At dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying: “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters and leave or you will be swept away when the city is punished.” And as he hesitated, they seized his hand, the hands of his wife and his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, because Yahweh had compassion on them. Once they had brought them out, one of the angels said: “Flee for your life! Do not look back, and do not stop anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away.” [...] Then Yahweh rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah from the heavens. He overthrew those cities, the entire plain, all the inhabitants and all the vegetation in the land. But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. (Genesis 19, 15-17; 19, 24 -26)

The Book of Genesis tells the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities destroyed because of their sins. Later prophets, like Ezekiel, explained their sins as a failure to help the poor and needy. Lot (nephew of Abraham, who is regarded as the father figure of the people of Israel), lived in Sodom. God sent two angels to see how bad things had become in the city and to save Lot and his family.

This scene shows the narrative climax of the story: the angels guide Lot and his family out of the city while it is being destroyed, instructing them to go straight to the mountains without looking back. However, Lot’s wife is turned into a pillar of salt as punishment for disobeying and turning to look one last time at the city that had been her home.