Genesis 19:17–29

¹⁷Then one of the angels said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look back and don’t stop in the valley. Run to the hills, so that you won’t be killed.”

¹⁸But Lot answered, “No, please don’t make us do that, sir. ¹⁹You have done me a great favour and saved my life. But the hills are too far away; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die before I get there. ²⁰Do you see that little town? It is near enough. Let me go over there—you can see it is just a small place—and I will be safe.”

²¹He answered, “All right, I agree. I won’t destroy that town. ²²Hurry! Run! I can’t do anything until you get there.”

Because Lot called it small, the town was named Zoar.^s

The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

²³The sun was rising when Lot reached Zoar. ^24*Suddenly the Lord rained burning sulphur on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah ^25*and destroyed them and the whole valley, along with all the people there and everything that grew on the land. ^26*But Lot’s wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt.

²⁷Early the next morning Abraham hurried to the place where he had stood in the presence of the Lord. ²⁸He looked down at Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole valley and saw smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a huge furnace. ²⁹But when God destroyed the cities of the valley where Lot was living, he kept Abraham in mind and allowed Lot to escape to safety.