Lotan

LOTAN, the Son of Seir the Horite, Gen. xxxvi. 20.

LOT’s WIFE, is called Hedith by the Rabbins¹. The Word Hedith signifies Witness; as if they would hereby declare this Woman to be a Witness, or Proof of the Punishment, which God inflicts upon the Incredulity and Imprudence of those, Gen. xix. 26.who believe not his Word and Threatnings. The Scripture says, that she looked back from behind him, and was changed into a Pillar of Salt. This Way of speaking, to look back behind one, is taken sometimes for delaying, deferring, staying; and it was probably the Angel’s Intention to hasten Lot and his Family, and convince them that they had Reason to fear the worst Consequences from their Delays. Several Difficulties are proposed concerning what is said of her being changed into a Pillar of Salt. Some are of Opinion, that no more is signified by the Scripture Phrase, but that she was surprized and suffocated with Fire and Smoak, and that she continued in the same Place as stiff and immovable as a Rock of Salt: Others think that a Column or Monument of Salt Stone was put upon her Grave: Others, that she was stifled in the Flame, and became a Monument of Salt to Posterity, that is to say, a permanent and durable Monument of her own Incredulity and Imprudence. Others assert, that she was overpowered with the Smell of Sulphur and Flame, and fell down dead upon the Earth, where her Body petrified, and became stiff and dry like Mummies and Egyptian Bodies which have been salted and embalmed: So that a Statue of Salt signifies the same as a Body embalmed, dried and salted.

Iren. l. 4. c. 51.But it is the most common and universal Opinion, that this Woman was on a sudden petrified and changed into a Statue of Rock Salt²; which not only is not melted by the Rain, but is likewise as hard as the hardest Rocks. The Generality of Travellers who have gone over Palestine relate, that Lot’s Wife was shewn to them; that is to say, the Rock into which she was metamorphosed. But that which makes their Testimony very much to be suspected is, that they do not agree about the Place where she is seen; some saying Westward, others Eastward; some Northward, others Southward of the Dead Sea, others in the midst of its Waters, others in Zoar, others at a great Distance from this City. Some of the Ancients, as Irenæus, and the Author of a Poem upon Sodom, ascribed to Tertullian, assure us, that this Pillar remained still in the Form of a Woman, and that by a continual Miracle it so happened, that the Largeness of it was not at all diminished, tho’ People were continually plucking off Pieces of it. They farther add something more incredible, viz. that she remained in this Condition subject to all the Infirmities which are natural and common to her Sex. The Reader may, if he pleases, consult our Comment upon Gen. xix. 26. M. le Clerc’s Dissertation upon Lot’s Wife, Henry Bauman’s upon the same Subject, that of M. Hermand Hard, and Christopher Augustus Bauman, and the Commentators upon the Place of Genesis abovecited. Our Lord in the Gospel admonishes his Disciples, to remember Lot’s Wife in their Flight, and Luke xvii. 32.not to imitate her Tardiness.

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