Genesis 19:12-28

Holman Christian Standard Bible

¹² Then the angels^[a] said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here: a son-in-law, your sons and daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of this place, ¹³ for we are about to destroy this place because the outcry against its people is so great before the Lord, that the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”^(A)

¹⁴ So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were going to marry^[b] his daughters. “Get up,” he said. “Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city!”^(B) But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

¹⁵ At daybreak the angels urged Lot on: “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment^[c] of the city.” ¹⁶ But he hesitated. Because of the Lord’s compassion for him, the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters. Then they brought him out and left him outside the city.

¹⁷ As soon as the angels got them outside, one of them^[d] said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look back and don’t stop anywhere on the plain! Run to the mountains, or you will be swept away!”

¹⁸ But Lot said to them, “No, my lords^[e]—please. ¹⁹ Your servant has indeed found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness by saving my life. But I can’t run to the mountains; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die. ²⁰ Look, this town is close enough for me to run to. It is a small place. Please let me go there—it’s only a small place, isn’t it?—so that I can survive.”

²¹ And he said to him, “All right,^[f] I’ll grant your request^[g] about this matter too and will not demolish the town you mentioned. ²² Hurry up! Run there, for I cannot do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city is Zoar.^[h](C)

²³ The sun had risen over the land when Lot reached Zoar. ²⁴ Then out of the sky the Lord rained burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord.^{(D) 25} He demolished these cities, the entire plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and whatever grew on the ground. ²⁶ But his wife looked back and became a pillar of salt.^(E)

²⁷ Early in the morning Abraham went to the place where he had stood before the Lord.^{(F) 28} He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and he saw that smoke was going up from the land like the smoke of a furnace.