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Easton's Bible Dictionary
(1) Hebrew goral, a "pebble"), A small stone used in
casting lots ( Numbers
33:54 ; Jonah
1:7 ). The lot was always resorted to by the Hebrews with strictest reference
to the interposition of God, and as a method of ascertaining the divine will (
Proverbs
16:33 ), and in serious cases of doubt ( Esther
3:7 ). Thus the lot was used at the division of the land of Canaan among the
serveral tribes ( Numbers
26:55 ; 34:13
), at the detection of Achan ( Joshua
7:14 , 7:18
), the election of Saul to be king ( 1
Samuel 10:20 , 10:21
), the distribution of the priestly offices of the temple service ( 1
Chronicles 24:3 , 24:5
, 24:19
; Luke
1:9 ), and over the two goats at the feast of Atonement ( Leviticus
16:8 ). Matthias, who was "numbered with the eleven" ( Acts
1:24 - 26
), was chosen by lot.
(2) This word also denotes a portion or an inheritance ( Joshua
15:1 ; Psalms
125:3 ; Isaiah
17:4 ), and a destiny, as assigned by God ( Psalms
16:5 ; Daniel
12:13 ).
(3) Lot, (Hebrew. lot), a covering; veil. The son of Haran, and nephew of Abraham
( Genesis
11:27 ). On the death of his father, he was left in charge of his grandfather
Terah (Genesis
11:31), after whose death he accompanied his uncle Abraham into Canaan ( Genesis
12:5 ), thence into Egypt (Genesis
12:10), and back again to Canaan ( Genesis
13:1 ). After this he separated from him and settled in Sodom ( Genesis
13:5 - 13
). There his righteous soul was "vexed" from day to day ( 2
Peter 2:7 ), and he had great cause to regret this act. Not many years after
the separation he was taken captive by Chedorlaomer, and was rescued by Abraham
( Genesis
14 ). At length, when the judgment of God descended on the guilty cities of
the plain ( Genesis
19:1 - 20
), Lot was miraculously delivered. When fleeing from the doomed city his wife
"looked back from behind him, and became a pillar of salt." There is to this day
a peculiar crag at the south end of the Dead Sea, near Kumran, which the Arabs
call Bint Sheik Lot, i.e., Lot's
wife. It is "a tall, isolated needle of rock, which really does bear a curious
resemblance to an Arab woman with a child upon her shoulder." From the words of
warning in Luke
17:32 , "Remember Lot's wife," it would seem as if she had gone back, or tarried
so long behind in the desire to save some of her goods, that she became involved
in the destruction which fell on the city, and became a stiffened corpse, fixed
for a time in the saline incrustations. She became "a pillar of salt", i.e., as
some think, of asphalt. (See SALT.) Lot and his daughters sought refuge first
in Zoar, and then, fearing to remain there longer, retired to a cave in the neighbouring
mountains ( Genesis
19:30 ). Lot has recently been connected with the people called on the Egyptian
monuments Rotanu or Lotanu, who is supposed to have been the hero of the Edomite
tribe Lotan.
Hitchcock's Dictionary of Bible Names
Lotan
Smith's Bible Dictionary
(veil or covering)
(1) The son of Haran, and therefore the nephew of Abraham. ( Genesis
11:27 , 11:31
) (B.C. before 1926-1898.) His sisters were Milcah the wife of Nahor, and Iscah,
by some identified with Sarah. Haran died before the emigration of Terah and his
family from Ur of the Chaldees, Genesis
11:28, and Lot was therefore born there. He removed with the rest of his kindred
to Charran, and again subsequently with Abraham and Sarai to Canaan. ch. ( Genesis
12:4 , 12:5
) With them he took refuge in Egypt from a famine, and with them returned, first
to the "south," ch. ( Genesis 13:1 ) and then to their original settlement between
Bethel and Ai. vs. ( Genesis
13:3 , 13:4
) But the pastures of the hills of Bethel, which had with ease contained the two
strangers on their first arrival, were not able any longer to bear them, so much
had their possessions of sheep, goats and cattle increased. Accordingly they separated,
Lot choosing the fertile plain of the Jordan, and advancing as far as Sodom. (
Genesis
13:10 - 14
) The next occurrence in the life of Lot is his capture by the four kings of the
east and his rescue by Abram. ch. ( Genesis
13:14 ) The last scene preserved to us in the history of Lot is too well known
to need repetition. He was still living in Sodom, ( Genesis
19:1 ) ... from which he was rescued by some angels on the day of its final
overthrow. He fled first to Zoar, in which he found a temporary refuge during
the destruction of the other cities of the plain. Where this place was situated
is not known with certainty. [ZOAR] The end of Lots wife is commonly treated as
one of the difficulties of the Bible; but it surely need not be so. It cannot
be necessary to create the details of the story where none are given. On these
points the record is silent. The value and the significance of the story to us
are contained in the allusion of Christ. ( Luke
17:32 ) Later ages have not been satisfied so to leave the matter, but have
insisted on identifying the "pillar" with some one of the fleeting forms which
the perishable rock of the south end of the Dead Sea is constantly assuming in
its process of decomposition and liquefaction. From the incestuous intercourse
between Lot and his two daughters sprang the nations of Moab and Ammon.
(2) (literally a pebble). The custom of deciding doubtful questions by lot is
one of great extent and high antiquity. Among the Jews lots were used with the
expectation that God would so control them as to give a right direction to them.
They were very often used by Gods appointment. "As to the mode of casting lots,
we have no certain information. Probably several modes were practiced." "Very
commonly among the Latins little counters of wood were put into a jar with so
narrow a neck that only one could come out at a time. After the jar had been filled
with water and the contents shaken, the lots were determined by the order in which
the bits of wood, representing the several parties, came out with the water. in
other cases they were put into a wide open jar, and the counters were drawn out
by the hand. Sometimes again they were cast in the manner of dice. The soldiers
who cast lots for Christs garments undoubtedly used these dice." --Lyman Abbott.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
lot:
I. Personality.
The man who bore the name Lot (lot; Lot) is mentioned for the first time in Genesis
11:27, at the beginning of that section of Genesis which is entitled "the generations
of Terah." After Terah's 3 sons are named, it is added that the third of these,
Haran, begat Lot.
The reason for thus singling out but one of the grandsons of Terah appears in
the next verse, where we are told that "Haran died before his father Terah in
the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees." For that period in the life
of this family, therefore, which begins with the migration from Ur, Lot represents
his father's branch of the family (Genesis 11:31). It is hardly probable that
the relation between Abraham and Lot would have been what it was, had not Haran
died; but be this as it may, we read this introduction of Lot into the genealogy
of Terah as an anticipation of the story to which it furnishes an introduction,
and in which Lot is destined to play an important part.
The sections of that story in which Lot appears are:
1. In Genesis 11, the migration from Ur to Haran; in Genesis
12, Abraham's wanderings; in Genesis 13, the separation of Abraham and Lot; in
Genesis 14, the campaign of the eastern kings against Sodom and Abraham's recovery
of the captives; and in Genesis 19, the destruction of Sodom.
2. In Genesis 14:14 , 16 Lot is termed the "brother" of Abraham; but that this
does not represent a variant tradition is proved by reference to 14:12 of the
same chapter (ascribed to "an independent source") and to Genesis 13:8 (ascribed
to J; compare 11:28 J). |
II. Career.
1. First Period:
Lot's life, as the scanty references to him permit us to reconstruct it, falls
into four periods. Of the first period--that previous to the migration from Haran--we
know nothing save Lot's birth in Ur, the death of his father there, the marriage
of his sister Milcah to his uncle Nahor (of another sister, Iscah, we learn only
the name), and the journey to Haran in company with Terah, Abraham and Sarah.
The fact that Sarah's childlessness and Haran's death are the only two circumstances
related of the family history, may serve to explain why Lot went with Abraham
instead of staying with Nahor. A childless uncle and a fatherless nephew may well
have remained together with the idea that, even if there was no formal adoption,
the nephew might become his uncle's heir. Certainly, the promise of a numberless
seed, so often repeated to the patriarchs, comes first to Abraham immediately
after Lot has separated from him (see Genesis 13:6 - 18).
2. Second Period:
In the second period of Lot's life, we find him the companion of Abraham on his
journeys from Mesopotamia to Canaan, through Canaan to Egypt, and back again to
the neighborhood of Beth-el. His position is subordinate, for his uncle is head
of the family, and oriental custom is uniform and rigorous in the matter of family
rule. Hence, the use of the singular number throughout the narrative. What Abraham
did, his whole "clan" did. Yet Lot's position was as nearly independent as these
patriarchal conditions admit. When the story reaches the point where it is necessary
to mention this fact, the narrator explains, first, the generosity with which
Abraham treated his nephew, in permitting him to have "flocks, and herds, and
tents" of his own, a quasi-independent economy, and second, that disproportion
between their collective possessions and the land's resources which made separation
inevitable. Up to this point the only mention of Lot during this period of wandering
is contained in Genesis 13:1, in the words "and Lot with him." And even here the
words are useless (because stating a fact perfectly presumable here as elsewhere),
except as they prepare the reader for the story of the separation that is immediately
to follow.
3. Third Period:
That story introduces the third period of Lot's career, that of his residence
in the Kikkar (the Revised Version (British and American) "Plain," the Revised
Version margin "Circle") and in Sodom. To the fundamental cause of separation,
as above stated, the author adds the two circumstances which contributed to produce
the result, namely, first, the strife that arose between Abraham's herdsmen and
Lot's herdsmen, and, second, the presence in the same country of others--the Canaanites
and Perizzites--thus reminding his readers that it was no vacant land, through
which they might spread themselves absolutely at will and so counteract the operation
of the principal cause and the contributory cause already set forth.
With a magnanimity that must have seemed even greater to minds accustomed to patriarchal
authority than it seems to us, and that was in fact much more remarkable than
it would be here and now, Abraham offers to his nephew the choice of the land--from
the nomad's point of view. In the "we are brethren" (Genesis 13:8), the whole
force of the scene is crystallized. Lot, who believes himself to have chosen the
better part, is thereupon traced in his nomadic progress as far as Sodom, and
the reader leaves him for a time face to face with a city whose men "were wicked
and sinners against Yahweh exceedingly," while the narrative moves on with Abraham
through that fresh scene of revelation which presented to this man of magnanimity
a Divine deed to all the land, and to this man, now left without an heir from
among his own kindred (compare Genesis 15:2 , 3), a Divine pledge of innumerable
offspring.
Lot returns for a moment to our view as the mainspring of Abraham's motions in
the campaign of Genesis 14. We are expressly told that it was "when Abram heard
that his brother was taken captive," that he "led forth his trained men .... and
pursued." On the one hand we hear that Lot now "dwelt in Sodom," having abandoned
the life in tents that he had led since Mesopotamian days, and on the other hand
we find in him a foil to the energetic, decisive and successful figure of his
uncle--for Lot plays a sorry role, bracketed always with "the women and the goods."
This period of his life ends with the annihilation of his chosen home, his wealth,
his companions, and all that was his save two daughters, who, it would seem, might
better have perished with the rest. Genesis 19, coming immediately after the intercession
of Abraham for Sodom that poignantly impresses on the reader's mind the wickedness
of Lot's environment, exhibits to us the man himself in his surroundings, as they
have affected him through well-nigh a score of years (compare Genesis 12:4; 17:1).
What we see is a man who means well (courtesy, Genesis 19:1; hospitality, 19:2
, 3 , 6-8; natural shame, 19:7; loyalty, 19:14; and gratitude, 19:19), but who
is hopelessly bound up with the moral life of the city through his family connections--alliances
that have pulled him down rather than elevated others (Genesis 19:9 , 14 , 26
, 31-35). The language of 2 Peter 2:7 , 8 reminds us that Lot was, even at this
time of his life, a "righteous" man. Viewed as a part of his environment
(the writer has been speaking of Sodom, Genesis 19:6), Lot was certainly entitled
to be called a "righteous" man, and the term fits the implications of
Genesis 18:23 - 32. Moreover, Genesis 19 itself shows Lot "vexed .... with
their lawless deeds" and "sore distressed by the lascivious life of
the wicked" (compare Genesis 19:3 , 7 , 8 , 14). Yet the contrast with Abraham
is always present in the reader's mind, so that the most lasting impressions are
made by Lot's selfishness worldliness vacillation and cowardice, not to mention
the moral effect made by the closing scene of his life (Genesis 19:30 - 38).
4. Fourth Period:
The fourth period of Lot's career is of uncertain duration. Upon the destruction
of Sodom he dwelt at first in Zoar, the "little" city, spared as a convenient
refuge for him and his; but at some time unspecified, he "went up out of Zoar,"
for "he feared to dwell in Zoar"--why, we cannot say. This fear was greater than
even the evidently great fear he entertained of dwelling in "the mountain" (Genesis
19:19). In this mountain-country of rocks and caves (Driver in HDB, article "Lot,"
cites Buckingham, Travels in Syria, 61-63, 87, as authority for the statement
that people still live in caves in this region), Lot and his two remaining daughters
dwell; and the biography of this companion of "the friend of God" ends in a scene
of incest, which supplies the logical epilogue to a drama of progressive moral
deterioration. This bestial cave-man of Genesis 19 is the "brother" of Abraham,
but he has reached this goal because his path had led down from Beth-el to Sodom.
The origin of the two neighboring and kindred nations, Moab and Ammon, is by the
Hebrew tradition traced thus to Lot and his daughters. |
III. Place in Later Literature.
In the Bible, Lot finds mention only as the father of Moab and Ammon (Deuteronomy
2:9 , 19 ; Psalms 83:8), and in the passage in 2 Peter already noticed; and, besides
these places, in Luke 17:28 - 32. Here Lot represents the central figure in the
destruction of Sodom, as Noah in the flood in the preceding context (compare the
association of these two characters in 2 Peter and the Koran). His deliverance
is mentioned, the haste and narrowness of that escape is implied, and his wife's
fate is recalled. In Jewish and Mohammedan lore (including many passages in the
Koran itself), Lot is a personage of importance, about whom details are told which
fancy has added to the sober traditions of old Israel. But particularly for Mohammed
there was point of attachment in Lot's career, offered in Genesis 19:7,14. Like
Mohammed to the men of wicked Mecca, Lot becomes a preacher of righteousness and
a messenger of judgment to the men of wicked Sodom. He is one of the line of apostles,
sent to reveal God's will and purpose to his contemporaries.
IV. Critical Theories about the Figure of Lot.
The common view of those who deny the historical reality of Lot is that this name
simply stands for the ethnic group, Moab and Ammon. Wellhausen, e.g., expressly
calls "Lot" a national name (Volksname). As to what is told of him in Genesis
he remarks: "Were it not for the remarkable depression in which the Dead Sea lies,
Sodom and Gomorrah would not have perished; were it not for the little flat tongue
of land that reaches out into the swamp from the Southeast, Lot would have fled
at once to the mountains of his sons, Moab and Ammon, and not have made the detour
by Zoar, which merely serves the purpose of explaining why this corner is excepted
from 'the overthrow,' to the territory of which it really belongs" (Prolegomena
6, 323). Meyer confesses that nothing can be made of Lot, because "any characteristic
feature that might furnish a point of attachment is entirely lacking." The first
of the families of the Horites of Seir was named Lotan (Genesis 36:20 , 22), and
this writer believes it "probable that this name is derived from Lot; but that
Lot was ever a tribal name (Stammname) follows neither from this fact (rather
the contrary) nor from the designation of Moab and the bene 'Ammon as 'Sons of
Lot' " (Die Israeliten und ihre Nachbarstamme, 311; Compare 261, 339). If "Horite"
was understood as "cave-dweller," the story in Genesis 19:30 might be adduced
in support of this combination. But the most recent line of reasoning concerning
these patriarchal figures makes their names "neither Divine names nor tribal names,
whether in actual use or regarded as such, but rather simple personal names like
Tom, Dick and Harry. .... Typical names they became .... so that .... Israel's
story-tellers would connect the name of Lot with the overthrow of the cities"
(Gressmann, article in ZATW, 1910). These names were chosen just because "they
were very common at the time when the narratives were stamped into types"; later
they became unfashionable, but the story-tellers held fast to the old names. "One
sees from this at once into how ancient a time the proper names Abraham and Lot
must reach, and understands therefore the more easily how they could be changed
into tribal ancestors." It does not require the cautions, uttered by writers of
this way of thinking, against regarding their views as a return to the old historical
view of the patriarchs, to remind us that, in spite of all that may be said to
the contrary, the present trend of thought among the most radical critics of the
Genesis-traditions is much mote favorable to that conservative historical view
than were the opinions which they have overthrown. So that it may justly be asserted,
as Gressmann writes: "Confidence in tradition is in any case on the rise."
This woman, unknown by name, figures in the narrative of Lot that relates his
escape from Sodom. She is mentioned in Genesis 19 only in verses 15 - 17, where
she is commanded to flee from the doomed city with her husband and daughters,
and is laid hold upon by the angelic visitors in their effort to hasten the slow
departure; and in Genesis 19:26, where she alone of the four fugitives disobeys
the warning, looks back, and becomes a "pillar of salt" This disobedience, with
the moral state it implied and the judgment it entailed, is held up as an example
by Christ in Luke 17:32. In the Scriptures this is all that is said of a person
and event that furnished the basis for a great deal of speculation. Josephus (Ant.,
I, xi, 4) adds to the statement derived from Gen, "She was changed into a pillar
of salt," the words, "for I visited it, and it still remains even now" (see also
The Wisdom of Solomon 10:7).
Among Christian writers contemporary with and subsequent to Josephus, as well
as among the Jews themselves and other Orientals, the same assertion is found,
and down to recent times travelers have reported the persistence of such a "pillar
of salt," either on the testimony of natives or as eyewitnesses. The question
of the origin and nature of these "pillars" is a part of the larger question of
Sodom and its neighborhood (see SALT; SIDDIM; SLIME); for that no one particular
"pillar" has persisted through the centuries may be regarded as certain; nor if
it had, would the identification of Lot's wife with it and with it alone be ascertainable.
This is just an early, persistent and notable case of that "identification" of
Biblical sites which prevails all over the Holy Land. It is to be classed with
the myth-and legend-building turn of mind in simple peoples, which has e.g. embroidered
upon this Old Testament account of the destruction of Sodom such marvelous details
and embellishments.
The principal thing to observe is the vagueness and the simplicity of the story
in Genesis for it does not necessarily imply the "metamorphosis" popularly attributed
to it, in the strict sense of that word. And it lacks, even in a narrative like
this, where the temptation would be greatest, all indications of that "popular
archaeology" or curiosity, which according to some critics, is alleged to have
furnished the original motive for the invention of the patriarchal narratives.
"She became a pillar of salt," and "Remember Lot's wife": this is the extent of
the Biblical allusions. All the rest is comment, or legend, or guess, or "science."
J. Oscar Boyd
Tags:
bible commentary, bible history, bible reference, bible study, daughters incest, define, lot, lots wife, nephew of abraham, pillar of salt, rescued by angels from sodom, son of haran, taken captive by chedorlaomer
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