16. But Lot delayed. So the two men took the hands of Lot, his wife, and his two daughters and led them safely out of the city. So the Lord was merciful to Lot and his family.
17. After they brought them out of the city, one of the men said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Run to the mountains, or you will be destroyed.”
18. But Lot said to one of them, “Sir, please don’t force me to go so far!
19. You have been merciful and kind to me and have saved my life. But I can’t run to the mountains. The disaster will catch me, and I will die.
20. Look, that little town over there is not too far away. Let me run there. It’s really just a little town, and I’ll be safe there.”
21. The angel said to Lot, “Very well, I will allow you to do this also. I will not destroy that town.
22. But run there fast, because I cannot destroy Sodom until you are safely in that town.” (That town is named Zoar, because it is little.)
23. The sun had already come up when Lot entered Zoar.
24. The Lord sent a rain of burning sulfur down from the sky on Sodom and Gomorrah
25. and destroyed those cities. He also destroyed the whole Jordan Valley, everyone living in the cities, and even all the plants.
26. At that point Lot’s wife looked back. When she did, she became a pillar of salt.
27. Early the next morning, Abraham got up and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord.
28. He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the Jordan Valley and saw smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.
29. God destroyed the cities in the valley, but he remembered what Abraham had asked. So God saved Lot’s life, but he destroyed the city where Lot had lived.