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Going Biblical: Fascinating Divine Punishments Recounted in the Old Testament

Khalid Elhassan May 9, 2025 19 min

Punishment - The expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden — The expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Encyclopedia Britannica

21. Lot’s Wife

Punishment - The Flight of Lot and His Family From Sodom, by Jacob Jordaens — The Flight of Lot and His Family From Sodom, by Jacob Jordaens, circa 1620. National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo

The punishment of Lot’s wife is a brief but powerful story in the Book of Genesis 19:26, about the price of disobeying the Lord’s orders and longing for a sinful past. Lot, a nephew of Abraham, lived in Sodom, a city notorious for its wickedness. The Bible recounts that God grew angry with such corruption, and decided to destroy Sodom and the nearby city of Gomorrah.

However, Abraham begged God to show mercy, so He chose to spare Lot and his family because they were Abraham’s kin, and because they were relatively righteous. Two angels visited Lot and warned him to flee Sodom with his wife and daughters before destruction came. They urged Lot’s family to escape quickly and gave a clear command: “Escape for your life! Do not look back or stop anywhere in the plain!” As seen below, Lot’s wife did not follow instructions.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.