Lot (biblical person)

Lot flees from Sodom

Lot (Hebrew: לוֹט, Modern Lot Tiberian Lôṭ ; "veil"; "hidden, covered") is a man from the Book of Genesis chapters 11-14 and 19, in the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament. Notable episodes in his life include his travels with his uncle Abram (Abraham, the Patriarch of Israel); his flight from the destruction of Sodom, in the course of which Lot's wife looked back and became a pillar of salt; and the seduction by his daughters so that they could bear children.

Both Christians and Muslims revere Lot as a righteous man of God. As a son of David, Jesus Christ is a descendent of Lot through David's great-grandmother Ruth, who is descended from Lot's son Moab. There are no stories in the Qur'an attributing drunkenness and incest to Lot – such ideas being rejected by Muslims – Lot is regarded as a prophet of Islam.

Lot's lineage

Generation	Genealogy of Terah and Lot (Genesis 11:26–32; 19:37–38)
Father	Terah
2nd Gen	Abram	Nahor	Haran				Sarai
3rd Gen			Lot		Milcah	Iscah
4th Gen			1st Daughter	2nd Daughter
5th Gen			Moab	Ben-Ammi (Ammon)

Lot and his father Haran were born and raised in "Ur of the Chaldees" (Genesis 11:28,31) in the region of Sumeria on the Euphrates River of lower Mesopotamia, roughly four thousand years ago. Haran died in that land before his father Terah. (Genesis 11:28)

Lot's travels

Genesis 11:26-32 gives the "generations of Terah", Lot's grandfather, who arranged for their large family to set a course for Canaan where they could reestablish a new home. Among the family members that Lot travelled with was his uncle Abram, (later called Abraham), one of the three patriarchs of Israel.

Haran settlement

En route to Canaan, the family stopped in the Paddan Aram region, about halfway along the Fertile Crescent between Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean. They settled at the site called Haran where Lot’s grandfather, Terah, lived the rest of his days. He was 205 years old when he died. (Genesis 11:32)

Land of Canaan

Genesis 12 reveals Abram's obedience to the Lord at the age of 75, in continuing his journey to the land of promise. Though Abram’s father, Terah, stayed behind, his nephew Lot went with him.^[v.1-4] There is no mention of Lot having a wife yet. They went southwestward into the land of Canaan, to the place of Sichem,^[v.5-6] the present day West Bank of Nablus. Later they travelled south to the hills between Bethel and Hai,^[v.8] before journeying further toward the south of Canaan.^[v.9]

Northern Egypt

After dwelling in the land of Canaan for a little while, there was a famine, and they journeyed further south into Egypt.^[v.10-20] After having dwelt in Egypt for some time, they acquired vast amounts of wealth and livestock, and returned to the Bethel area.^[Gen.13:1-5]

Plain of Jordan

Main article: Abraham and Lot's conflict

Genesis 13 discusses Abram and Lot's return to Canaan after the famine had passed and the lands became fertile again. They traveled back through the Negev to the hills of Bethel.^[v.1,3] With their sizeable numbers of livestock and always on the move, both families occupying the same pastures became problematic for the herdsmen who were assigned to each family’s herd.^[v.6,7] The conflicts between herdsmen had become so troublesome that Abram lovingly recommended to Lot that they should part ways, lest there be conflict amongst "brethren".^[v.8,9]

Although Abram gave Lot the choice of going north (the left hand), in which case he would go south (the right hand), or if Lot chose south, Abram would go north, Lot instead looked before him beyond Jordan and saw a well watered plain, and chose that land, for it was like "the garden of the Lord", before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the formation of the salt sea. (Genesis 13:9-11) Abram then headed south to Hebron, staying within the land of Canaan. (Genesis 13:12,18)

Captivity of Lot

Main article: Battle of the Vale of Siddim

Lot had encamped on the green Jordan plain among the cities of the plain and initially pitched his tent toward Sodom. About eight years before he moved there, the kings of the five cities had become vassal states of an eastern alliance of four kingdoms under the leadership of Chedorlaomer king of Elam, whom they served for twelve years, but "the thirteenth year they rebelled." (Genesis 14:1–4) The following year the four armies with Chedorlaomer returned and at the battle of the vale of Siddim, the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fell in defeat.^[v.5–10] Chedorlaomer spoiled the cities and took captives as he departed, including Lot, who by then "dwelt" in Sodom.^[v.11,12]

When Abram heard what had happened to his "brother" Lot, he armed a rescue force of three hundred and eighteen of his trained servants and pursued and caught up to the armies of the four kings in the area of Dan.^[v.13,14] He divided his forces and attacked at night from more than one direction, and the kings fled northeast. The pursuit continued and the "slaughter of Chedorlaomer", and the other kings was completed at Hobah north of Damascus. Abram brought back "his brother Lot" and all the people and their goods. (v.15–24)

Fleeing Sodom's destruction

See also: Sodom and Gomorrah

Twenty four years after Abram and Lot began their sojourning, the Lord changed Abram's name to Abraham, and gave him the covenant of circumcision.^{[Genesis 17]} Not long afterward, "the Lord appeared" to Abraham, for "three men" came to visit and have a meal with him, and after two left to go to Sodom, "Abraham stood yet before the Lord."^{[Gen.18:1-22]} Abraham boldly pleaded on behalf of the people of Sodom, where Lot dwelt, and obtained assurance the city would not be destroyed if fifty righteous were found there. He continued inquiring, reducing the number to forty five, forty, thirty, twenty, and finally if there were ten righteous in the city, it would be spared.^[18:23-33]

Genesis 19:1 ¶ And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;
² And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant’s house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night.
³ And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.

After supper that night before bedtime, the men of the city, young and old, gathered around Lot’s house demanding he bring his two guests out that they might "know" them. Lot went out and closed the door behind him and prayed that they not do such wicked things, and offered them his virgin daughters, that had not "known" man, that they might know them instead, and do with as they pleased. His response infuriated the men of Sodom who accused him of being judgmental and they threatened to do worse to him than they would have done to the men.^{[Gen.19:4–9]}

Before they could harm Lot and break into the house, the "men" pulled Lot back in and struck the intruders with blindness, and revealed to Lot that they were angels sent to destroy the place. This allowed a window of opportunity for Lot to make preparations for him and his loved ones to leave. When he went to the house of his sons in law that married his daughters, to warn them to flee, they treated him as one that mocked.^{[Gen.19:10–14]}

As the day began to dawn, the angels urged him to hasten and leave, and when he yet lingered, the angels took hold of the hands of Lot, his wife and two daughters and transported them beyond the city and set them down, and the angel told Lot: "Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed."^{[Gen.19:15–17]} Lot argued that if he went to the mountain some evil would cause his death, and he requested to be allowed to flee instead to the "little" city which was closer. (The city of Bela was later called Zoar because it was little.) His request was accepted, and they head for Zoar instead.^{[Gen.19:18–22]}

Genesis 19:23 ¶ The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar.
²⁴ Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven;
²⁵ And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
²⁶ But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

Mount Sodom, Israel, showing the so-called "Lot's Wife" pillar composed, like the rest of the mountain, of halite.

From where Abraham was that morning, in an elevated region, he could see the dense smoke billowing up into the heavens from the ruined cities.^[v.27,28]

Instead of both brimstone and fire, Josephus has only lightning as the cause of the fire that destroyed Sodom: "God then cast a thunderbolt upon the city, and set it on fire, with its inhabitants; and laid waste the country with the like burning, as I formerly said when I wrote the Jewish War."

Lot and his daughters

An account of Lot and his daughters in Genesis 19:30-38

Lot became very much afraid due to the destruction of Sodom and felt that his safety in Zoar was just as much in jeopardy. With the loss of his wife on his mind, he decided that it would be best to retreat to the mountains as was originally asked of him by the angels of deliverance. There, he and his daughters found a suitable cave to dwell in.^[v.30]

The older daughter, concerned about preserving the family line, suggested to her sister that, because no men were around, it was their duty to preserve the bloodline by lying with their father.^[v.31,32]

The daughters then got their father so drunk they were able to have intercourse with him on two consecutive nights, the older daughter having her way with him the first night, followed by the younger on the following night.^[v.31-35] The text describes that Lot was so drunk “he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.”^[v.33,35]

There are other cases in the Bible in which family members marry in order to keep pure bloodlines. It was customary for cousins to marry ^{[Gen.11:27,29]} for this purpose, and Abraham married his half-sister.^{[Gen.20:11,12]} However, what Lot's daughters had done was not looked upon favourably, based on the justification of Gen.19:33,35. The daughters, on the other hand, considering their alienation and their desire to maintain their bloodline, believed they had no choice.^[v.31] As a result of their intercourse with their father, a child was born to each of them.^[v.36] The older daughter conceived Moab (Hebrew, lit., "from the father" [meh-Av]), father of the Moabites;^[v.37] the younger conceived Ben-Ammi (Hebrew, lit., "Son of my people"), father of the Ammonites.^[v.38]

Incest

Hendrik Goltzius' 1616 painting Lot and his daughters shows Lot being seduced by his two daughters. The fox behind the tree symbolizes female cunning. In the background in front of the burning city is the pillar of salt, Lot's wife.

The incest between Lot and his daughters has raised many questions, debates, and theories as to what the real motives were, who really was at fault, and the level of bias the author of Genesis Chapter 19 had. However, such Biblical scholars as Jacob Milgrom, Victor P. Hamilton, and Cakum Carmichael postulate that the Levitical Laws could not have been developed the way they were, without controversial issues surrounding the Patriarchs of Israel, especially regarding incest. Carmichael even attributes the entire formulation of the Levitical laws to the lives of the founding fathers of the nation, including the "righteous" Lot (together with Abraham, Jacob, Judah, Moses, and David), who were outstanding figures in Israelite tradition.

According to the scholars mentioned above, the Patriarchs of Israel are the key to understanding how the Priestly laws concerning incest developed. Incest amongst the patriarchs includes Abraham's marriage to his half-sister; Sarai^{[Gen.20:11,12]} the marriage of Abraham's brother, Nahor, to their niece; Milcah ^{[Gen.11:27-29]} Isaac's marriage to Rebekah, his first cousin, once removed;^{[Gen.27:42,43;29:10]} Jacob's marriages with two sisters who are his first cousins;^{[Gen.29:10,Ch.29]} and, in the instance of Moses's parents, a marriage between nephew and aunt (father's sister).^[Exod.6:20] Therefore, it surely mattered to the lawgiver how the issues of incest pertained to these Patriarchs and they are the basis for the laws of the Book of Leviticus, chapters 18 and 20.

Other scholars also state that the Levitical laws against incest were created to separate the lifestyle of the Israelite from the sinful lifestyle of the cursed people of Canaan,^{[Gen.9:22-28]} despite any incestual involvements the Patriarchs had had in the past. The Levitical laws were needed for a developing nation who needed to be seen as different from the world, cleansed and blameless: The first step starting with circumcision.^{[Gen.17:1,10;Ch.17]} So nothing could be held against the Patriarchs for incestuous behavior because this was part of progressive development, from the ways of the world (coming out of Chaldea) to becoming blameless before their God.^[Gen.17:1]

Religious views

Jewish view

In the Bereshit of the Torah, Lot is first mentioned at the end of the weekly reading portion, Parashat Noach. The weekly reading portions that follow, concerning all of the accounts of Lot's life, are read in the Parashat Lekh Lekha and Parashat Vayera.

In the Midrash, a number of additional stories concerning Lot are present, not found in the Tanakh, as follows:

• Abraham took care of Lot after Haran was burned in a gigantic fire in which Nimrod, King of Babylon, tried to kill Abraham.
• While in Egypt, the midrash gives Lot much credit because, despite his desire for wealth, he did not inform Pharaoh of Sarah's secret, that she was Abraham's wife.

Christian view

Despite Lot's flaws, Christians view him as a righteous man and draw upon New Testament scriptures that make direct references to his day, such as:

• In Luke 17:20-32, the Pharisees asked Jesus when the Kingdom of God would come. This triggered a topic that Jesus addressed his disciples about, concerning "the days of the Son of Man". In his discourse, he likened this time to the days of Lot and reminded his followers about what happened to this man's wife.
  Main article: Lot's wife

• Simon Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, reminded the Early Christians about Sodom and Gomorrah and spoke of Lot as being a righteous man amongst the wicked...

"and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)"

- 2 Peter 2:6-8 (NKJV)

Islamic view

Main article: Lut

Lut or Lot (Arabic: لوط‎) (circa 1900 BC?), is the Islamic version of the Hebrew Bible's Lot. He is considered to be a messenger of Islam and an Prophet of Islam in the Qur'an.

According to Islamic tradition, Lut lived in Ur and was a nephew of Ibrahim (Abraham). He migrated with Abraham to Canaan in Palestine. He was commissioned as a prophet to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. His story is used as a reference by Muslims to demonstrate Islam's strong disapproval of homosexuality. He was commanded by God to go to the land of Sodom and Gomorrah to preach to his people on monotheism and to stop them from their lustful and violent acts. Lot's messages were ignored by the inhabitants, thus, Sodom and Gomorrah were subsequently destroyed.

Some major differences between the story of Lot in the Qur'an and the story of Lot in the Bible is that the Hebrew version of Lot's wife leaves Sodom with her husband, looks back, and is turned into a pillar of salt. In the Qur'an, Lot's wife stays behind in the city and is destroyed.

The Hebrew text also includes the subsequent story of Lot being induced to incestuous relations with his own daughters. The Qur'an says that Lot is a prophet, and holds that all prophets were examples of moral and spiritual rectitude. Though it is not altogether clear in the Hebrew story that Lot consented to this action, in Islam these stories of incest are considered to be false.

Art gallery

The seduction of Lot by his daughters was frequently represented in Renaissance Art:

• 

  Lucas van Leyden, 1520

• 

  Wolfgang Krodel d. Ä., 1528

• 

  Cornelis Cort, unknown, between 1522-1578

• 

  Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1528

• 

  Albrecht Altdorfer, 1537

• 

  Bonifazio Veronese, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg, early-mid 16th century

• 

  Jan Massijs, 1565

• 

  Joachim Antonisz. Wtewael, circa 1595

The seduction of Lot became a popular topic in Baroque Art: if in general the women are portrayed as seductresses and the mood as ribald, the female artist Artemisia Gentileschi's portrait diverges sharply, showing the women fully clothed and the mood as solemn.

• 

  Jan Harmensz. Muller, Lot and His Daughters, 1600

• 

  Willem Isaacsz Swanenburg, 1612

• 

  Orazio Gentileschi, circa 1621

• 

  Lot and his daughters by Simon Vouet, 1633.

• 

  Artemisia Gentileschi, 1635-1638

• 

  Francesco Furini, circa 1640

• 

  Domenico Marolì, circa 1612-1676

• 

  Bernardo Cavallino, between 1644 and 1645

• 

  Christopher Paudiß, 1649

• 

  Guercino, 1651

• 

  unknown author, 17th century

• 

  Andrea Vaccaro, 17th century

• 

  Samuel Masse, 1710s

• 

  Adriaen van der Werff, 1711

• 

  Marcantonio Franceschini

• 

  Jacob Van Oost The Younger, between 17th-18th century

• 

  Giovanni Battista Lama, 1673-1748

• 

  John Smith, unknown, but author died in 1743

• 

  Gustave Courbet, 1844

• 

  Josef Worlicek, 1844

• 

  Guercino, 1845

Popular culture

• In the science fiction stories "Lot" (1953) and "Lot's Daughter" (1954) by Ward Moore, the Bibilical story of Lot and his daughters' survival from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is reinterpreted as the story of the survival of a modern American family in the aftermath of nuclear war.
• The movie, MaClintock's Peach, released as Nobody Knows Anything has a scene in which Lot (played by Mitch Rouse) watches his wife (played by David Pasquesi ) turn into salt.
• The story of Sodom and Gomorrah was told in a 1962 film starring Stewart Granger as Lot with Anouk Aimee and Pier Angeli and directed by Robert Aldrich.
• The song "Pillar of Salt" by the Thermals is a reference to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.

See also

• Battle of Siddim
• Book of Genesis
• List of Hebrew Bible stories
• Lot's wife
• Mount Sodom
• Sodom and Gomorrah

Judaism

• Parashat Noach
• Parashat Lekh Lekha
• Parashat Vayera.

Islam

• Biblical narratives and the Qur'an
• Lut

Controversies

• Homosexuality in Sodom and Gomorrah
• The Bible and homosexuality

References

Bibliography

• Calmet, Augustin (1837). Calmet's Dictionary of the Holy Bible. Boston: Crocker & Brewster. LCC BS440.C3. 

References in the Qur'an

Note: There are many references to Lot in the Qur'an. The following are some of them.

• Lot's prophecy: Quran 26:161, Quran 7:80–84, Quran 15:67–77, Quran 26:160–168, Quran 29:28–31
• Angels appear to Lot: Quran 11:77–80, Quran 15:61–66
• Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: Quran 11:82, Quran 26:169–175, Quran 27:54–58
• Lot's wife: Quran 11:81, Quran 15:60, Quran 29:32
• Praise for Lot: Quran 37:133–138, Quran 54:35

External links

• Our People: A History of the Jews - Abram and Lot
• A Pillar of Salt - A lesson from Lot's wife
•  "Lot". The New Student's Reference Work. Chicago: F. E. Compton and Co. 1914.