Arcana Coelestia #2455
2455. And she became a pillar of salt. That this signifies that all the good of truth was laid waste, is evident from the signification of a “pillar,” and from the signification of “salt.” In the original language a “pillar” is expressed by a word which signifies a standing still, not by one that means a pillar erected for worship, or for a sign, or for a witness; so that by the “pillar of salt” is here signified that it, namely, the truth signified by Lot’s wife, stood vastated (n. 2454). Truth is said to be vastated, or laid waste, when there is no longer any good in it, vastation itself being signified by “salt.”
[2] As most things in the Word have a double sense, namely, the genuine sense and its opposite, so also has “salt;” in the genuine sense it signifies the affection of truth; in the opposite sense, the vastation of the affection of truth, that is, of good in truth. That “salt” signifies the affection of truth may be seen in Exodus 30:35; Leviticus 2:13; Matthew 5:13; Mark 9:49-50; Luke 14:34-35; and that it signifies the vastation of the affection of truth is evident from the following passages.
In Moses:
The whole land shall be brimstone and salt, a burning; it shall not be sown, it shall not bear, neither shall any herb spring up therein; like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim (Deuteronomy 29:23); where “brimstone” denotes the vastation of good; and “salt” the vastation of truth: that the subject is vastation is evident from every particular.
[3] In Zephaniah:
Moab shall be as Sodom, and the sons of Ammon as Gomorrah; a place that is left to the nettle, and a pit of salt, and an eternal desolation (Zeph. 2:9); where a “place that is left to the nettle” denotes vastated good, and a “pit of salt” vastated truth; for the expression “place left to the nettle” refers to Sodom, by which is signified evil or vastated good, and a “pit of salt” to Gomorrah, by which is signified falsity or vastated truth, as already shown. That the subject is vastation is manifest, for it is said an “eternal desolation.”
In Jeremiah:
He that maketh flesh his arm shall be like a bare shrub in the solitude, and shall not see when good cometh, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land, and not inhabited (Jeremiah 17:5-6); where “parched places” denote vastated goods, and a “salt land” vastated truths.
[4] In David:
Jehovah maketh rivers into a wilderness, and water springs into dry ground, a fruitful land into a salt one, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein (Psalms 107:33-34);
a “fruitful land made into a salt one” denotes the vastation of good in truth.
In Ezekiel:
The miry places thereof and the marshes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given up to salt (Ezekiel 47:11);
to be “given up to salt” denotes being altogether vastated as to truth. As “salt” signified vastation, and “cities” the doctrinal things of truth (shown at (402) n. 402, 2268, 2428, 2451), in ancient times when cities were destroyed they were sown with salt, in order to prevent their being rebuilt (Judges 9:45). The words before us therefore denote the fourth state of that church which was represented by Lot, which state was that all truth was vastated as to good.
Genesis 19
1
The two angels came to Sodom at evening. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them. He bowed himself with his face to the earth,
2
and he said, "See now, my lords, please turn aside into your servant's house, stay all night, wash your feet, and you can rise up early, and go on your way." They said, "No, but we will stay in the street all night."
3
He urged them greatly, and they came in with him, and entered into his house. He made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
4
But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter.
5
They called to Lot, and said to him, "Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them."
6
Lot went out to them to the door, and shut the door after him.
7
He said, "Please, my brothers, don't act so wickedly.
8
See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only don't do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof."
9
They said, "Stand back!" Then they said, "This one fellow came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself a judge. Now will we deal worse with you, than with them!" They pressed hard on the man Lot, and drew near to break the door.
10
But the men put forth their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door.
11
They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.
12
The men said to Lot, "Do you have anybody else here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whoever you have in the city, bring them out of the place:
13
for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before Yahweh that Yahweh has sent us to destroy it."
14
Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, "Get up! Get out of this place, for Yahweh will destroy the city." But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking.
15
When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, "Get up! Take your wife, and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city."
16
But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife's hand, and his two daughters' hands, Yahweh being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city.
17
It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, "Escape for your life! Don't look behind you, and don't stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed!"
18
Lot said to them, "Oh, not so, my lord.
19
See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can't escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die.
20
See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn't it a little one?), and my soul will live."
21
He said to him, "Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.
22
Hurry, escape there, for I can't do anything until you get there." Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
23
The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
24
Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky.
25
He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.
26
But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
27
Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Yahweh.
28
He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and looked, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.
29
It happened, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.
30
Lot went up out of Zoar, and lived in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his two daughters.
31
The firstborn said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in to us in the way of all the earth.
32
Come, let's make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father's seed."
33
They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father. He didn't know when she lay down, nor when she arose.
34
It came to pass on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, "Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine again, tonight. You go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve our father's seed."
35
They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger went and lay with him. He didn't know when she lay down, nor when she got up.
36
Thus both of Lot's daughters were with child by their father.
37
The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day.
38
The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.
