10. The men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house with them and slammed the door.
11. Then the messengers blinded the men near the entrance of the house, from the youngest to the oldest, so that they groped around trying to find the entrance.
12. The men said to Lot, "Who’s still with you here? Take away from this place your sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and everyone else you have in the city
13. because we are about to destroy this place. The Lord has found the cries of injustice so serious that the Lord sent us to destroy it."
14. Lot went to speak to his sons-in-law, married to his daughters, and said, "Get up and get out of this place because the Lord is about to destroy the city." But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
15. When dawn broke, the messengers urged Lot, "Get up and take your wife and your two daughters who are here so that you are not swept away because of the evil in this city."
16. He hesitated, but because the Lord intended to save him, the men grabbed him, his wife, and two daughters by the hand, took him out, and left him outside the city.
17. After getting them out, the men said, "Save your lives! Don’t look back! And don’t stay in the valley. Escape to the mountains so that you are not swept away."
18. But Lot said to them, "No, my lords, please.
19. You’ve done me a favor and have been so kind to save my life. But I can’t escape to the mountains since the catastrophe might overtake me there and I’d die.
20. This city here is close enough to flee to, and it’s small. It’s small, right? Let me escape there, and my life will be saved."
21. He said to Lot, "I’ll do this for you as well; I won’t overthrow the city that you have described.
22. Hurry! Escape to it! I can’t do anything until you get there." That is why the name of the city is Zoar.
23. As the sun rose over the earth, Lot arrived in Zoar;
24. and the Lord rained down burning asphalt from the skies onto Sodom and Gomorrah.
25. The Lord destroyed these cities, the entire valley, everyone who lived in the cities, and all of the fertile land’s vegetation.
26. When Lot’s wife looked back, she turned into a pillar of salt.
27. Abraham set out early for the place where he had stood with the Lord,
28. and looked out over Sodom and Gomorrah and over all the land of the valley. He saw the smoke from the land rise like the smoke from a kiln.