1212. The fact that as you come to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, as far as Lasha, symbolizes the falsity and evil in which that knowledge ends can be seen from the symbolism of those nations in the narrative and prophetic parts of the Word.

Falsity comes from two general sources. One is the cravings that constitute selfishness and materialism; the other is the religious and secular concepts yielded by flimsy reasoning. Falsity from these sources that tries to gain the upper hand over truth is symbolized by Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim.

Anyone can see that falsity and the evil stemming from it are the ultimate bounds of outward worship that has nothing inside. This kind of worship contains only what is dead. Wherever the people who practice it turn, they fall into falsity. They have no inner voice to guide them in the path of truth or keep them on it. They have only an external drive that carries them off wherever craving and delusion lead.

The narrative and prophetic books of the Word mention Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, so the specific symbolism of each will be told in the appropriate places, with the Lord's divine mercy. ¹

Footnotes:

2455. She turned into a pillar of salt means truth was purged of everything good about it, as can be seen from the symbolism of a pillar and of salt.

The original language uses the same word for the pillar here as it uses for a garrison, not the word it uses for a pillar raised for worship or as a sign or as a witness. So the pillar of salt symbolizes the fact that the truth meant by Lot's wife (§2454) stood devastated. Truth is said to be devastated, [or purged,] when there is no longer any goodness in it. The actual process of devastation is symbolized by salt.

[2] Many words in Scripture have two meanings, positive and negative, and this is true also of salt. In a positive sense it means a desire for truth; in a negative sense it means stripping away a desire for truth. That is, it means stripping truth of anything good in it. For its symbolism as a desire for truth, see Exodus 30:35; Leviticus 2:13; Matthew 5:13; Mark 9:49, 50; Luke 14:34, 35. Its symbolism as the purging of a desire for truth, or the stripping of goodness from truth, may be seen in the following passages. In Moses:

Sulfur there will be, and salt; the whole land will be a conflagration. It will not be sown, it will not sprout, and no grass will come up in it, as in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim. (Deuteronomy 29:23)

The sulfur is the purging of goodness, while the salt is the purging of truth. Everything about the passage shows that it is talking about devastation.

[3] In Zephaniah:

Moab will be like Sodom, and the children of Ammon like Gomorrah: a place abandoned to nettle, and a salt pit, and a ruin forever. (Zephaniah 2:9)

The place abandoned to nettle stands for goodness that has been devastated, and the salt pit, for devastated truth. The place of nettle, you see, refers to Sodom, which symbolizes evil (devastated goodness), while the salt pit refers to Gomorrah, which symbolizes falsity (devastated truth)–as has been demonstrated. The fact that it is talking about devastation is obvious, since it speaks of "a ruin forever." In Jeremiah:

Those who use flesh as their arm will be like a naked shrub in the desert and will not see when something good comes. And they will settle in the parched places in the wilderness–a salt-filled land, and one that is not inhabited. (Jeremiah 17[5,] 6)

The parched places stand for devastated goodness; the salt-filled land, for devastated truth.

[4] In David:

Jehovah makes rivers into a desert, and outlets of water into a dry gulch, a land of fruit into a salty land, because of the wickedness of those living in it. (Psalms 107:33, 34)

Turning a land of fruit into a salty land stands for purging or devastating truth of the goodness that is in it. In Ezekiel:

It has its marshes and its swamps, and they are not being cured; they will be given over to salt. (Ezekiel 47:11)

Being given over to salt stands for the total devastation of truth.

Since salt symbolized devastation and cities symbolized true doctrine, as shown in §§402, 2268, 2428, 2449, people used to sow with salt the cities they had destroyed, to keep them from being rebuilt (Judges 9:45).

This now is the fourth phase of the religion Lot represents–a phase in which all truth is purged of what is good about it.