Especially in an atmosphere of economic uncertainty, mall shoppers expect to find their share of bargains and discounts. They don’t anticipate having to bargain with retail sales associates to obtain them. That isn’t necessarily true in all situations—dealers of expensive goods expect negotiation, for example—and it isn’t true in every culture either. Travelers are encouraged to negotiate price, to bargain with street vendors in other cultures. Negotiating with a street vendor in Latin Americais often met with gratitude. The back-and-forth haggling suggests equitable respect. The same was true in the ancient Middle East.               

Commentators have long wondered what may have been on Abraham’s mind as he bargained with God on behalf of the ‘innocents’ of doomed Sodom and Gomorrah. The story, found in the eighteenth chapter of Genesis, is certainly an interesting one. “Abraham drew near to God and said: ‘Will you sweep away the innocent with the guilty? Suppose there were fifty innocent people in the city; would you wipe out the place, rather than spare it for the sake of the fifty innocent people within it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to make the innocent die with the guilty, so that the innocent and the guilty would be treated alike! Should not the judge of all the world act with justice?’ The Lord replied, ‘If I find fifty innocent people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.’ ” If you were Abraham, how might you respond to such mercy? The great patriarch decided to advance his position step by step—even with God.

“Abraham spoke up again: ‘See how I am presuming to speak to my Lord, though I am but dust and ashes! What if there are five less than fifty innocent people? Will you destroy the whole city because of those five?’ ‘I will not destroy it,’ God answered, ‘if I find forty-five there.’ But Abraham persisted, saying, ‘What if only forty are found there?’ He replied, ‘I will forbear doing it for the sake of the forty.’ Then he said, ‘Let not my Lord grow impatient if I go on. What if only thirty are found there?’ He replied, ‘I will forbear doing if I can find but thirty there.’ Still he went on, ‘Since I have thus dared to speak to my Lord, what if there are no more than twenty?’ ‘I will not destroy it,’ he answered, ‘for the sake of the twenty.’ But Abraham still persisted, ‘Please, let not my Lord grow angry if I speak up this last time. What if there are at least ten there?’ ‘For the sake of those ten,’ God replied, ‘I will not destroy it.’ ”