¹⁷ When they had brought them outside, ^[a]one said, “^(A)Escape for your life! ^(B)Do not look behind you, and do not stay ^[b]anywhere in the ^(C)surrounding area; escape to ^(D)the ^[c]mountains, or you will be swept away.” ¹⁸ But Lot said to them, “Oh no, my lords! ¹⁹ Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your compassion, which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the ^[d]mountains, for the disaster will overtake me and I will die; ²⁰ now behold, this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) ^[e]so that my life may be saved.” ²¹ And he said to him, “Behold, I grant you this ^[f]request also, not to overthrow the town of which you have spoken. ²² Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the town was named ^[g](E)Zoar.

²³ The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar. ²⁴ Then the Lord ^(F)rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of heaven, ²⁵ and ^(G)He overthrew those cities, and all the surrounding area, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. ²⁶ But ^[h]Lot’s wife, from behind him, ^(H)looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

²⁷ Now Abraham got up early in the morning and went to ^(I)the place where he had stood before the Lord; ²⁸ and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the surrounding area; and ^[i]behold, he saw ^(J)the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a ^[j]furnace.

²⁹ So it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the surrounding area, that ^(K)God remembered Abraham, and ^(L)sent Lot out of the midst of the destruction, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.

³ and the ^[a]Negev and the territory in the Valley of Jericho, ^(A)the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar.