Genesis 19:20-30

20 Behold, yonder city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there--is it not a little one? --and my life will be saved!"

21 He said to him, "Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.

22 Make haste, escape there; for I can do nothing till you arrive there." Therefore the name of the city was called Zo'ar.

23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zo'ar.

24 Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomor'rah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;

25 and he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

26 But Lot's wife behind him looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD;

28 and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomor'rah and toward all the land of the valley, and beheld, and lo, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.

29 So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt.

30 Now Lot went up out of Zo'ar, and dwelt in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to dwell in Zo'ar; so he dwelt in a cave with his two daughters.

Genesis 19:20-30 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.