though her looking back should not be supposed to have inspired a wish to go back, yet still it was disobeying an ex press command, a command which, for wise reasons, was made the test of obedience, and consequently she sinned after the similitude of Adam's trans allow for the strength of natural curiosity, for the force of motherly, sister every abatement, it was a great sin, be cause upon her abstaining from it was suspended her temporal, if not her eternal, salvation. Behold then the goodness and severity of God; towards Lot that went forward, goodness; towards his wife that looked back, severity. Though nearly related to a righteous man, and a monument of distinguishing mercy in her deliverance the house of a friend after sunset, he will be advised in going home not to look back: 'as much as possible keep your eyes closed; fear not.' Has a person made an offering to the evil spirits, he must take particular care when he leaves the place not to look back. A female known to me is be-gression, and what reason had she to lieved to have got her crooked neck by expect any milder doom? We may looking back. Such observations as the following may be often heard in private conversation. 'Have you heardly, and neighbourly affection, yet with that Comāran is very ill?'-'No, what is the matter with him?'-' Matter! why he has looked back, and the evil spirit has caught him.' Roberts.¶ And she became a pillar of salt. How fearfully is judgment here mingled with mercy! Lot was himself delivered, but at what an expense! It was a dismal spectacle to him to behold the city of his residence, his adopted home, including the habitations of his neigh-out of Sodom, yet rebelling against an bours and probably of some of his own relatives with all their inmates, sinking in the flames of the devouring element. But this was not all. One wave of anguish after another rolled over him. His company, as he left the city, was but small; and now, alas! when he has escaped, one is missing! His wife was the partner of his flight, but not of his preservation. The companion of his youth, the moth-mentators are not agreed. The more er of his children, instead of sharing in the joy of their deliverance, stands a pillar of salt in the way towards Sodom, an awful monument of the danger of disobedience! What doth it avail her,' says Bp. Hall, 'not to be turned into ashes in Sodom, when she is turned into a pillar of salt in the plain?' This may be deemed a hard fate for a mere glance of the eye; but that glance, no doubt, was expressive of unbelief and a lingering desire to return, Certain it is, that her example is held up by our Lord as a warning against turning back, which intimates that such was the meaning of her look. But even express mandate of heaven, her priv ileges and relations availed her nothing; God would not connive at her disobe dience; she became a mournful illustration of the truth that the righteous who turn away from their righteousness shall perish! While then we lament her fate, let us profit by her example.-As to the meaning of the phrase, 'became a pillar of salt,' com common opinion is, that she was suddenly petrified and changed into a statue of rock salt, which either by its own nature or by miraculous power was made capable of continuing undissolved by the action of the elements. In conformity with this is the testimony of Josephus, who says expressly that Lot's wife'was changed into a pillar of salt, for I have seen it, and it remains to this day.' Clement, of Rome, also says that it was standing there to his time, which was about the time of Josephus; and Irenaeus says that it was there a century still later, Some modern travellers relate that it every trace of the material fabric had disappeared. Indeed in this sense Lot's wife is a 'pillar of salt' to us at the present day; inasmuch as her recorded fate teaches us a lesson of perpetual warning against the sin of apostacy. 27. And Abraham gat up early to the place, &c. The narrative now returns to Abraham, to whose history every thing is subservient, and shows that he was far from being unheedful of the predicted doom of Sodom. For aught that he seems to have known, Lot may have been involved in the common destruction; at least it does not appear that he had before received any assurance of his safety, and we deem it a very probable supposition that he had been engaged a great part, if not the whole, of the previous night in earnest intercession in his behalf. Accordingly he repairs at an early hour the next morning, the very morn remains there still; but the probability is that they were one and all imposed upon by the reports of those who dwelt at or near the spot; just as travellers at this day are often told that such and such objects are real monuments of antiquity when there is not a particle of evidence of the truth of the statement. Josephus and the others no doubt saw what they were told was the pillar of salt into which Lot's wife was turned, and in like manner the traveller is still told that he sees the very water-pot which contained the water miraculously turned into wine in Cana of Galilee. The truth is, the literal mode of interpretation is not demanded by the terms of the text. Salt is a symbol of perpetuity. For this reason the covenant spoken of Num. 18. 19, is called a 'covenant of salt,' i. e. an enduring, a perpetual covenant. Thus too 2 Chron. 13. 5, The Lord God of Israel gave the kingdom overing, it would seem, on which the judg Israel to David, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt,' i. e. by the most binding and lasting engagement. See Note on Judg. 9. 45. In like manner a 'pillar of salt' conveys the idea of a lasting monument, a perpetual memorial of the sad consequences of disobedience. We may suppose with great probability that the saline and sulphureous matter which, in conse-made in the earth.' The fertile and dequence of the eruption, was showering down from the atmosphere, gathered around the unfortunate woman as a nucleus, forming a thick incrustation, which gradually became hardened, till at last she stood a massive pillar of this mineral matter capable of resist ing, perhaps for ages, the action of time and the elements. The perpetuity however indicated by the use of the term 'salt' is not to be considered as depending upon the actual duration of the pillar. That may have worn away in time, and yet the record of the event may have been a perpetual memorial to subsequent generations long after ment occurred, to the spot where he had the day before held his favoured communion with Jehovah, which was doubtless a position commanding a full view of the cities of the plain and the adjacent valley of the Jordan. And here what a scene of woe bursts upon his sight! 'Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolation he hath lightful vale of Siddim, whose green fields and well-peopled cities had so often met his view from the rocky heights of Canaan is now enveloped in flames! Not the cities only with their buildings and inhabitants are sinking in the conflagration, but the very ground itself on which they stood shares in the awful catastrophe! Sulphureous smoke mingled with lurid gleams of fire, is constantly rising up in dense pitchy masses, and constitutes all that Abraham is now able to see!¶ Lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. This is rendered by the Septuagint, 'A flame went up out of B. C. 1898.] CHAPTER XIX. 329 28 And he looked toward Sod- | midst of the overthrow, when he om and Gomorrah, and toward overthrew the cities in the which all the land of the plain, and be- Lot dwelt. held, and lo, "the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. 29 And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the n Rev. 18. 9. o ch. 8. 1. & 18. 23. 30 And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cavern, he and his two daughters. p ver. 17, 19. the earth as the vapour of a furnace." fore was for Abraham's sake; and why It is not unlikely that frequent flashes shall we not suppose it to have been of fire were intermixed with the clouds owing to the influence of Abraham's of smoke that rolled up from the scene prayers? Is it not natural to under of the devastation. The view must stand God's 'remembering Abraham' have been awful beyond description, of his remembering the intercessions of and from its terrific features is no doubt Abraham? And if so, it is but a fair made the Scriptural type of hell, which presumption, as before intimated, that in allusion to the fate of Sodom, is the pious uncle had spent the previous called the 'lake that burneth with fire night in earnest prayer for his nephew, and brimstone.' Compare also Deut. and that he went forth in the morning 29. 23. Is. 13. 19. Jer. 49. 18. Jude, 7. under the prompting of an ardent desire 2 Pet. 2. 6. The destruction of the to learn the success of his petitions; spiritual Sodom, Rev. 18. and 19., is to see if he could meet with any tokens moreover evidently described in terms of the preservation of Lot. Whether borrowed from the event here described; he received any assurance to this effect especially where the bewailing specta- is uncertain, but the fact that Abrators are represented as standing afar ham's intervention had availed in some off and gazing at the smoke of her way to the deliverance of Lot comes in burning-a circumstance doubtless very appropriately in this connection, drawn from Abraham's here standing as it gives to the reader precisely the at a distance and witnessing the doom information which Abraham desired of the devoted cities. It has indeed for himself. The incident teaches us been generally supposed that it was that one righteous man may fare betnot till the morning after the destruc- ter for the intercessions of another; and tion that Abraham went forth to sur- it reminds us too of the unspeakable vey the scene, but there is nothing in privilege of those that have an Interthe text that requires this construction, cessor in heaven who knows all the and from the anxiety he would natur-evils coming upon them, and prays for ally feel in consequence of the disclosures of the heavenly visitants, we can hardly suppose such a delay to have taken place. This impression is confirmed by what we gather from the purport of the next verse. 29. God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the mids of the overthrow, &c. Lot's preservation there them when they forget or neglect to pray for themselves. And not only so; but in the fearful catastrophe of the last day, when a favoured countless multitude shall be seen emerging and soaring to the mountains of salvation, from the midst of a still more countless multitude left to their fate in the flames of a burning world, their deliverance shall be owing to the efficacy of his prevalent interession and atoning blood. 30. Dwelt in the mountain. That is, in the mountainous district or hill-country of Moab bordering upon what is now the eastern side of the Dead Sea. - He feared to dwell in Zoar. But of what was he afraid? Undoubtedly either of fire or water, but of which it is impossible to say. It is altogether likely that for some time after the destruction of the larger cities, the whole adjacent plain was in a disturbed nd volcanic state; that rumblings of the earth and occasional eruptions of fire threatened a second visitation of wrath from heaven and kept Lot and his family in continual alarms. Or it may be that he was in dread of being overwhelmed by the approaching waters. The sight of a sea of waters accumulating in the vale and gradually ap proaching the very borders of Zoar. was not a little calculated to inspire terror. How could he know where i would stop; at what point the Most High would say, 'Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther?' If this wer the real cause of his flight, his betaking himself to the mountains would be a very natural step; for there he would o: course be most secure from the advancing deluge. But whatever the truth may be on this head, the history demonstrates that the rash counsels which good men adopt under the dictation of fleshly wisdom or passion, are never attended with prosperous issues. They may appear to succeed in the outset, and their authors may for a time bless themselves in a fond conceit of the happiest esults, but eventually the truth of the divine declaration will be experienced, Is. 31. 1, 'Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel but not of me;' and they are not to be surprised to find themBelves at length driven to have recourse to the very expedients which Heaven at first prescribed, but which they in their foolish wisdom saw fit to repudiate. He who preferred the plain to the mountain, is here represented repenting of his choice and condemning his folly in not acquiescing at once in the direction of the Almighty. But why did not Lot return to Abraham? There was no occasion now for strife about their herds, for he had lost all, and but just escaped with his life; and he could have no doubt that Abraham would cordially receive him and befriend him to the utmost. Perhaps the most probable supposition is that he was too proud to do this. He left him prosperous; but he must return, if he return at all, poor and degraded and an outcast. This was too severe a trial for his spirit as a man, and he had rather incur new dangers than submit to it. Whatever were his reasons he seems to have made a bad choce and 'forsaken his own mercies.' His daughters, who appear to have contracted such habits in Sodom as would prepare them for any thing, however unnatural, draw him into intemperance and incest, and thus cover his old age with infamy. Such was the sad consequence of declining to go to the mountain when directed, and thinking he could select a better location for himself than that which God had pointed out. He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.'Not in any one particular cave, any more than in one particular mountain; but his mode of life was now that of those who took up their abode in the cavernous recesses of the mountains, instead of living in the open country, some of which were of vast extent; and it was and is customary for the shepherds to occupy them, and often to shelter the cattle in them while pasturing in the neighbourhood. The people who flee to the mountains in times of danger are glad of the accommodation which such caverns offer, and oc -Dwelt in a care. 31 And the first-born said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth: q ch. 16. 2, 4. ch. 38. 8. 9. Deut. 25. 5. cupy them, with their wives and children, and all their property in moveables and cattle. Thus Lot seems to have been circumstanced. See Note on Judg. 6. 2. 331 32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we r may preserve seed of our father. r Mark 12. 19. which led to it. Especially was his conduct to be condemned for suffering himself to be twice intoxicated, since it is difficult to conceive that he should not on the second evening have had 32. Come let us make our father some recollection of the consequences drink wine, &c. 'When God delivers of his former indulgence. But if Lot us from destruction, he doth not secure cannot be acquitted from blame in this us from all afflictions: Lot hath lost instance, much less can we find an adhis wife, his allies, his substance, and equate apology for the part enacted by now betakes himself to an unconfort- his daughters. The very circumstance able solitariness. Yet though he fled of their enticing their father to drink to. from company, he could not fly from excess is a proof that they were consin: he who could not be tainted with scious of the sinfulness of the design, uncleanness in Sodom, is overtaken since they were aware that he would with drunkenness and incest in a case: not yield to such an expedient in his rather than Satan shall not want baits, sober senses. But on the other hand his own daughters will prove Sodom- we may concede (1) That they were ites: those which should comfort, be- not actuated by a base and sensual detrayed him. How little are some sire in thus deceiving their father. Their hearts moved with judgments! The preservation in the midst of the overashes of Sodom, and the pillar of salt, throw, which shows that they partook were not yet out of their eye, when of Lot's faith, their declared object 'to they dare think of lying with their own preserve seed of their father,' and their father. They knew, that whilst Lot not repeating the crime, evince that was sober, he could not be unchaste. that they were influenced by some Drunkenness is the way to all bestial other motive than lust; and though affections and acts: wine knows no this motive was founded on false and difference either of persons or sins.' mistaken views, yet we may admit that Bp. Hall. The sacred writer, with his it was in some degree excusable; for accustomed fidelity, here relates a trans- (2.) They were doubtless of opinion action which throws an indelible stain that it was the only means of prevent upon the character of Lot. True, in- ing the extinction of the family. In deed, it was a sin into which Lot was making the proposition the first-born betrayed by the machinations of his said to the younger, 'Our father is old daughters, and not one into which he and there is not a man in the earth to entered knowingly or of set purpose. come in unto us after the manner of This circumstance mitigates the offence all the earth.' That is, there were greatly on his part, though it by no none left in all the land of Canaan means leaves him guiltless; for how-none among their own family and kinever he may have been unconscious of dred, with whom they could hold it the incest, we cannot but suppose him lawful to intermarry. That the words culpable in yielding to the inebriety are to be taken with some such limita |