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Bible Dictionaries
Lot (2)
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or LOT.—The suddenness of the Divine Parousia and the unpreparedness and want of expectation on the part of the world, find illustration from ‘the days of Lot’ (Luke 17:28), when the people of Sodom continued their social and commercial activity until ‘the day that Lot went out’ (Luke 17:29).
Lot’s Wife—to whom in Jewish tradition the name ערית Edith is given—is recorded in Genesis 19 to have been turned into a pillar of salt as a result of her looking back upon Sodom while escaping to the mountain. Her fate, as one failing to escape imminent and foretold destruction, is referred to in Luke 17:32, though without specific mention of the form in which destruction overtook her.
Our Lord’s word ‘Remember’ neither confirms nor rejects the tradition. It is with the spiritual fact and its lesson, not with the memorial, that He is concerned. The folly of unreadiness, of the longing for things left behind, of the desire to retain a transient little in the face of impending judgment and at the cost of a greater and eternal loss, is the lesson He would teach in connexion with His Parousia, from the remembrance of Lot’s wife.
Literature.—Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible , Smith’s DB [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] , Encyc. Bibl., Kitto’s Encyc., Jewish Encyc. s.v.; G. A. Smith, HGHL [Note: GHL Historical Geog. of Holy Land.] p. 505; Josephus Ant. i. xi. 4; Jon. Edwards, Works [ed. 1840], ii. 64; Comm., esp. Driver on Genesis; and the following expository sermons, J. A. Alexander, Gospel of Jesus Christ, 38; H. E. Manning, Teaching of Christ, 38; F. Temple, Rugby Sermons, ii. 312; S. Cox, Expositions, iv. 280; B. Herford, Courage and Cheer, 79; G. Matheson, Representative Men of the Bible, ii. 22; A. Whyte, Bible Characters, i. 129.
J. T. L. Maggs.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Lot (2)'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/l/lot-2.html. 1906-1918.
