Genesis 19:26
But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
BSB
ASV
But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
KJV
But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
But let us return to Lot, who, fleeing the destruction of Sodom with his wife and daughters after he had received the command from the angels to not look back, was proceeding to Zoar. But his wife became negligent of the command. "She looked back"; she violated the imposed law; "she became a little statue of salt." Do we think there was so much evil in this transgression, that the woman, because she looked behind her, incurred the destruction that she appeared to be fleeing by divine favor?
Probably she hankered after her house and goods in Sodom, and was loath to leave them. Christ intimates this to be her sin, Luke xvii, 31, 32, she too much regarded her stuff. And her looking back spoke an inclination to go back; and therefore our saviour uses it as a warning against apostasy from our Christian profession.
As by the example of Sodom the wicked are warned to turn from their wickedness, so by the example of Lot's wife the righteous are warned not to turn from their righteousness. The sin of Lot's wife: She looked back from behind him. This seemed a small thing, but we are sure, by the punishment of it, that it was a great sin, and exceedingly sinful.
She became a pillar of salt - The vast variety of opinions, both ancient and modern, on the crime of Lot’s wife, her change, and the manner in which that change was effected, are in many cases as unsatisfactory as they are ridiculous. On this point the sacred Scripture says little. God had commanded Lot and his family not to look behind them; the wife of Lot disobeyed this command; she looked back from behind him - Lot, her husband, and she became a pillar of salt.
But whether it was from irresistible curiosity or perturbation of feeling, or that she was about to return to save something, his wife lingered, and while thus disobeying the parting counsel, "to look not back, nor stay in all the plain" [Ge 19:17], the torrent of liquid lava enveloped her so that she became the victim of her supine indolence or sinful rashness.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Hebrews 10:38But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, I will take no pleasure in him.”
leads to
Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.”
Look at the proud one; his soul is not upright—but the righteous will live by faith—
For the gospel reveals the righteousness of God that comes by faith from start to finish, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
I will listen to what God the LORD will say; for He will surely speak peace to His people and His saints; He will not let them return to folly.
Through
Genesis 19:17As soon as the men had brought them out, one of them said, “Run for your lives! Do not look back, and do not stop anywhere on the plain! Flee to the mountains, or…
leads to
then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
Then Jesus declared, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and then looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
Hurry! Run there quickly, for I cannot do anything until you reach it.” That is why the town was called Zoar.
