Luke 17:32
Remember Lot's wife.
Remember Lot's wife. Whose name by the Jews, is said to be Adith, as some {s}; or Irith, as others {t}: and who, they also say, was a native of Sodom; and that the reason of her looking, was either to see what would be the end of her father's house and family {u}; or as others {w}, because her heart yearned after her daughters, and she looked back to see if they followed her; upon which she became a pillar of salt, Genesis 19:26 They say {x}, that her bones were burnt with the brimstone, and along with which was salt, into which she was turned, according to Deuteronomy 29:23. They often speak of
tymwro xlm, "salt of Sodom" {y}; where the gloss says, it is thick and hard, as a stone; and to which they sometimes {z} ascribe this virtue, that it blinds the eyes: and there is a sort of salt, which they call {a} Galilaean salt, of like hardness; and Pliny {b} speaks of salt in the Indies, which they cut out, as stones out of quarries; and that, at Carthis, a town in Arabia, is salt with which they build houses and walls: of a very durable nature it is certain, was this pillar of "salt", Lot's wife became; for Josephus reports {c}, that he saw this pillar of salt in his time; and Irenaeus asserts {d}, that it was in being when he lived; and modern writers, as Burchardus and Adrichomius, speak of it as still existing; and the Jerusalem "paraphrast" on Genesis 19:26 says it shall endure till the time the resurrection comes, in which the dead shall live: the reason of her becoming a pillar of salt, the Jews say, is, that she sinned by salt, and so was punished by salt; and which is differently related, and in a very fanciful way: one writer {f} reports, that when the angels came, Lot said to her, give me a little salt for these travellers; she replied to him, truly this is a bad custom, which thou bringest to be used in this place; and elsewhere {g} it is said, that upon their coming, she went to all her neighbours, and said to them, give me some salt, for we have travellers; but her intention was, that the men of the city might know them: but leaving those things, our Lord's design in these words, is to instruct his followers by this instance, not to look back in their flight, or to turn back to their houses, to save their goods, when the desolation of Jerusalem was coming on, lest they should suffer in it; and to warn all professors of religion, in all ages, against looking back to things that are behind, or turning their backs on him, in a time of distress and persecution; since such are not fit for the kingdom of God; and in these God has no delight and pleasure.
{s} Pirke Eliezer, c. 25.
{t} Baal Hatturim in Gen. xix. 26.
{u} Targum Jon. & Hieros. in ib.
{w} Pirke Eliezer ib.
{x} Aben Ezra in Gen. xix. 26.
{y} T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 20. 2. & Menachot, fol. 21. 1.
{z} Bartenora in Misna Erubin, c. 1. sect. 10.
{a} T. Bab Kiddushin, fol. 62. 1.
{b} Nat. Hist. l. 31. c. 7.
{c} Antiqu. l. 1. c. 12.
{d} Adv. Haeres. l. 4. c. 51.
{f} Jarchi in Gen. xix. 26.
{g} Bereshit Rabba, sect. 51. fol. 46. 1.