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 A Peter Paul Rubens painting of Lot and his family fleeing Soddom.
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Genesis 11
1-9 The Tower of Babel
10-32 From Shem to Abram
Genesis 12
1-9 The Call of Abram
10-20 Abram in Egypt
Genesis 13
1-10 Abram and Lot Separate
Genesis 14
1-24 Abram Rescues Lot
Genesis 19
1-29 Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed
30-38 Lot and His Daughters
Lot in the Hebrew Bible
The story of Lot is told in the
Book of Genesis 11-14, 19.
Lot followed his uncle from Haran. He accompanied Abram and his family in his journeys to Egypt.
When Abram traveled to the Land of Canaan at the command of God, Lot accompanied him. (Gen 12:1-5). Abram had always a great affection for him, and when they could not continue longer together in Canaan because they both had large flocks and their shepherds sometimes quarelled (Gen 13:6,7), 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. (Gen. 13:10-12).
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 Gen. 19, when God decided to overturn and destroy the five cities of the plain, he sent angels to rescue Lot and his family. The men of Sodom sought to rape (in some translations, meet) the angels (Gen. 19:5). Lot offers the men his virgin daughters instead (Gen. 19:8), but the men are not interested.
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When the sins of the Sodomites and of the neighboring cities had called down the vengeance of God to punish and destroy them, two angels (presumed to be Michael and Gabriel) were sent to Sodom to forewarn Lot of the dreadful catastrophe about to happen. The angels took Lot, his wife, and his daughters by hand and drew 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 entreated the angels, who consented that he might retire to Zoar (Hebrew: צער Tso`ar meaning "small" or insignificant Genesis 19:21-23 — a city at the southeast end of the Dead Sea grouped with Sodom and Gomorrah as being one of the 5 cities slated for destruction by God; spared at Lot's plea as his place of refuge (see also Genesis 14:1-3). His wife, looking back on Sodom, was turned into a pillar of salt. |
 Lot and his Daughters, Artist: Orazio Gentileschi, Date: c. 1621-23. Oil on
canvas. Location: Museo
Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
(larger image)
 Lot and his Daughters, Artist: Orazio Gentileschi, Date: c. 1621-23. Oil on
canvas. Location: Museo
Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
(larger image)They assumed it was their responsibility to bear children and enable the continuation of the human race. On two subsequent nights, they got their father drunk enough to sleep with them, and they became pregnant. The first son was named Moab (Hebrew, lit., "from the father" [meh-Av]). He was the patriarch of the nation known as Moab. The second son was named Ammon or Ben-Ammi (Hebrew, lit., "from our nation"). He became the patriarch of the nation of Ammon.
Lot's wife and the pillar of salt
Several questions are proposed concerning Lot's wife being changed into a pillar of salt. Some suggest that being surprised and suffocated with fire and smoke, she remained in place, as immovable as a rock of salt.
Others say that a column or monument of salt stone was erected on her grave, or that she was stifled in the flame and became a monument of salt to posterity; that is, a permanent and durable monument of her impudence.
A literal interpretation is that she was suddenly petrified and changed into a statue of rock salt, which is a soft rock or a halite.
Finally, it has been suggested this is a metaphor meaning she was made barren, in allusion to salting fields making them infertile.
Jewish tradition names Lot's wife Edith or Ildeth.
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.
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.
Quran
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 Lot and His Daughters.
Author: Bernardo Cavallino.
Date: 1644-45.
(larger image) And Lot, who said to his nation: 'Do you commit such indecency (sodomy) in a way that no one has preceded you in the worlds? You approach men lustfully instead of women. Truly, you are a nation who exceed (in sin).' The only answer of his nation was: 'Expel them from your village. They are people who keep themselves purified.' We saved him and all his family, except his wife, who was made to remain, and We rained down upon them a rain. So look how was the end of the evildoers. —Qur'an 7:80-84
Qur'an and Bible
The major difference between the story of Lut in the Qur'an and the story of Lot in the Bible is that the Biblical version includes stories of Lot's incestuous relationship with his daughters. Islam holds that all Prophets were infallible examples of moral and spiritual rectitude, in Islam these stories are considered to be false.
Sodom and Gommorah are not mentioned by name in the original or the modern vowel annotated Qu'rans , which all Muslims attest to as being the infalliable and immuttable, literal word of God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad over a period of twenty three years. The use of the term Sodomite was borrowed by the Ulama(doctors) of Islamic law which teach that capital punishment/or flogging is the penalty for this action to be meted out on both the sodomite (the penetrator) and the catamite (the receptive member). These punishments were adopted by the blooming Islamic Empires approximately two centuries after the death of the Prophet Muhammad .In fact the second book of reference after the Qu'ran for Muslims is the book of hadiths(sayings of approval, silent avowal ,Islamic luturgical actions , and prohibitons)which were gathered by Imam Buhkari. No where in this book of sahih(authentic/mutually agreed upon) hadiths are there the intolerant pronouncements that are said to be the Prophet Muhammads' words ironically taught by Imam Buhkari and the other four Imams who founded the Four Schools that use the Six great Books of Hadith to justify the punishments against homosexuals in Islamic states that practice Shairiah(Islamic Divine Law).
Please note in the above section entitled the Story of Lot(Lut) the word sodomy is in parenthesis, Once more "sodomy" does not appear in the original text. In all the first century references within Islamiyya( the World of Islam) the phrase is called the Sin of the people of Lot(Lut).
The Tomb of Lot is located in the Palestinian town of Bani Na'im near Hebron.
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.
Geography
Main article: Mount Sodom
There currently stands a geological formation overlooking the Dead Sea which is called "Lot's Wife" because of the shape and location of the feature.
Criticism
Some have described the Biblical narration as Lot offering his daughters for gang-rape, adding "so much for Lot being a righteous man!" and "supports the idea that God considers women to be of the same worth as farm animals, definitely of less value than two strangers who have stopped by for a visit."
The Islamic view denounces the Biblical account of Lot offering his daughters to be raped (Genesis 19:8) and later impregnating both of them due to excessive alcohol consumption (Genesis 19:30-36).
See also
References
- Strong's Hebrew Bible Dictionary
- "Lot". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.
/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Lot.
- http://www.gracegems.org/Ryle/h10.htm
- http://eaglewoman.rscsites.org/essays/karnan.htm
- http://www.iwgonline.org/pulpit/
- http://www.baptistwatch.org/content/biblegay.html
- http://incestabuse.about.com/od/strangerrape/a/Sodom.htm
- 101 Myths of the Bible, Greenberg, 2000
- http://www.metrolyrics.com/viva-la-vida-lyrics-coldplay.html
- Calmet, Augustin (1837). Calmet's Dictionary of the Holy Bible. Boston: Crocker & Brewster. LCC BS440.C3.
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