Lot (biblical person)

Abraham and Lot separate. Gen: 13.7 &.^c, etching by Wenceslaus Hollar, 17th century (Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, Toronto)

When Abram and Lot returned to the hills of Bethel with their many livestock, their respective herdsmen began to bicker. Abram suggested they part ways and let Lot decide where he would like to settle. Lot saw that the plains of the Jordan were well watered "like the gardens of the Lord, like the land of Egypt," and so settled among the cities of the plain, going as far as Sodom. Likewise, Abram went to dwell in Hebron, staying in the land of Canaan.^{[Genesis 13:1-12]}

The five kingdoms of the plain had become vassal states of an alliance of four eastern kingdoms under the leadership of Chedorlaomer, king of Elam. They served this king for twelve years, but "in the thirteenth year they rebelled." The following year Chedorlaomer's four armies returned and at the Battle of Siddim the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fell in defeat. Chedorlaomer despoiled the cities and took captives as he departed, including Lot, who dwelt in Sodom.^{[Genesis 14:1-12]}

When Abram heard what had happened to Lot, he led a force of three hundred and eighteen of his trained men and caught up to the armies of the four kings in Dan. Abram divided his forces and pursued them to Hobah. Abram brought back Lot and all of his people and their belongings.^{[Genesis 14:13-24]}

Lot prevents the Sodomites from raping the Angels, print by Heinrich Aldegrever, 1555

Later, after God had changed Abram's name to Abraham and Sarai's name to Sarah as part of the covenant of the pieces, God and two angels appeared to Abraham in the form of three men. God promised Abraham that Sarah would bear a son and he would become a great and mighty nation.^{[Genesis 18:1-18]} God then tells Abraham his plan,

"And the Lord said: 'Verily, the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and, verily, their sin is exceeding grievous. I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto Me; and if not, I will know."

— Genesis 18:20–21

As the angels continued to walk toward Sodom, Abraham pled to God on behalf of the people of Sodom, where Lot dwelt. God assured him that the city would not be destroyed if fifty righteous people were found there. He continued inquiring, reducing the minimum number for sparing the city to forty five, forty, thirty, twenty, and finally, ten.^{[Genesis 18:22-33]}

And the two angels came to Sodom in the evening; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom; and Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them; and he fell down on his face to the earth; and he said: 'Behold now, my lords, turn aside, 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 way.' And they said: 'Nay; but we will abide in the broad place all night.' And he urged 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.

— Genesis 19:1–3

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 have sex with them. Lot went out, closing the door behind him, and begged them to not do such wicked things. Instead, he offered them his virgin daughters to do with as they please. The men of Sodom accused Lot of acting as a judge and threatened to do worse to him than they would have done to the men.^{[Genesis 19:4-9]}

The angels pulled Lot back in and struck the mob with blindness. The angels said that God had sent them to destroy the place, telling Lot, "whomsoever thou hast in the city; bring them out of the place". Lot went to his sons-in-law's homes and warns them to leave city, but they all thought he was joking.^{[Genesis 19:10-14]}

Lot and his daughter flee from Sodom, by Paolo Veronese, c. 1585 (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)

Lot lingered in the morning so the angels force him and his family out of the city, telling them to flee for the hills. Scared that they wouldn't be safe in the hills from the impending destruction, Lot instead asked the angels if he may hide and be safe in a nearby village. An angel agreed and the village was then known as Zoar. When God rained sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot's wife looks back at them and turned into a pillar of salt.^{[Genesis 19:15-26]}

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

The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot came unto Zoar. Then the LORD caused to rain upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; and He overthrow those cities, and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD. And he looked out toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the Plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.

— Genesis 19:23

Instead of both fire and brimstone, 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."[3] In The Jewish War, he likewise says that the city was "burnt by lightning".[4]

After the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot was afraid to stay in Zoar and so he and his two daughters resettle into the hills, living in a cave.^{[Genesis 19:30-38]} The elder daughter, seeing that there were no men to marry, told the younger that they should instead sleep with their father to continue their lineage. Toward this, they got Lot exceedingly drunk with wine. The elder then lay with her father without his knowing. She insisted the younger do the same, and so the younger did the same to her father the next day. The older daughter conceived Moab (Hebrew מוֹאָב, lit., "from the father" [meh-Av]), father of the Moabites;^{[Genesis 19:37]} the younger conceived Ben-Ammi (Hebrew בֶּן-עַמִּי, lit., "Son of my people"), father of the Ammonites.^{[Genesis 19:38]}

The story, usually called Lot and his daughters, has been the subject of many paintings over the centuries, and became one of the subjects in the Power of Women group of subjects, warning men against the dangers of succumbing to the temptations of women, while also providing an opportunity for an erotic depiction. The scene generally shows Lot and his daughters eating and drinking in their mountain refuge. Often the background contains a small figure of Lot's wife, and in the distance, a burning city.[5]

In the Bereshith 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.
• According to the Book of Jasher, Paltith, one of Lot's daughters, was burnt alive (in some versions, on a pyre) for giving a poor man bread.[6] Her cries went to the heavens.[7]

In the Christian New Testament, Lot is considered sympathetically, as a man who regretted his choice to live in Sodom, where he "vexed his righteous soul from day to day".^{[2Pet 2:6-9]} Jesus spoke of future judgment coming suddenly as in the days of Lot, and warned solemnly, "Remember Lot's wife".^{[Luke 17:28-33]}

Lūṭ fleeing the city with his daughters; his wife is killed by a rock, Persian miniature, 16th century (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris)

Lut (Arabic: لُوط – Lūṭ) in the Quran is considered to be the same as Lot in the Hebrew Bible. He is considered to be a messenger of God and a prophet of God.[8]

In Islamic tradition, Lut lived in Ur and was a nephew of Ibrahim (Abraham). He migrated with Ibrahim to Canaan and was commissioned as a prophet to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.[9] His story is used as a reference by Muslims to demonstrate God's disapproval of homosexuality. He was commanded by Allah to go to the land of Sodom and Gomorrah to preach monotheism and to stop them from their lustful and violent acts. Lut's messages were ignored by the inhabitants, prompting Sodom and Gomorrah's destruction. Though Lut left the city, his wife was asked to be left behind by angels hence died during the destruction.[9] The Quran defines Lot as a prophet, and holds that all prophets were examples of moral and spiritual rectitude. The Quran does not include stories of Lot's drunkenness and/or incest. All Muslims reject the story of Prophet Lot having intercourse with his daughters.