Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed

19 The two angels^(A) arrived at Sodom^(B) in the evening, and Lot^(C) was sitting in the gateway of the city.^(D) When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.^(E)

⁴ Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom^(A)—both young and old—surrounded the house. ⁵ They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”^(B)

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^(A) when the city is punished.^(B)”

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

¹⁸ But Lot said to them, “No, my lords,^[a] please! ¹⁹ Your^[b] servant has found favor in your^[c] eyes,^(I) and you^[d] have shown great kindness^(J) to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains;^(K) 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^(L) 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.^[e](M))

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

²⁹ So when God destroyed the cities of the plain,^(A) he remembered^(B) Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe^(C) that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.^(D)