looked back: The verb form indicates intense gazing at the world she loved, not just a curious look (15:5; Exodus 33:8; Numbers 21:9; 1 Samuel 2:32; compare Exodus 3:6). Lot’s wife had become too attached to Sodom to follow God's calling. So God judged her as she lingered on the valley slopes.
Christ’s return to judge the world will be as sudden and devastating as Sodom's destruction (Luke 17:32–37). Those who desire the life of this wicked world will lose both this world and the next.