“Oh, no, my lord!” Lot begged. “You have been so gracious to me and saved my life, and you have shown so much great kindness. But I cannot go to the mountains. Disaster would catch up with me there, and I would soo die. See, there is a small village nearby. Please let go there instad: don’t you see how small it is? Then my life will be saved.”
“All right,” the angel said, “I will grant your request. I will not destroy the little village. But hurry! Escape to it, for I can do nothing until you arrive there.” (This explains why that village was know as Zoar, which means “little place.”)
Lot reached the village just as the sun was rising over the the horizon. Then the Lord rained down fire and burning sulfur from the sky on Sodom and Gomorrah. He utterly destroyed them, along with the other cities and villages of the plain, wiping out all the people and every but if vegetation. But Lot’s wife look back as she was following behind him, and she turned into a pillar of salt.
Abraham got up early that morning and hurried to the place where he had stood in the Lord’s presence. He looked out across the plain toward Sodom and Gomorrah and watch as columns of smoke rose from the cities like smoke from a furnace.
BUt God had listened to Abraham’s request and kept Lot safe, removing him from the disaster that engulfed the cities on the plain. (vv. 18-29, NLT)