Genesis 19:17–29

¹⁷As soon as they were outside, one ⸤of the angels⸥ said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look behind you, and don’t stop on the plain. Run for the hills, or you’ll be swept away!” 

¹⁸Lot answered, “Oh no! ¹⁹Even though you’ve been so good to me and though you’ve been very kind to me by saving my life, I can’t run as far as the hills. This disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. ²⁰Look, there’s a city near enough to flee to, and it’s small. Why don’t you let me run there? Isn’t it small? Then my life will be saved.” 

²¹The angel said to him, “Alright, I will grant you this request too. I will not destroy the city you’re talking about. ²²Run there quickly, because I can’t do anything until you get there.” (The city is named Zoar ^[Small^[.) 

²³The sun had just risen over the land as Lot came to Zoar. ²⁴Then the Lord made burning sulfur and fire rain out of heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah. ²⁵He destroyed those cities, the whole plain, all who lived in the cities, and whatever grew on the ground. ²⁶Lot’s wife looked back and turned into a column of salt. 

²⁷Early the next morning Abraham came to the place where he had stood in front of the Lord. ²⁸When he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land in the plain, he saw smoke rising from the land like the thick smoke of a furnace. 

²⁹When God destroyed the cities on the plain, he remembered Abraham. Lot was allowed to escape from the destruction that came to the cities where he was living.