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Lot (Arabic: لوُط ;Hebrew: לוֹט, Modern: Lot, Tiberian: Lôṭ, "veil"; "hidden, covered") is a character from the Hebrew bible, where he figures as the nephew of the patriarch Abraham, or Abram. He was the son of Abraham's brother Haran (Gen. 11:27). Abraham's brother Nahor became Lot's brother in law by marrying Milcah, Lot's sister.

Genesis

The story of Lot is told in the Book of Genesis. Lot is mentioned in chapters 11-14 and 19.

Lot was the son of Abraham's brother Haran. Lot and his family went with Abraham and his family from Ur of the Chaldees to Egypt. When Abraham traveled to the Land of Canaan at the command of God, Lot accompanied him. (Genesis 12:1-5). Abraham always had a great affection for Lot. When they could not continue longer together in Canaan because they both had large flocks and their shepherds sometimes quarrelled he gave Lot the choice of his abode. Lot went southeast to plains near the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, since the land there was well watered.

About eight years after this separation, Chedorlaomer and his allies attacked the kings of Sodom and the neighbouring cities, pillaged Sodom, and took many captives, including Lot. Abraham armed his servants, pursued the confederate kings, and overtook them near the springs of Jordan. He recovered the spoils they had taken and brought back Lot with the other captives. Abraham was offered a reward by the King of Sodom, but refused even a shoelace.

In Genesis 19, when God plans to overturn and destroy the five cities of the plain, he sends angels to the city of Sodom where they meet Lot at the city gates. Lot seems greatly concerned that the angels should spend the night in his house but the angels insist they wish to spend the night in the city street. Lot puts a great deal of pressure on them and eventually convinces them. However all the men of Sodom surround Lot's house with intent to "know" (traditionally interpreted as carnal knowledge) the angels. Lot offers the men his daughters instead, whom he says are virgins, but the men were not interested.

The angels decide to forewarn Lot of the dreadful catastrophe about to happen. Lot, his wife, sons-in-law, and daughters are warned to leave. The sons-in-law do not take the warning seriously; also, Lot lingers. The angels take Lot, his wife, and his daughters by hand and draw them forcibly out of their house, saying, "Save yourselves with all haste. Look not behind you. Get as fast as you are able to the mountain, unless you be involved in the calamity of the city." Lot entreats the angels, who consent that he might retire to Zoar, which was one of the five doomed cities but was spared because Lot asked the angels to allow him to seek refuge there. His wife, looking back on Sodom, is turned into a pillar of salt.

Lot left Zoar and retired with his two daughters to a cave in an adjacent mountain. In Genesis 19:30-38, Lot's daughters who in their mind were taking responsibility to bear children to preserve Lot's family line, got their father drunk enough to have sexual intercourse with them on two consecutive nights, with each becoming pregnant. The first son was named Moab (Hebrew, lit., "from the father" ). He was the patriarch of the nation known as Moab. The second son was named Ammon or Ben-Ammi (Hebrew, lit., "Son of my people"). He became the patriarch of the nation of Ammon.

New Testament

In Luke 17:32 Jesus simply says "Remember Lot's Wife" using her as a warning to professing Christians to not turn back to their sin after leaving it. J.C. Ryle devotes a chapter in his work, Holiness, to remembering Lot's wife. In 2 Peter 2:7-8 Lot is described as a righteous man surrounded by wickedness.

... rescued Lot, a righteous man in anguish over the debauched lifestyle of lawless men, (for while he lived among them day after day, that righteous man was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard )

Midrash

Jewish midrash records a number of additional stories about Lot, not present in the Tanakh. These include:

• 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 the secret of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

Quran

Muslims consider Lot a prophet. The Qur'an says that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah insisted on the wickedness of homosexuality, murder and robbery, and were unfaithful in marriage. The Biblical stories of Lot are not entirely accepted within Islam. In the Bible Lot's wife leaves the city with her husband, turns back in longing and is turned into a pillar of salt; whereas in the Qur'an, Lut's wife stays behind in the city and is destroyed. The Qur'an says that Lot is a prophet and that all prophets were examples of moral and spiritual rectitude: in Islam the narrative of Lot's drunken incestuous relations with his daughters is therefore considered to be false.

Lot's Wife

A geological formation overlooking the Dead Sea is called 'Lot's Wife', because of the shape and location of the feature.

A fourth chalk prominence that once stood off the western coast of the Isle of Wight, from which The Needles take their name, was also called 'Lot's Wife'.

In Art

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

• Albrecht Altdorfer, 1537
• Bonifazio Veronese, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg, early-mid 16th century
• Jan Massys, 1565
• Joachim Antonisz Wtewael, circa 1595

The seduction of Lot became a popular topic in Baroque Art:

• Jan Harmensz. Muller, Lot and His Daughters, 1600
• 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
• Christopher Paudiß, 1649
• Guercino, 1651
• Andrea Vaccaro, 17th century
• Adriaen van der Werff, 1711
• Marcantonio Franceschini

In 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.

See also

• Abraham
• Biblical narratives and the Qur'an

References

Notes

1. Strong’s Hebrew Bible Dictionary: SpeedBible by johnhurt.com
2. Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Lot" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
3. Genesis 13:6,7
4. Genesis 13:10-12
5. Genesis 19:5
6. Genesis 19:8
7. http://www.gracegems.org/Ryle/h10.htm
9. http://collectiononline.chrysler.org/collections/OBJECT_edit.asp?id=10649&page=1
10. http://collectiononline.chrysler.org/collections/OBJECT_edit.asp?id=10649&page=1
11. http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/moore/moore_bio.html

Bibliography

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

External links

• Our People: A History of the Jews - Abram and Lot
• A Pillar of Salt - A lesson from Lot's wife
• Bible History #1 by Brad Neely
•  Beach, Chandler B., ed. (1914). The New Student's Reference Work. Chicago: F. E. Compton and Co. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

• Misplaced Pages articles incorporating citation to the NSRW with no title or wstitle parameter
• Ammon
• Incest
• Moab
• Prophets of Islam
• Torah people
• Abraham
• Book of Genesis