Genesis 19:26

His wife looked back. The angels had led all four of them out of the doomed city and given them explicit instructions as to what to do and what to avoid doing, if they would save their lives. But merely to escape from the city was not sufficient; continued compliance with instructions was necessary. Lot’s wife looked back to the city, where her home and possessions and some of her children were. She now refused to give them up. Her obdurate heart has made her memory a perpetual warning to those who would like to be saved but who are content with halfway measures, who seem to forsake the world, but whose hearts are still in it. Not enduring unto the end, they cannot be saved (see Matt. 24:13; Phil. 1:6). It is well not to forget the solemn admonition of our Lord, “Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32). Greater firmness on Lot’s part in heeding the angel’s command would have meant her salvation (PP 160, 161). The angels had forced her to leave the city, but they could not effect her salvation against her will. She was naturally an irreligious person, probably a native of Canaan (PP 174). She chose to die rather than to leave Sodom. We lament her fate; let us profit by her example.

Pillar of salt. It cannot be said how long the salt pillar containing her body remained visible. In some places the southwestern shore of the Dead Sea is lined with salt rock formations, some of them roughly resembling human figures. Travelers have called one or another of them “Lot’s wife.” But to attempt thus to identify any of these would be folly.