Genesis 19:17-27

17 When they had them outside, Lot was told, "Now run for your life! Don't look back! Don't stop anywhere on the plain - run for the hills or you'll be swept away."

18 But Lot protested, "No, masters, you can't mean it!

19 I know that you've taken a liking to me and have done me an immense favor in saving my life, but I can't run for the mountains - who knows what terrible thing might happen to me in the mountains and leave me for dead.

20 Look over there - that town is close enough to get to. It's a small town, hardly anything to it. Let me escape there and save my life - it's a mere wide place in the road."

21 He said to him, "All right. If you insist. I'll let you have your way. And I won't stamp out the town you've spotted.

22 But hurry up. Run for it! I can't do anything until you get there." That's why the town was called Zoar, that is, Smalltown.

23 The sun was high in the sky when Lot arrived at Zoar.

24 Then God rained brimstone and fire down on Sodom and Gomorrah - a river of lava from God out of the sky! -

25 and destroyed these cities and the entire plain and everyone who lived in the cities and everything that grew from the ground.

26 But Lot's wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt.

27 Abraham got up early the next morning and went to the place he had so recently stood with God.

Genesis 19:17-27 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 19

The contents of this chapter are Lot's entertainment of two angels that came to Sodom, Ge 19:1-3; the rude behaviour of the men of Sodom towards them, who for it were smote with blindness, Ge 19:4-11; the deliverance of Lot, his wife and two daughters, by means of the angels he entertained, Ge 19:12-17; the sparing of the city of Zoar at the entreaty of Lot, to which he was allowed to flee, Ge 19:18-22; the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, Ge 19:23-25; Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt for looking back, Ge 19:26; Abraham's view of the conflagration of the cities, Ge 19:28,29; Lot's betaking himself to a mountain, and dwelling in a cave with his two daughters, by whom he had two sons, the one called Moab, and the other Benammi, Ge 19:30-38.