Genesis 19:26

Summary

Genesis 19:26 narrates two sequential actions: the wife of Lot looks back from behind him, and then she becomes a pillar of salt. The verse uses two narrative verb forms in sequence to mark this as a rapid cause-and-consequence event within the story.

Key words

• taBet ("she looked", H5027) — hiphil (causative) form of the verb "to look/gaze," narrative sequence marker; the causative stem often conveys a deliberate, focused act of looking rather than an incidental glance.
• 'ishto ("his wife", H0802H) — feminine singular noun in construct form, meaning "wife of," here bound to the pronominal suffix "his" (referring to Lot, established earlier in the narrative).
• 'acharayv ("behind him", H0310A) — plural construct noun with pronominal suffix; the word for "behind/after" appears in a plural construct pattern here despite referring to a single spatial position.
• tehi ("she was/became", H1961) — qal (simple stem) narrative form of the verb "to be," marking the second sequential event in the clause chain.
• netziv melach ("pillar of salt", H5333 + H4417M) — construct chain: "pillar of" bound to "salt," forming a single compound expression for the resulting object.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built from two clauses joined by the narrative vav ("and then"), each opening with a wayyiqtol verb form: first va-taBet ("and she looked"), then va-tehi ("and she was/became"). This chaining is a standard feature of Hebrew narrative prose, presenting the two events — looking back, then becoming a pillar of salt — as directly consecutive, without additional connecting words indicating causation, reason, or delay.

The phrase me-'acharayv ("from behind him") specifies the direction of the woman's gaze relative to Lot, using the preposition me ("from") attached to the construct plural noun 'acharay ("behind") with a third-person masculine suffix ("him"). The final clause employs a construct chain, netziv melach ("pillar of salt"), where "pillar" and "salt" are grammatically bound into a single descriptive unit — the qal verb tehi simply states "she was/became" this pillar, without any Hebrew term expressing transformation, conversion, or process.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew verb tehi (H1961, "she was/became") is a simple stative/existential verb. The Vulgate renders this with versa est ("she was turned/converted"), a form that explicitly signals transformation. The LXX and Vulgate also render the Hebrew construct netziv ("pillar," H5333) as στήλη (stēlē, "stele/monument") and statuam ("statue") respectively — both terms suggesting a shaped or erected monument, where the Hebrew word can denote a standing pillar or post more generally.