Genesis 19:17-29

17When they brought them outside, one said, “Flee for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stop anywhere in the surrounding area! Escape to the hills, or else you’ll be swept away!”

18But Lot said to them, “No, my Lord, please!

19Look, please, your servant has found favor in Your eyes and You have magnified Your merciful loyalty, which You have shown me by letting me live. But I can’t escape to the hill country—for the disaster will overtake me and I’ll die!

20Look, please, this city is close enough to flee there, and it’s little. Please let me escape there. Isn’t it small? And let me live!”

21So He said to him, “Behold, I will grant your request concerning this matter too—not to demolish the city of which you have spoken.

22Hurry! Flee to safety there, because I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” (This is why the town is named Zoar.)

23The moment the sun rose upon the land, Lot entered Zoar,

24and Adonai rained sulfur and fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah from Adonai out of the sky.

25So He demolished these cities and the whole surrounding area, all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation of the ground.

26But his wife looked behind him and she turned into a pillar of salt.

27Now Abraham rose early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Adonai,

28and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward the entire land of the surrounding area, and saw, behold, the smoke of the land ascended like smoke from a furnace.

29So it was, as God destroyed the cities of the surrounding area, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the upheaval, when He demolished the cities where Lot had dwelt.