The Wife of Lot
by Leonard Lehrman
(#1 from Sisters op. 100)
Copyright 1984


All right, Lot, I'm coming. But for goodness' sake, what's the rush?

I still don't understand why we had to leave. Just as we get settled in a place, "Bam!" you get in a fight with someone, and we have to go.

Why?

Why did your herdsmen have to quarrel with Uncle Abraham's? "Separate yourself from me," he said. If we hadn't been separated from him then maybe we wouldn't have had all that trouble with Shinar, Ellasar, Elam and the Goiim!

So now where do we live? In a cave? In tents? Or do we go crawling back to Uncle Abraham again? I still don't understand why we had to leave.... Where will our daughters find husbands now?

Sodom wasn't Eden, but we did have our pride, plenty to eat, and the freedom to do just about whatever we wanted ro... And then these men come along and say
"Get out! Get out! Everything - everything is going to be destroyed!"
No wonder my brothers laughed when you repeated that!
"Ridiculous! These beautiful cities of the plain - our home - destroyed? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! This has been our home for generations! Who's going to destroy it?"

All right, yes, I'm coming, I'm coming.

You know the load that I'm carrying is heavy. Not just my own weight - there's all those precious stones, and jewels - ah! and ornaments and things I couldn't leave. How could I? So many years it took to amass a fortune, and now, at one fell swoop, to give it all up? No.

Where would we ever find such things again? Where would we ever find such things again? Out here in the desert, where the sand smells like sulphur?

Look at the sky - it's all hazy and yellow. But Sodom shines through. Doesn't it? Look!

I know those "angels" who "rescued" us said "Don't look back!" But how can I help it, Lot, remembering the happy years we enjoyed there together? Look, Lot! Look! Look!

Wait a minute, Lot, you're going too fast! Help me - help me, Lot, I can't keep up. I can hardly see you through the cloud of dust. The smell of sulphur and salt is getting worse! I can't stand it any longer! Help! Help, Lot! Help, my husband! Help! Help! Don't leave me behind!



Sources: Gen. 11:27 & 31, 13:7-10, 14:1-16, 18:2-23, 19:1-38; Ezek. 16:49-50.



recorded by Helene Williams on Songs of Conscience
cassette 3/91; re-issued on CD, 6/03

[posted online at: amc.net]