God reveals his plan: Sodom's outcry is great. Judgment is coming. And Abraham does something astonishing—he negotiates. "Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?" He bargains God down: fifty righteous, forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty, ten. "For the sake of ten I will not destroy it." Abraham stops there. But even ten righteous can't be found. This passage reveals a God who listens, who allows his servant to press him, who doesn't destroy without investigation. It also reveals the depth of Sodom's corruption. Not ten righteous in the whole city. Judgment isn't arbitrary. It's earned.

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