And Abraham said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.”

In the Senate this week, the Lord found twelve.

Alas, it was 12 of 53. Less than a quarter of the G.O.P. caucus was prepared to block a national-emergency declaration most of them know violates the separation of powers, tramples on their legislative prerogatives, makes a mockery of long-held conservative principles, and establishes a political precedent they will come to regret bitterly and soon.

Nor will it solve the border problem it’s ostensibly intended to address, much less build anything except a small section of Donald Trump’s fantasy wall. Thomas More’s great line to Richard Rich from “A Man For All Seasons” may be shopworn, but it’s apt: “It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world . . . but for Wales?”

In this week’s drama there’s more than one perjurious Rich. But special mentions must be made of Nebraska’s Ben Sasse and North Carolina’s Thom Tillis. Both of them previously opposed the emergency declaration. Both are up for renomination and re-election next year. And both found ways to vote something other than their consciences.