Genesis 19:17–29

¹⁷When they had brought them outside, ¹one said, “^aEscape for your life! ^bDo not look behind you, and do not stay ²anywhere in the ^cvalley; escape to ^dthe ³mountains, or you will be swept away.”

¹⁸But Lot said to them, “Oh no, my lords!

¹⁹“Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your lovingkindness, which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the ¹mountains, for the disaster will overtake me and I will die;

²⁰now behold, this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) ¹that my life may be saved.”

²¹He said to him, “Behold, I grant you this ¹request also, not to overthrow the town of which you have spoken.

²²“Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the town was called ^1aZoar.

²³The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

²⁴Then the Lord ^arained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven,

²⁵and ^aHe overthrew those cities, and all the ¹valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

²⁶But his wife, from behind him, ^alooked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

²⁷Now Abraham arose early in the morning and went to ^athe place where he had stood before the Lord;

²⁸and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the ¹valley, and he saw, and behold, ^athe smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a ²furnace.

²⁹Thus it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the ¹valley, that ^aGod remembered Abraham, and ^bsent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.