But his wife looked back, &c.— The angels, Genesis 19:17 commanded Lot, and consequently those with him, not to look back, which, I apprehend, cannot be understood to mean, a mere turning of the eyes only, but a delay in the plain about to be destroyed, from a love of the things left behind, which delay might be attended with imminent danger. Lot's wife, disregardful of the angel's charge, or disbelieving his threatenings, looked back, and not only so, but delayed and loitered, to see what would become of her city and kindred, for very probably she was of that city. Her mind was towards Sodom, which she left not but with regret. Shuckford is of opinion, that after the departure of the angel, she returned some part of the way, in order to have saved some of her goods, and that in returning she was overtaken with a storm of thunder and lightning: and he grounds this opinion upon what our Saviour says in foretelling, the destruction of Jerusalem, Luke 17. for after admonishing his disciples not to return back, Luke 17:31 he adds, remember Lot's wife, thereby intimating, that she had returned back. But perhaps it may be sufficient to understand, that she turned back in mind and inclination only. She was not thankful to Providence for her own deliverance, and hankered after the wicked city, so justly doomed to perdition. Henry says, that her sin consisted, 1st, in a disobedience to an express command: 2nd, in unbelief; she doubted whether Sodom would be destroyed according to the declaration of the angels: 3rdly, in a greater regard to such sinners as the Sodomites, than was due to a people so justly abominable: 4thly, in a worldly attachment to her house and goods, which she was loth to leave, to which Christ refers, Luke 17:31-32: 5thly, in an inclination to go back; and therefore our Saviour uses it as a warning against apostacy.
And she became a pillar of salt— As she looked back, or delayed, the storm overtook her; the lightning struck her dead, and stiffened her in the place where she stood (no uncommon effect of lightning); while the nitro-sulphureous matter, which descended, wrapt her body so thick around, as to candy it into a substance hard as stone, and left it like a pillar, or statue of metallic salt, which some affirm they have seen between Mount-Engedi and the Dead-sea. This seems an easy solution of the matter, and, I humbly think, far more consentaneous to the letter of the Sacred History, than that of others, who would understand by a pillar of salt, "a lasting monument," as a perpetual covenant is called "a covenant of salt," Numbers 18:19 in allusion to the quality of salt, which preserves from corruption. But if we understand it, she looked back, and became a lasting, or perpetual monument, it may reasonably be asked, how did she become so? and is there not, on this supposition, a manifest deficiency in the historian, who omits to inform us, in what respect, or by what manner, she thus became a lasting monument? Whereas all is clear, if we take him as his words seem plainly to imply, (and in my judgment the plainest interpretation of Scripture words is always the best,) she looked back, disobedient and unbelieving, and, struck with the sulphureous fire from heaven, was killed, and became a pillar of salt; and thus, indeed, a lasting memorial to many generations. For this pillar, as Dr. Delaney has observed, subsisted in the time of that author who wrote the Wisdom of Solomon, see Wisd. ch. 10: Numbers 18:7. And Josephus (who himself saw it) and later writers, attest the same thing of their times. Maundrell's guides told him, that some remains of the monument were still extant. I am sensible that this is a point upon which the learned men are much divided: but thus much, I think, is clear and evident, that the inspired Writer's account of this matter is true, not figuratively, (as some understand it,) but according to the very letter of the text; that Lot's wife became a real statue, and that this statue lasted many ages; lasted at least, till a new revelation from heaven, the revelation of Jesus Christ, made this monument less necessary. And as to the difficulty of salt's continuing undissolved in the open air so long, it is well known to naturalists, that rocks of salt are as lasting as any other rocks, nay more so; and that houses are built of them. Now there is reason to believe, from Deuteronomy 29:23 that much salt as well as sulphur fell down from heaven upon that devoted region: nor perhaps is the great saltness of the sea of Sodom, beyond that of any other sea in the known world, without the least change from the perpetual influx of fresh water (of water remarkably sweet, as Diodorus Siculus observes) into it, a small presumptive proof of this. And as lightning stiffens all animals, which it strikes, in one instant, and leaves them dead in the same posture in which it found them alive, there is no sort of difficulty in conceiving how this unhappy woman's body, being prepared by heat, and penetrated and incrusted with salt, might long continue as a statue of salt, in the very posture in which this judgment from heaven found her. Nor are we without examples of such changes in other writers* and historians of undoubted credit. Give me leave again to observe, that this change of Lot's wife was not occasioned barely by her looking back, but by her loitering unseasonably behind her husband: for it is clear enough, from Deuteronomy 29:22 that this vengeance from heaven did not begin till Lot was entered into Zoar: consequently his wife could not have been affected by it, had she not both looked back and stayed unseasonably in the plain, contrary to the express command given by the angel. And as this unseasonable delay of Lot's wife was in part occasioned, probably by her solicitude for her children left behind, (her sons-in-law, &c.) the celebrated story among the heathens, of Niobe weeping for her children, and being stiffened into stone with grief, is most likely founded upon this history. Probably too the fable of Orpheus's being permitted to redeem his wife from hell, and losing her afterwards by looking unseasonably back, contrary to the express command given him, and then, through grief, deserting the society of mankind, and dwelling in desarts, might be also derived from some obscure tradition of this history. Sodom was now the liveliest emblem of hell that can be imagined: it was granted to Lot, by a peculiar privilege, to deliver his wife therefrom: he was expressly commanded, Look not behind thee: his wife was lost: after which he quits the city, and dwells in a cave on the mountains. Here are all the main circumstances of the fable, and the poets had nothing to do but to vary and embellish, as they liked best. So well hath Infinite Wisdom provided, that the sacred truths of Divine revelation shall not only be supported by the attestation of enemies, but likewise preserved in the vanity and extravagance of fables.
* See particularly Aventinus Boian Annuals, seventh book, Basil edit.
REFLECTIONS.—But four came out of Sodom, and one was lost by the way. Behold, and tremble. Remember Lot's wife.
1. Her sin: looking back. Disobedient to the command, and distrustful of the threatening, with unsubdued affection to her worldly enjoyments, she was drawn out by violence, but her heart was behind. Note; (1.) They who make profession of religion, out of complaisance to their friends, or by mere constraint, will soon make shipwreck of it to their shame. (2.) If we think of leaving our sin, we must make no reserve, either in practice or affection: once on the way to heaven, we must persevere: to look back, is to return unto perdition. Let us fear then, lest we fall.
2. Her punishment: a pillar of salt; a lasting memorial to warn succeeding ages. Note; (1.) Many a saint of God goes to heaven, and leaves his wife, through her perverseness, on the plain: and the wife, I believe, full as often leaves her husband behind her. (2.) No inducement must tempt us to stay, or look back on them: if they will not go with us, we must leave them to their ruin.