13. because we’re going to destroy this place. The complaints to the Lord against its people are so loud that the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”
14. So Lot went out and spoke to the men engaged to his daughters. He said, “Hurry! Get out of this place, because the Lord is going to destroy the city.” But they thought he was joking.
15. As soon as it was dawn, the angels urged Lot by saying, “Quick! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you’ll be swept away when the city is punished.”
16. When he hesitated, the men grabbed him, his wife, and his two daughters by their hands, because the Lord wanted to spare Lot. They brought them safely outside the city.
17. As soon as they were outside, one ⌊of the angels⌋ said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look behind you, and don’t stop on the plain. Run for the hills, or you’ll be swept away!”
18. Lot answered, “Oh no!
19. Even though you’ve been so good to me and though you’ve been very kind to me by saving my life, I can’t run as far as the hills. This disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die.
20. Look, there’s a city near enough to flee to, and it’s small. Why don’t you let me run there? Isn’t it small? Then my life will be saved.”
21. The angel said to him, “Alright, I will grant you this request too. I will not destroy the city you’re talking about.
22. Run there quickly, because I can’t do anything until you get there.” (The city is named Zoar [Small].)
23. The sun had just risen over the land as Lot came to Zoar.
24. Then the Lord made burning sulfur and fire rain out of heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah.
25. He destroyed those cities, the whole plain, all who lived in the cities, and whatever grew on the ground.
26. Lot’s wife looked back and turned into a column of salt.
27. Early the next morning Abraham came to the place where he had stood in front of the Lord.
28. When he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land in the plain, he saw smoke rising from the land like the thick smoke of a furnace.
29. When God destroyed the cities on the plain, he remembered Abraham. Lot was allowed to escape from the destruction that came to the cities where he was living.
30. Lot left Zoar because he was afraid to stay there. He and his two daughters settled in the mountains where they lived in a cave.