Lot's Wife Looks Back

Genesis 19 shows the outcome of Lot's choices that began in Genesis 13. Lot had moved toward Sodom, then into it, and now he sits in its gate, a place for leaders. When two angels arrive, Lot shows hospitality and urges them into his home. That night the men of the city surround the house, intending to harm the visitors. Their violence confirms the outcry that had reached the Lord. The angels protect Lot's household and strike the attackers with blindness.

The angels urge Lot to gather his family and flee, but even Lot's future sons-in-law treat his warning as a joke. At dawn Lot lingers. In a beautiful phrase, the angels seize him, his wife and daughters by the hand, Yahweh being merciful to him, and lead them out. Lot asks to flee to the small town of Zoar, and God graciously grants it. When the sun rises, the Lord rains sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot's wife looks back and becomes a pillar of salt.

Verse 29 gives the key: God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out. Abraham's intercession mattered. The chapter closes with a sad account in which Lot's family is drawn into further sin, showing how deeply Sodom had shaped them. Peter calls Lot a righteous man who was distressed by the wickedness around him (2 Peter 2:7-9), and concludes that the Lord knows how to rescue the godly. In the New Testament, Jesus warns his listeners to remember Lot's wife (Luke 17:32).