¹² The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you?^(A) Get them out of here, ¹³ because we^(B) are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great^(C) that he has sent us to destroy it.”^(D)

¹⁴ So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry^[a] his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!^(E)” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.^(F)

¹⁵ With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away^(G) when the city is punished.^(H)”

¹⁶ When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters^(I) and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them.^{(J) 17} As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives!^(K) Don’t look back,^(L) and don’t stop anywhere in the plain!^(M) Flee to the mountains^(N) or you will be swept away!”

¹⁸ But Lot said to them, “No, my lords,^[b] please! ¹⁹ Your^[c] servant has found favor in your^[d] eyes,^(O) and you^[e] have shown great kindness^(P) to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains;^(Q) this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. ²⁰ Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”

²¹ He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request^(R) too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. ²² But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar.^[f](S))

²³ By the time Lot reached Zoar,^(T) the sun had risen over the land. ²⁴ Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur^(U) on Sodom and Gomorrah^(V)—from the Lord out of the heavens.^{(W) 25} Thus he overthrew those cities^(X) and the entire plain,^(Y) destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land.^{(Z) 26} But Lot’s wife looked back,^(AA) and she became a pillar of salt.^(AB)

²⁷ Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord.^{(AC) 28} He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.^(AD)

The Coming of the Kingdom of God^(A)

²⁰ Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come,^(B) Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, ²¹ nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’^(C) because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”^[a]

²² Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man,^(D) but you will not see it.^{(E) 23} People will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them.^{(F) 24} For the Son of Man in his day^[b] will be like the lightning,^(G) which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. ²⁵ But first he must suffer many things^(H) and be rejected^(I) by this generation.^(J)

²⁶ “Just as it was in the days of Noah,^(K) so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. ²⁷ People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

²⁸ “It was the same in the days of Lot.^(L) People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. ²⁹ But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

³⁰ “It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.^{(M) 31} On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything.^{(N) 32} Remember Lot’s wife!^{(O) 33} Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.^(P)