Genesis 19:17-29

17As soon as the men had brought them out, one of them said, “Run for your lives! Do not look back, and do not stop anywhere on the plain! Flee to the mountains, or you will be swept away!”

18But Lot replied, “No, my lords, please! 19Your servant has indeed found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness by sparing my life. But I cannot run to the mountains; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die. 20Look, there is a town nearby where I can flee, and it is a small place. Please let me flee there—is it not a small place? Then my life will be saved.”

21“Very well,” he answered, “I will grant this request as well, and will not demolish the town you indicate. 22Hurry! Run there quickly, for I cannot do anything until you reach it.” That is why the town was called Zoar.1

23And by the time the sun had risen over the land, Lot had reached Zoar.

24Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens. 25Thus He destroyed these cities and the entire plain, including all the inhabitants of the cities and everything that grew on the ground.

26But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

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

29So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham, and He brought Lot out of the catastrophe that destroyed the cities where he had lived.