Contemporary belief about Sodom is that they were destroyed because they were homosexuals. However, here's what Ezekiel said of them:


Nothing about homosexuality there. What he's saying is that they were rich ("fulness of bread"), lazy ("abundance of idleness"), and selfish, refusing to sharing their wealth with the poor. And as the following story from the book of Jasher shows, it wasn't merely that they didn't help the poor, they actively preyed upon them in a despicably evil way.

The Sodomites had a certain game which they regularly played on passersby. When a passerby would come into their town, seeking bread and water, they would instead give him gold trinkets and tell him to go to the market and buy. But all the merchants were in on the game, and no matter where he asked, no one would sell him any bread or water. Over the course of many days, their victim withered and eventually died of thirst, whereupon the townspeople would retrieve the trinkets they had given him. The question I had was why. Why did they take pleasure in this game, played on total strangers? What would motivate them to conceive of something like this?

While contemplating this question, something came to mind, and within seconds I felt sure I had the answer: It was that their material wealth had led them into a state of spiritual starvation, and on some level, they knew that all their wealth would not buy relief from this condition. So when they watched their victim, who could not purchase with gold what he needed so desperately, they saw themselves.

There is more to this story. According to Jasher, one of Lot's daughters took pity on one of these victims, and secretly fed him water and bread. But she got caught, and for her transgression they burned her to death. Another woman was caught giving food to a stranger. For her crime they tied her up, painted with honey from head to to toe, set a swarm of bees on her, and then stared at her as she screamed while getting stung so many times that her entire body swelled up. These are examples of the state of mind the Sodomites were in. According to Jasher, this incident was the last straw. Her cries went up to heaven, and shortly thereafter the town was destroyed from above.

It is, to say the least, troubling to see how horribly evil humans can become. But equally troubling to me is the fact that most people think the Sodomites were destroyed because they were homosexuals. This is the contemporary party line, and it's far from the truth. The Sodomites were destroyed because of their exceedingly wicked treatment of human beings, not because they were homosexuals. There is little to suggest they even were homosexuals. They were, however, very rich. Why isn't the truth about Sodom preached today? Perhaps because the Pharisees of today haven't changed—they're more interested in popularity and wealth than in the truth. Condemning homosexuality is a clever way of gaining followers, for by condemning the few, the many feel justified. Condemning wealth, though, is not on the agenda, for obvious reasons. So the myth continues.