17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives!k Don’t look back,l and don’t stop anywhere in the plain!m Flee to the mountainsn or you will be swept away!”

18 But Lot said to them, “No, my lords,b please! 19 Yourc servant has found favor in yourd eyes,o and youe have shown great kindnessp to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains;q this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. 20 Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”

21 He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this requestr too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. 22 But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar.f s)

23 By the time Lot reached Zoar,t the sun had risen over the land. 24 Then the Lord rained down burning sulfuru on Sodom and Gomorrahv—from the Lord out of the heavens.w 25 Thus he overthrew those citiesx and the entire plain,y destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land.z 26 But Lot’s wife looked back,a and she became a pillar of salt.b

27 Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord.c 28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.d

29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain,e he rememberedf Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastropheg that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.h

Lot and His Daughters

30 Lot and his two daughters left Zoari and settled in the mountains,j for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. 31 One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as is the custom all over the earth. 32 Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family linek through our father.”l

33 That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.m

34 The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.”n 35 So they got their father to drink wineo that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.p

36 So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father.q 37 The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moabg;r he is the father of the Moabitess of today. 38 The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammih; he is the father of the Ammonitesi t of today.