Комментарий к Берешит 19:30

כי ירא לשבת בצוער FOR HE FEARED TO DWELL IN ZOAR, because it was near to Sodom.

כי ירא לשבת בצוער, seeing the angel had spared the town only because there had not been time enough for Lot to escape to the mountain. Now that Lot could climb the mountain at his leisure, he was afraid to stay there longer than necessary.

FOR HE FEARED TO DWELL IN ZOAR. Rashi wrote, “Because it was near to Sodom.”
This is not so.²⁶²For since the angel had assured Lot, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city [Zoar], (Verse 21), Zoar would no longer be in danger of destruction even though it was near Sodom. (Mizrachi.) Rather, since it was one of the places upon which destruction had originally been decreed and it was only by Lot’s supplication that the angel exempted it because Lot could not make his escape to the mountain on that day,²⁶³Verse 19 here. Lot now thought that the angel would no longer extend his request, for he now had sufficient time to make the escape to the mountain.²⁶⁴This was why he feared to dwell in Zoar. This was why his daughter said, And there is not a man in the earth,²⁶⁵Verse 31 here. for she thought that with her father’s departure from Zoar the city was destroyed.