Genesis 19:12-29

¹²Then the two visitors said to Lot, “Who else do you have here? Do you have any sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or other relatives in the city? Get them out of this place ¹³because we are about to destroy it. The outcry against this place is so great before the Lord that he has sent us to destroy it.” ¹⁴Then Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who were going to marry his daughters. He said, “Quick, get out of this place because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was ridiculing them. ¹⁵At dawn the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get going! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or else you will be destroyed when the city is judged!” ¹⁶When Lot hesitated, the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters because the Lord had compassion on them. They led them away and placed them outside the city. ¹⁷When they had brought them outside, they said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look behind you or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape to the mountains or you will be destroyed!” ¹⁸But Lot said to them, “No, please, Lord! ¹⁹Your servant has found favor with you, and you have shown me great kindness by sparing my life. But I am not able to escape to the mountains because this disaster will overtake me and I’ll die. ²⁰Look, this town over here is close enough to escape to, and it’s just a little one. Let me go there. It’s just a little place, isn’t it? Then I’ll survive.” ²¹“Very well,” he replied, “I will grant this request too and will not overthrow the town you mentioned. ²²Run there quickly, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” (This incident explains why the town was called Zoar.) ²³The sun had just risen over the land as Lot reached Zoar. ²⁴Then the Lord rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah. It was sent down from the sky by the Lord. ²⁵So he overthrew those cities and all that region, including all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation that grew from the ground. ²⁶But Lot’s wife looked back longingly and was turned into a pillar of salt. ²⁷Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord. ²⁸He looked out toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of that region. As he did so, he saw the smoke rising up from the land like smoke from a furnace. ²⁹So when God destroyed the cities of the region, God honored Abraham’s request. He removed Lot from the midst of the destruction when he destroyed the cities Lot had lived in.