord?” I asked Him.

  He glanced at me, and murmured to Himself, “I see no reason to hide from you what I am doing, as it concerns you and your descendants after you.” Then He said, “I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah, because their sin is so flagrant. I am going down to see if their actions are as wicked as I have heard. If not, I want to know”

  “And if they have?” I pressed. The Lord glanced at me but just kept walking. I froze. “You plan to destroy the cities!”

  The Lord said without looking back at me, “I do not desire death nor bloodshed. But there comes a point of no return, where corruption only worsens with time and succeeding generations.”

  “But my nephew and his family live there!” I gasped. “Are you serious? Are you planning on getting rid of the good people right along with the bad? What if there are fifty decent people left in the city; will you lump the good with the bad and get rid of the lot? Wouldn’t you spare the city for the sake of those fifty innocents? I can’t believe you’d do that, kill off the good and the bad alike as if there were no difference between them. Doesn’t the Judge of all the Earth judge with justice?”

  The words escaped my lips before I really had a chance to think through what, or to Whom, I was speaking. But He actually smiled at me.

  “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.”

  My mind calculated quickly. Lot had a wife, four daughters, two sons in law, and seven grandchildren, several of whom were probably too young to count. That was a far cry less than fifty. But I had already pushed my luck. Still, I decided the Lord would let me know when I should ask no more. I pressed in a much more deferential tone this time, “Do I, a mere mortal made from a handful of dirt, dare open my mouth again to my Master? What if the fifty fall short by five—would you destroy the city because of those missing five?”

  Still He smiled, and said, “If I find there forty-five, I will not destroy it.”

  Encouraged, I said, “What if you only find forty?”

  “I will not do it for the sake of forty.”

  I winced, knowing I still needed Him to drop the number lower. “Master, don’t be irritated with me, but what if only thirty are found?”

  The Lord still sounded gracious as He said, “No, I won’t do it if I find thirty.”

  Still too high, though. I pressed, “I know I’m trying your patience, Master, but how about for twenty?”

  “I won’t destroy it for twenty.”

  I thought that probably kept Lot and his family safe—surely there were that many righteous people left in Sodom. But at last, just to be sure, I said, “Lord, please don’t be angry with me if I speak one more time. Suppose only ten are found there?”

  We were within sight of the city when the Lord stopped walking and turned to me. “Then I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.,” He promised. I bowed low, my heart relieved. Lot and his family were safe. The city was surely safe. The Lord gave me one last parting smile, and then continued on with the other two men. I watched them go, suddenly struck by their immense beauty even though they concealed their glory. Never on earth had I seen men such as these.

  Lot

  As one of the city officials of Sodom, I sat at the city gates daily until nightfall. So it was that I was there when the two striking strangers approached. They were nearly seven feet tall, muscular, and sun-bronzed. They both had golden hair, one a bit darker than the other. They could have been brothers. Two contradictory thoughts struck me at the same time: first, that these two could certainly take care of themselves. I could not imagine the man who would dare to meet either on the battlefield. Second, I nevertheless had better protect them from the men of Sodom.

  I rose and approached them, bowing low.

  “I am Lot, one of the city officials,” I told them. “Please, my friends, come to my house and stay the night. Wash up. You can rise early and be on your way refreshed.”

  One of them, the one with almost white-blond hair, said, “No, we’ll sleep in the street.” He gestured behind me, into the open grassy knoll beyond the city gates. That was what I was afraid they would say. I bit my lip.

  “You do not want to do that,” I urged. “It is not safe.”

  The darker haired stranger frowned. “What harm could befall such as us?” he asked.

  I opened my mouth and closed it again, trying to find a delicate way to say this. There was a fierce beauty about these two strangers, and all beauty in Sodom was automatically considered sexual. Powerful looking as they were, surely even these two alone could not fight off the entire city.

  “Please trust me,” I said, “it is fortunate that I was the one to meet you first. Do come with me, and let me protect you from the men of the city. Come.” Before they could protest again, as the sun began its descent, I began walking toward my home. The two strangers fell into step behind me. Unfortunately we encountered three men on the way home whom I had hoped least to meet: Keret, Yassib, and Aqhat. They were ne’er-do-wells who spent their time organizing city-wide orgies punctuated by the occasional thievery or murder. I saw their expressions go slack as they beheld my two guests, and then inflame with lust, mouths agape. When they hurried away quickly, my stomach sank. They had gone for reinforcements, I was sure.

  “Quickly,” I muttered, picking up my pace.

  When we reached my home, the two strangers had to duck their heads to get through the door frame due to their height. My wife and two unmarried daughters also started at the sight of the strangers, and I saw both of my daughters’ cheeks pink as they too gazed upon the men with desire. This did not surprise nor concern me—they were no threat. I locked and bolted the door.

  My wife Donatiya rose and murmured to me, before so much as greeting our guests, “The men of Sodom have seen them, haven’t they?” She knew as well as I did what would come of this.

  I gave her a grim look. “Keret, Yassib, and Aqhat.”

  “Oh dear,” Donatiya groaned. “What shall we do?”

  “Snuff out the lights,” I ordered, “quickly! Perhaps they will conclude I took our guests elsewhere.”

  My daughters Hurriya and Pigat immediately blew out the candles and lanterns, and in the moonlight I turned to see both of them lingering uncomfortably close to the visitors, brushing against them as if hoping to be noticed.

  There was too much moonlight, I realized. “Shutter the windows!” I ordered, “and be very quiet!”

  “What is it that you fear?” the lighter haired visitor asked, his voice resonant and other-worldly in my ordinary sitting room. “I promise you that Michael and I can take care of ourselves, whatever your concern.”

  “Ooh, is your name Michael then?” asked my daughter Pigat, standing very close to the darker haired stranger and brushing his rippling bicep with her fingers.

  He gave her an indifferent glance. “I am Michael, and this is Gabriel,” he murmured, gesturing at his ash blond companion.

  “Pleased to make your acquaintance,” said Hurriya to Gabriel in a breathy voice.

  “All right, enough of that,” I hissed, “to bed, everyone! No better way to maintain our silence. Separate beds,” I told my daughters with a sharp note in my voice, as they each looked at the strangers hopefully.

  Just after Donatiya shuttered the last window, I heard the raucous approach of many male voices singing with drunken sour notes. I caught my breath.

  There were so many.

  “They must have brought every man of the city,” I whispe
red in horror. I knew it would be bad, but not this bad.

  “Is that Ammishtamru?” breathed Donatiya in my ear. She meant one of our sons-in-law. I too recognized his voice, and met her eyes with a sorrowful nod.

  “I think I hear Paebel as well,” I breathed back, our other son-in-law. “Like I said, it sounds like the entire male population of the city.”

  Then there was a sharp sound at the door, as if someone were pounding with the flat of his hand.

  “Lot!” The voice belonged to Yassib. “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them!” Bawdy laughter followed this announcement.

  There was just a sliver of moonlight still filtering through the windows; by it I could see Michael’s and Gabriel’s shocked and disgusted expressions.

  The pounding came again, and Keret’s voice now cried out, “We know you’re in there, we saw you shut the windows! Bring them out or we’ll pound your door down!” This received another round of jeers.

  “You’re going to have to tell them something,” Donatiya hissed to me.

  I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders, and went to the door, gesturing for Michael and Gabriel to move out of sight. Then I opened it just wide enough to squeeze outside, and closed it again. The men of the city pressed all around me with shouts of triumph followed by confusion when they saw that it was just me. I held up my hands to quiet them.

  “Brothers, please, don’t be vile! Look, I have two daughters, virgins; let me bring them out; you can take your pleasure with them, but don’t touch these men—they’re my guests.”

  I knew they would not accept this offer—they didn’t want my daughters, or they would have had them long ago, and there would have been nothing I could do about it. Even though most of these men had little to no conscience left, they were still very touchy at the slightest whiff of moral condemnation. By offering them my daughters rather than the visitors, I was trying to imply that I did not judge them for their predatory lust in general … even though I did.

  They saw through it, though. Keret’s voice shouted above all the others, “Get out of the way!” while Aqhat cried of me, “This one came in as a foreigner, and already he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them!” The rest of the men shouted their agreement and surged forward as one, pinning me against the side of the house and tearing at my clothes. Several took turns beating upon the door until they finally coordinated their efforts, so that I heard the wood begin to buckle and split. Many others managed to wrest my tunic above my waist, revealing my nakedness. I struggled against them and cried out, but to no avail—there were too many. I could not even move. The wood of the door gave another crack.

  Then, just as I gave myself up for lost, and the group pulled back to press another attack, the door unexpectedly swung open. Strong hands grabbed me from behind and I stumbled as I was yanked backwards, my tunic falling back in place. The door slammed shut and I stumbled, falling to my knees inside the house.

  “Are you all right?” Donatiya asked, her voice frantic.

  “Father was going to give us to them!” hissed Hurriya to her sister indignantly.

  “No, I wasn’t, I—” but my explanations died on my lips in the din outside. The lustful cries had turned to shouts that sounded almost like terror, and the coordinated pounding on the door had become shuffling, the sounds of fists connecting with flesh, and cries of pain. “What happened?”

  “I’ve struck the men of your city with blindness so that they can no longer find the door,” Gabriel murmured. “They will give up eventually.”

  This was when I finally put together what these men were. They must be angels of the Lord.

  We all huddled together in the middle of the floor for what seemed like hours until at last the crowd began to dissipate. My girls, still angry with me, kept their backs to me and eventually dozed off together. Donatiya clutched my hand in hers.

  It was probably midnight when all fell quiet again. Michael asked me, “Whom else do you have here? Sons-in-law and your sons and daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place; for we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before the Lord that the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”

  Donatiya and I exchanged a look, as we had recognized Paebel’s and Ammishtamru’s voices amongst the visitors that night.

  “You must try—for our girls and my grandchildren!” Donatiya choked to me.

  I nodded, and raised myself shakily to my feet.

  I was nervous, since I had almost been raped that night myself, walking the streets alone. But I made my way to Paebel’s home first, where I knew my daughter Anat and her children would be asleep. He, likely, would still be awake—and possibly still blind, I did not know.

  But to my surprise, Paebel answered the door as if it were daytime, and gave me a pleasant smile. He did not know I had seen and heard him that night.

  “Lot! You are up late. What brings you?”

  “Quickly,” I told him, “gather Anat and your children and come to my home. The Lord has sent two of his angels to destroy the city because of its great wickedness.”

  He gave me a strange look at first, and then he chuckled.

  “What an odd sense of humor you have,” he murmured.

  “I’m not joking, rouse your family and come with me at once!”

  His expression grew stern. “I will hear no more of this. Good night, Lot.”

  I shoved my shoulder inside so that he could not close the door on me, and elbowed my way inside. If he would not come, fine, but I wanted Anat and my grandchildren at least.

  “Father?” came Anat’s sleepy voice from inside, “what are you doing here? It’s the middle of the night!”

  “Anat, rouse the children and come with me,” I begged, “the Lord is about to destroy this city!”

  “I have told your father no,” said Paebel, his tone hard. “Go back to bed, woman.”

  I caught the little flash of fear that crossed Anat’s face at this. It was the first time I had ever wondered about her safety with him.

  “Yes, husband,” she murmured meekly, and backed out of the room.

  “Anat!” I cried, but she would not even look at me.

  “Go,” Paebel demanded, “before I throw you out. You will not interfere with my family again.”

  What could I do? I was not strong enough to overpower him and carry my daughter and her children away against their wills.

  I was terribly distraught when I arrived at Ammishtamru and Astarte’s home, and it was a repeat of the same thing. Ammishtamru laughed, then threatened me. Astarte clearly wanted to come with me, but dared not defy her apparently violent husband. I returned home alone just before daybreak, and in tears.

  I shook my head at Donatiya. “They will not come.”

  “What do you mean, they will not come?” she demanded, “they will die!”

  My voice broke. “There was nothing I could do for them. They would not defy their husbands.”

  “Those wicked, worthless men!” she swore, and burst into tears, covering her face. “My grandbabies!”

  “You still have us, mother,” Pigat tried to soothe her. Donatiya only cried harder, which affronted Pigat.

  “Yes, and still virgins, no thanks to Father,” sniffed Hurriya with a wounded air.

  In the midst of this drama, Michael said to me, “Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.”

  But how could I leave, when Anat, Astarte, and their children remained behind, and my wife was heartbroken? I stood irresolute in the middle of the floor, until Gabriel made the decision for me, taking hold of my wrist and Donatiya’s while Michael grasped the arms of each of my daughters. They dragged us inexorably out of the house and through the streets of the town, ignoring the lustful gazes they drew
as they went. Donatiya wailed the whole way.

  When we were finally outside the city, the angels released us at last and Gabriel said, “Escape for your lives! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the surrounding area; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away.”

  I fell to my knees with overwhelm and grief. So the angels intended to destroy not just Sodom, but Gomorrah and Zoar as well—otherwise we would have been permitted to flee to one of those cities. The mountains, by contrast, were so far away, and I felt I could hardly take another step. “No, masters, you can’t mean it! I know that you’ve taken a liking to me and have done me an immense favor in saving my life, but I can’t run for the mountains—who knows what terrible thing might happen to me in the mountains and leave me for dead. Look over there—that town is close enough to get to. It’s a small town, hardly anything to it. Let me escape there and save my life—it’s a mere wide place in the road.”

  Gabriel and Michael exchanged a look, and then looked up, as if checking with the Lord. Then Gabriel said, “All right, Lot. If you insist. I’ll let you have your way. And I won’t stamp out the town you’ve spotted. But hurry up. Run for it! I can’t do anything until you get there.”

  So we left them, Hurriya and Pigat clinging to one another while Donatiya barely picked one foot up after the other, unwilling to let me touch her. I led the way, the relatively short distance to Zoar, even though it felt like it took a very long time. Donatiya seemed to slow down even more, the closer we got to Zoar. But when at last we stepped across the borders of the town, I heard the cacophony behind us. I can hardly describe the noise, as it was unlike anything I had ever heard before. The temptation to turn and see what had befallen our home and our remaining family was great, but I remembered what Gabriel had said and resisted.

  Donatiya did not. She let out a great wail, turned, and ran back toward the city, outside Zoar’s protective borders.

  “No!” I shouted, trying to reach for her, even as the girls cried out, “Mother!”