²³ By the time Lot reached Zoar,^(A) the sun had risen over the land. ²⁴ Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur^(B) on Sodom and Gomorrah^(C)—from the Lord out of the heavens.^{(D) 25} Thus he overthrew those cities^(E) and the entire plain,^(F) destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land.^{(G) 26} But Lot’s wife looked back,^(H) and she became a pillar of salt.^(I)

²⁷ Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord.^{(J) 28} He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.^(K)

²⁹ So when God destroyed the cities of the plain,^(L) he remembered^(M) Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe^(N) that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.^(O)

⁶ if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes,^(A) and made them an example^(B) of what is going to happen to the ungodly;^(C)

⁷ In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah^(A) and the surrounding towns^(B) gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.^(C)