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'''Lot''' was a nephew of [[Abraham]] who came with him and his grandfather [[Terah]] from [[Ur]] of the [[Chaldeans]] (Genesis 11). Lot continued to go with Abraham after Teran died, but the two went their separate ways at [[Bethel]] because the land could not support the large number of livestock they had accumulated together and their herdsman began to quarrel. (Genesis 13)

'''Lot''' ([[Hebrew]]: '''לוֹט''', ''Loṭ''; [[Arabic]]: '''لوط''', ''Lūṭ''; "Hidden, covered") was the nephew and brother in law of the patriarch, [[Abraham]] or Abram. He was the son of Abraham's brother [[Haran]]. ({{Bible ref|book=Genesis|chap=11|verses=27}})

Lot is famous for living in [[Sodom]].  He was in the town square at the evening when the [[angels]] of the Lord came into town.  Lot had to convince them to please come with him and stay in his house instead of the town square.  At first they refused, but Lot was insistent.  When all of the men of Sodom surrounded Lot's house and demanded that the strangers be given to them for sex, Lot would not agree. He offered his daughters to the [[Sodomites]], but they had no interest and prepared to break into his house.  The angels struck all of the men of Sodom blind and then told Lot to leave; they were going to destroy Sodom.  Come morning Lot was still hesitant to leave even after being warned that he would be destroyed in the punishment if he did not.  The angels grasped the hands of Lot and his wife and two daughters and led them to the edge of the city.  Lot was told to flee with his wife and daughters to the mountains, but he pleaded to be able to stop at a small town first as the trip to the mountains was long.  Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed once Lot reached the safety of the small town.  Even though they were told not to look back at the destruction behind them, Lot's wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of [[salt]].

Lot became Abraham's brother in law by the marriage of [[Nahor (son of Terah)|Nahor]] (Abraham's brother) to [[Milcah]] (Lot's sister), and also by the marriage of Abraham himself to Lot's other sister, [[Sarah]].

Continuing to the mountains, Lot was living in a case with his two daughters when they decided they wanted to continue their family line and got their father drunk in order to lay with him and have children. The sons of Lot and his two daughters founded the nations of [[Moab]] and [[Ammon]] (Genesis 19:37-38), both nations that became bitter enemies of the [[Jewish]] people.

 

When the combined household returned to Canaan in the next spring, and specifically to [[Bethel]], Lot and Abraham had too many animals for the same land to support them all. Abraham and Lot then agreed to separate. Lot decided to live in the plains of the Valley of Siddim (the [[Dead Sea]]), while Abraham stayed in the hill country.<ref name=Ussher>[[James Ussher]], ''[[The Annals of the World]]'', [[Larry Pierce]], ed., Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2003 (ISBN 0890513600), pghh.72-75</ref>

 

Lot went to live in [[Sodom]]. Then in 2091 AM (1913 BC), King Bera of Sodom, along with four other petty kings, rebelled against [[Chedorlaomer]], king of Elam, who had established his dominion thirteen years before. In the next year (2092 AM), Chedorlaomer attacked the rebellious kings in the [[War of the Ten Kings]]. He plundered Sodom and took Lot and many other civilians hostage.

 

Abraham heard about Lot's capture from an escapee from Sodom. Abraham armed 318 men of his household, called on three local Amorite confederates to help him, and gave chase. He successfully rescued Lot and recaptured all the plunder that Chedorlaomer had taken. Abraham took no spoil beyond his own troops' rations. Lot returned to Sodom and never saw Abraham again.<ref name=Ussher2>Ussher, ''op. cit.'', pgh. 76-77</ref>

 

In the spring of 2107 AM (1897 BC), two angels visited Lot in Sodom, where he had risen in the government and now sat on its city council. Several of the local residents demanded that Lot surrender his visitors to them for immoral purposes. Incredibly, Lot offered to let them abuse his daughters instead. Equally incredibly, they not only refused but also called Lot a "sojourner" and accused him of presuming to judge their behavior.

 

The angels struck the assailants blind, and then ordered Lot to take his family out of Sodom immediately. Lot's two sons-in-law refused to leave, so Lot left with his wife and his two daughters.

 

A holocaust of fire and burning [[sulfur]] destroyed Sodom and three neighboring cities in the Valley of Siddim and also created the [[Dead Sea]]. Lot's wife did not survive; she looked back and was transformed into [[salt]].<ref name=Ussher3>Ussher, ''op. cit.'', pghh. 83-84</ref> ({{Bible ref|book=Genesis|chap=19|verses=1-29}})

 

Lot and his daughters escaped to Zoar and from there journeyed into the mountains. Then his daughters conspired together to cause their father to become inebriated and father a child with each one. The elder daughter bore Lot a son named [[Moab]], and the younger bore another son named [[Ammon]].<ref name=Ussher4>Ussher, ''op. cit.'', pgh. 86</ref> ({{Bible ref|book=Genesis|chap=19|verses=30-38}}) Each of these men was a progenitor of a people that became bitter enemies of the Israelites in later centuries.

 

 

* [[Israel]]

* [[Islam]]

 

[[Category:Book of Genesis Persons]]

[[Category:Book of Genesis Persons]]