Genesis 19:15-29

15 As dawn drew near, the angels urged Lot, ‘Get up,’ they implored, ‘Take your wife and these two daughters of yours, or else you will be caught up in the destruction of the city.’ 16 But he hesitated, so in the Lord’s mercy, the men seized him, his wife and his two daughters by the hand, and they led them out to safety, outside the city.

17 When they had got them out, they pleaded, ‘Run for your life, and don’t look back or stop anywhere in the Plain. Escape to the hills, or else you will be killed.’ 18 But Lot said to them, ‘Please, my lords. No. 19 You have done me a great favour and kindness by saving my life but I cannot get as far as the hills, so I will die in this disaster 20 unless you let me escape to that little city over there; look, it is near enough and it is small, and it could save my life!’ 21 He replied, ‘Very well, I will let you do this, and I will not destroy the city you speak of. 22 But get moving and escape there, for I can do nothing until you get there.’ (Because it was small, the city was called “Zoar”). 23 The sun had risen over the land by the time Lot came to Zoar.

24 Then the Lord himself rained down sulphur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah out of the heavens; 25 He overturned those cities, and the whole Plain; along with all the inhabitants, and everything that grew there. 26 But Lot's wife glanced behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 Early in the morning Abraham hurried to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole region of the Plain, and saw the smoke rising up from the ground as from a furnace. 29 And so it happened that when God destroyed the cities of the Plain, He remembered Abraham, and allowed Lot to escape the disaster which came on the cities in which he had settled.

translation by Paul H Ashby © 2008 all rights reserved