20. "Look, here's a town near enough to run to. It's small. Let me run to it. It's very small, isn't it? Then my life will be spared."
21. The Lord said to Lot, "All right. I will also give you what you are asking for. I will not destroy the town you are talking about.
22. But run there quickly. I can't do anything until you reach it." The town was named Zoar. Zoar means "small."
23. By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land.
24. Then the Lord sent down burning sulfur. It came down like rain on Sodom and Gomorrah. It came from the Lord out of the sky.
25. He destroyed those cities and the whole valley. All of the people who were living in the cities were wiped out. So were the plants in the land.
26. But Lot's wife looked back. When she did, she became a pillar made out of salt.
27. Early the next morning Abraham got up. He returned to the place where he had stood in front of the Lord.
28. He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole valley. He saw thick smoke rising from the land. It looked like smoke from a furnace.
29. So when God destroyed the cities of the valley, he showed concern for Abraham. He brought Lot out safely when he destroyed the cities where Lot had lived.