Pillar of Salt
Content
What happened to Sodom and Gomorrah?
Chelyabinsk meteorite fall Feb 2013
Burning sulphur
Did Lot’s wife turn into salt or ashes?
Genesis 19 :15-17, 24-25
15 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.” 16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. 17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”
24 Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. 25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
The word for pillar is the Hebrew nets-eeb'. It means something stationary, as a sentinel, a military outpost or a statue. It is a very rare usage. The only other time this word is translated pillar in the Bible is in Judges the 9th chapter and the 6th verse, where it means an oak tree that was a landmark.
The word for salt is the Hebrew meh'-lakh. It certainly means salt but it is quite a versatile term that does not necessarily mean salt. It can mean dust. It can mean something very brittle and fragile that is about to flake off or to break in pieces. It can even mean ashes.
What happened to Sodom and Gomorrah?
One explanation is God bombarded Sodom and Gomorrah with flammable (sulphur rich) meteorites that destroyed the 2 cities and the surrounding areas. The area of destruction was so extensive that Lot was told to flee the plains into the mountains. I emphasize flammable because most meteorites are naturally cold in space. The heating process occurs only on entry, and the hot outer layer breaks out at high speeds. The meteorite core is often close to ambient temperature when it lands.
To help understand the extent of a meteorite damage, here are 2 documented accounts of meteorite fall.
Chelyabinsk meteorite fall Feb 2013
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2488478/Russias-meteor-explosion-powerful-400-000-tonnes-TNT.html
“A meteor that exploded over Russia was 30 times brighter than the sun, with the force of 40 Hiroshima atom bombs, said scientists.Their analysis confirmed the meteor crash was the biggest in a century. The 62ft-wide missile exploded in a fireball above the city of Chelyabinsk on February 15, causing damage up to 50 miles away. At its fastest, it was travelling at more than 40,000mph.”
Content
What happened to Sodom and Gomorrah?
Chelyabinsk meteorite fall Feb 2013
Burning sulphur
Did Lot’s wife turn into salt or ashes?
Genesis 19 :15-17, 24-25
15 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.” 16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. 17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”
24 Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. 25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
The word for pillar is the Hebrew nets-eeb'. It means something stationary, as a sentinel, a military outpost or a statue. It is a very rare usage. The only other time this word is translated pillar in the Bible is in Judges the 9th chapter and the 6th verse, where it means an oak tree that was a landmark.
The word for salt is the Hebrew meh'-lakh. It certainly means salt but it is quite a versatile term that does not necessarily mean salt. It can mean dust. It can mean something very brittle and fragile that is about to flake off or to break in pieces. It can even mean ashes.
What happened to Sodom and Gomorrah?
One explanation is God bombarded Sodom and Gomorrah with flammable (sulphur rich) meteorites that destroyed the 2 cities and the surrounding areas. The area of destruction was so extensive that Lot was told to flee the plains into the mountains. I emphasize flammable because most meteorites are naturally cold in space. The heating process occurs only on entry, and the hot outer layer breaks out at high speeds. The meteorite core is often close to ambient temperature when it lands.
To help understand the extent of a meteorite damage, here are 2 documented accounts of meteorite fall.
Chelyabinsk meteorite fall Feb 2013
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2488478/Russias-meteor-explosion-powerful-400-000-tonnes-TNT.html
“A meteor that exploded over Russia was 30 times brighter than the sun, with the force of 40 Hiroshima atom bombs, said scientists.Their analysis confirmed the meteor crash was the biggest in a century. The 62ft-wide missile exploded in a fireball above the city of Chelyabinsk on February 15, causing damage up to 50 miles away. At its fastest, it was travelling at more than 40,000mph.”
Tunguska event June 1908
The Tunguska event was a large explosion caused by the impact of a small asteroid or comet, which occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska Riverin what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, on 30 June 1908. It is classified as an impact even though the asteroid or comet is believed to have burst in the air rather than hitting the surface. The energy of the explosion was about 1,000 times greater than that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. It is estimated that the Tunguska explosion knocked down some 80 million trees over an area of 2,150 square kilometres , and that the shock wave from the blast would have measured 5.0 on the Richter scale. An explosion of this magnitude would be capable of destroying a large metropolitan area,
The Tunguska event was a large explosion caused by the impact of a small asteroid or comet, which occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska Riverin what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, on 30 June 1908. It is classified as an impact even though the asteroid or comet is believed to have burst in the air rather than hitting the surface. The energy of the explosion was about 1,000 times greater than that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. It is estimated that the Tunguska explosion knocked down some 80 million trees over an area of 2,150 square kilometres , and that the shock wave from the blast would have measured 5.0 on the Richter scale. An explosion of this magnitude would be capable of destroying a large metropolitan area,
Burning Sulphur
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah must have been an eerie sight to behold. Sulphur burns with a blue flame. Below are photographer Olivier Grunewald’s photos of burning sulphur at the Kawah Ljen volcano in East Java, Indonesia. Miners run ceramic pipes from vents in the side of the mountain to collection points inside a large crater where the molten chemical is left to cool before being broken up and carried away.
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah must have been an eerie sight to behold. Sulphur burns with a blue flame. Below are photographer Olivier Grunewald’s photos of burning sulphur at the Kawah Ljen volcano in East Java, Indonesia. Miners run ceramic pipes from vents in the side of the mountain to collection points inside a large crater where the molten chemical is left to cool before being broken up and carried away.
Did Lot’s wife turn into salt or ashes?
What happened to Lot wife was a direct judgment for her looking back. Most pastors would preach this passage on the dangers of looking back fondly on the joys of sinful living. Lot family was taken out of Sodom against their will. Bible records Lot hesitated but the Lord was merciful, the angels had to grab their hands and run out. What precise planning by God! He knew he would need 2 angels with 4 hands to grab 4 unwilling people. And the destruction only came after Lot and his daughters have reached the mountains. Sometimes I do look back on my life on the occasions God in His mercy dragged me out of my sins.
One possibility was Lot’s wife was incinerated by the heat and the flame and swirled up into the air as a column of dust. That would be mean she ran halfway into the plains and stayed there, refusing to carry on, while the rest of her family continued into the mountains.
Another possibility was she looked back while on the run and turned into a real pillar of salt. I think this phenomenon that could not been better graphically depicted by Nick Brandt in his book Across the Ravaged Land (2013). Of course the process of calcification of Lot’s wife , which is still a mystery, and the animals below would be different.
Brandt wrote in his photo book “Across the Ravaged Land”
“I unexpectedly found the creatures — all manner of birds and bats — washed up along the shoreline of Lake Natron in Northern Tanzania. No one knows for certain exactly how they die, but it appears that the extreme reflective nature of the lake’s surface confuses them, and like birds crashing into plate glass windows, they crash into the lake,”
Lake Natron in northern Tanzania is one of the harshest environments on Earth. Temperatures in the lake can rise to 140 °F (60 °C) and the alkalinity is between pH 9 and pH 10.5, almost as alkaline as ammonia. Animals who enter the water are almost certainly doomed, save certain kinds of fish that have adapted to survive in such a caustic environment.
Brandt positioned these calcified animals in their natural posture for the photographs.
Article 1st published on 9 Apr 2014
by Benjamin Cheah
by Benjamin Cheah