Verse 25. "And he overthrew those cities, and _all the cities of the plain_, and all the _inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground_." It was a complete destruction of all living things in that locality; and Lot "_dwell in a cave_, he and his two daughters." And the daughters were convinced that they were the {p. 329} last of the human race left alive on the face of the earth, notwithstanding the fact that the Lord had promised (chap. iii, verse 21), "I will not overthrow this city," Zoar; but Zoar evidently _was_ overthrown. And the daughters, rather than see the human race perish, committed incest with their father, and became the mothers of two great and extensive tribes or races of men, the Moabites and the Ammonites. This, also, looks very much as if they were indeed repeopling an empty and desolated world.. To recapitulate, we have here, in due chronological order: 1. The creation of the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them. 2. The creation of the plants, animals, and man. 3. The fair and lovely age of the Pliocene, the summer-land, when the people went naked, or clothed themselves in the leaves of trees; it was the fertile land where Nature provided abundantly everything for her children. 4. The serpent appears and overthrows this Eden. 5. Fire falls from heaven and destroys a large part of the human race. 6. A remnant take refuge in a cave. 7. Man is driven out of the Edenic land, and a blazing sword, a conflagration, waves between him and Paradise, between Niflheim and Muspelheim. What next? We return now to the first chapter of this dislocated text: Verse 2. "And the earth _was without form, and void_." That is to say, chaos had come in the train of the comet. Otherwise, how can we understand how God, as stated in the preceding verse, has just made the heavens {p. 330} and the earth? How could his work have been so imperfect? "_And darkness was upon the face of the deep_." This is the primeval night referred to in all the legends; the long age of darkness upon the earth. "And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." The word for _spirit_, in Hebrew, as in Latin, originally meant _wind_; and this passage might be rendered, "a mighty wind swept the face of the waters." This wind represents, I take it, the great cyclones of the Drift Age. Verse 3. "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." The sun and moon had not yet appeared, but the dense mass of clouds, pouring their waters upon the earth, had gradually, as Job expresses it, "wearied" themselves,--they had grown thin; and the light began to appear, at least sufficiently to mark the distinction between day and night. Verse 4. "And God saw the light: that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness." Verse 5. "And God called the light day, and the darkness be called night. And the evening and the morning were the first day."