Genesis 19:26

a pillar of salt Lot's wife for disobeying the command, recorded in Genesis 19:17, was, according to the tradition, changed into a pillar of salt. Our Lord's words, "Remember Lot's wife" (Luke 17:32), refer to the narrative in this passage. Her looking back indicated the place of her real treasure. She failed to trust whole-heartedly, or to obey. Compare the story of Orpheus and Eurydice (Ovid, Met. x. 51). Our Lord's warning is directed against the absorption of mind in temporal pleasures and interests. His allusion to this passage was one that all Jewish hearers understood. He does not raise the question of its historicity. He appeals to the teaching of the parable contained in the Scripture story.

Travellers speak of the remarkable ridge called Jebel Uzdum("mountain of Sodom") at the S.W. extremity of the Dead Sea. Its fantastic pillars and ragged fragments attract attention. It consists of rock salt. One of these needles or pinnacles has been called by the people "Lot's wife." Such pinnacles would in process of time change their appearance owing to the effects of wind and rain. One known as "Lot's wife" existed in the days of our Lord. See Wis 10:7; Josephus, Ant. i. ii, 4.

"Suddenly we saw before us among the pinnacles of salt a gigantic -Lot," with a daughter on each arm hurrying off in a south-westerly direction, with their bodies bent forward as though they were in great haste, and their flowing garments trailing behind" (Pal. Q.S. 1870, p. 150).