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Lot (2)

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(See MYRRH).

(Heb. id., לוֹט, a covering, as in Isaiah 25:7; Sept. and N.T. Λώτ, Josephus Αῶτος; occurs Genesis 11:27; Genesis 11:31; Genesis 12:4-5; Genesis 13:1-14; Genesis 14:12; Genesis 14:16; Genesis 19:1-15; Genesis 19:18; Genesis 19:23; Genesis 19:29-30; Genesis 19:36; Deuteronomy 2:9; Deuteronomy 2:19; Psalms 83:8; Luke 17:28-29; Luke 17:32; 2 Peter 2:7), the son of Haran and nephew of Abraham (Genesis 11:27). His sisters were Milcah, the wife of Nahor, and Iscah, by some identified with Sarah. [In our treatment of the history, we freely avail ourselves of the articles in Kitto and Smith.] The following genealogy exhibits the family relations:

By the early death of his father (Genesis 11:28), he was left in charge of his grandfather Terah, with whom he migrated to Haran, B.C. 2089 (Genesis 11:31), and the latter dying there, he had already come into possession of his property when he accompanied Abraham into the land of Canaan, B.C. 2088 (Genesis 12:5), and thence into Egypt, B.C. 2087 (Genesis 12:10), and back again, by the way of the Philistines, B.C. 2086 (Genesis 20:1), to the southern part of Canaan again, B.C. 2085 (Genesis 13:1). Their united substance, consisting chiefly in cattle, was not then too large to prevent them from living together in one encampment. Eventually, however, their possessions were so greatly increased that they were obliged to separate, and Abraham, with rare generosity, conceded the choice of pasture-grounds to his nephew. Lot availed himself of this liberality of his uncle, as he deemed most for his own advantage, by fixing his abode at Sodom, that his flocks might pasture in and around that fertile and well-watered neighborhood (Genesis 13:5-13). He had soon very great reason to regret this choice; for although his flocks fed well, his soul was starved in that vile place, the inhabitants of which were sinners before the Lord exceedingly. There "he vexed his righteous soul from day to day with the filthy conversation of the wicked" (2 Peter 2:7).

Not many years after his separation from Abraham (B.C. 2080), Lot was carried away prisoner by Chedorlaomer, along with the other inhabitants of Sodom, and was rescued and brought back by Abraham (Genesis 14), as related under other heads. (See ABRAHAM); (See CHEDORLAOMER).

This exploit procured for Abraham much celebrity in Canaan; and it ought to have procured for Lot respect and gratitude from the people of Sodom, who had been delivered from hard slavery and restored to their homes on his account. But this does not appear to have been the result.

At length (B.C. 2064) the guilt of "the cities of the plain" brought down the signal judgments of heaven (Genesis 19:1-29). Lot is still living in Sodom (Genesis 19), a well-known resident, with wife, sons, and daughters — married and marriageable. The rabbinical tradition is that he was actually "judge" of Sodom, and sat in the gate in that capacity. (See quotations in Otho, Lex. Rabbini. s.v. Loth and Sodomah.) But in the midst of the licentious corruption of Sodom — the eating and drinking, the buying and selling, the planting and building (Luke 17:28), and of the darker evils exposed in the ancient narrative — he still preserves some of the delightful characteristics of his wandering life, his fervent and chivalrous hospitality (Luke 19:2; Luke 19:8), the unleavened bread of the tent of the wilderness (Luke 19:3), the water for the feet of the wayfarers (Luke 19:2), affording his guests a reception identical with that which they had experienced that very morning in Abraham's tent on the heights of Hebron (Genesis 18:3; Genesis 18:6).

It is this hospitality which receives the commendation of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews in words that have passed into a familiar proverb, "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares" (Hebrews 13:2). On the other hand, it is his deliverance from the guilty and condemned city — the one just man in that mob of sensual, lawless wretches — which points the allusion of St. Peter, to "the godly delivered out of temptations, the unjust reserved unto the day of judgment to be punished, an ensample to those that after should live ungodly" (2 Peter 2:6-9). The avenging angels, after having been entertained by Abraham, repaired to Sodom, where they were received and entertained by Lot who was sitting in the gate of the town when they arrived. While they were at supper the house was beset by a number of men, who demanded that the strangers should be given up to them, for the unnatural purposes which have given a name of infamy to Sodom in all generations. Lot resisted this demand, and was loaded with abuse by the vile fellows outside on that account. They had nearly forced the door, when the angels, thus awfully by their own experience convinced of the righteousness of the doom they came to execute, smote them with instant blindness, by which their attempts were rendered abortive, and they were constrained to disperse. Towards morning the angels apprised Lot of the doom which hung over the place, and urged him to hasten thence with his family. He was allowed to extend the benefit of this deliverance to the families of his daughters who had married in Sodom; but the warning was received by those families with incredulity and insult, and he therefore left Sodom accompanied only by his wife and two daughters.

As they went, being hastened by the angels, the wife, anxious for those who had been left behind, or reluctant to remove from the place which had long been her home, and where much valuable property was necessarily left behind, lingered behind the rest, and was suddenly involved in the destruction by which — smothered and stiffened as she stood by saline incrustations — she became "a pillar of salt" (Genesis 19:1-26). This narrative has often been regarded as one of the "difficulties" of the Bible. But it surely need not be so. Even under the above extreme view of the suddenness of the event, the circumstances appear to be all sufficiently accounted for. In the sacred record the words are simply these: "His wife looked back from behitnd him, and became a pillar of salt;" words which neither in themselves nor in their position in the narrative afford any serious difficulty, even without the supposition of a miracle. It is true that, when taken with want has gone before, they seem to imply (Genesis 19:22-23) that the work of destruction by fire (did not commence till after Lot had entered Zoar. The storm, however, may have overtaken her in consequence of her delay. Later ages have not been satisfied 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 (Anderson's Off. Narr. page 180). The first allusion of this kind is perhaps that in Wisdom of Solomon 10:7, where "a standing pillar of salt, the monument (μνημεῖον ) of an unbelieving soul," is mentioned with the "waste land that smoketh," and the "plants bearing fruit that never come to ripeness," as remaining to that day, a testimony to the wickedness of Sodom. This notion was regarded by the Roman Catholics as scriptural authority that might not be disputed. See the quotations from the fathers and others in Hofmann's Lexikon (s.v. Lot), and in Mislin, Lieux Saints (3:224). Josephus also (Ant. 1:11, 4) says that he had seen it, and that it was then remaining. So, too, do Clemens Romanus (Epist. 1:11) and Irenaeus (4:51, 64). So does Benjamin of Tudela, whose account is more than usually circumstantial (ed. Asher, 1:72).

Rabbi Petachia, on the other hand, looked for it, but "did not see it; it no longer exists" (ed. Benisch, page 61). The same statement is to be found in travelers of every age, certainly of our own times (see Maundrell, March 30). The origin of these traditions relative to this pillar has lately been satisfactorily explained by the discovery by the American party under Lieut. Lynch of an actual column still standing on the south-western shore of the Dead Sea, at, a place retaining the traces of the name of Sodom in the form of Usdum, of which he gives a pictorial sketch, describing it as a round pillar, about forty feet high, on a lofty pedestal, standing detached from the general mass of the mountain, of solid salt, slightly decreasing in size upwards, and capped with carbonate of lime; but, although himself a Catholic, he admits, with scientific candor, that it is merely the result of the action of the winter rains upon the rock-salt hills, which the cap of limestone has here protected, leaving the surrounding parts to wash aways till a columnn has thus gradually been carved out (Narrative of Expedition, pages 307,308). Prof. Palmer also visited this singular object, called by the Arabs Bint Sheik Lot, or "Lot's [daughter] wife." He describes and gives a view of it as "a tall isolated needle of rock, which really does bear a curious resemblance to an Arab woman with a child upon her shoulder. The Arab legend of Lot's wife differs from the Bible account only in the addition of a few frivolous details. They say that there were seven cities of the plain, and that they were all miraculously overwhelmed by the Dead Sea as a punishment for their crimes.

The prophet Lot and his family alone escaped the general destruction. He was divinely warned to take all that he had and flee eastward, a strict injunction being given that they should not look behind them. Lot's wife, who had on previous occasions ridiculed her husband's prophetic office, disobeyed the command, and, turning to gaze upon the scene of the disaster, was changed into this pillar of rock" (Desert of the Exodus [Harper's], page 396 sq.). The expression of our Lord, "Remember Lot's wife" (Luke 17:32), appears from the context to be solely intended as an illustration of the danger of going back or delaying in the day of God's judgments. From this text, indeed, it would appear as if Lot's wife had gone back or had tarried so long behind in the desire of saving some of their property. Then, as it would seem, she was struck dead, and became a stiffened corpse, fixed for the time to the soil by saline or bituminous incrustations. The particle of similitude must here, as in many other passages of Scripture, be understood, "like a pillar of salt." See Nagel, De culpa uxoris Loti (Altdorf; 1755); Distel, De salute uxoris Lothi (Altd. 1721); Waller, Diss. de statua sal. uxoris Loti (Lipsia, 1764); Wolle, De facto et fato uxoris Loti (Lips. 1730); Schwollmann, Comm. qua de uxore L. in statuam sal. conversa dubitatur (Hamburg, 1749); Milom, Sendschr. u. d. Salzsaule in die L.'s Weib vervandelt worden (Hamb. 1767); Clerici, Diss. de statua salina, in his Comment. in Gen.; Tieroff, De statua salis (Jen. 1657); Muller, idem (Helmstadt, 1764); Oedmann, Samml. 3:145; Bauer, Hebr. Geschichte, 1:131; Maii Observat. sacr. 1:168 sq.; H.v.d. Hardt, Ephem. philol. Page 67 sq.; Jenisch, Eriorter zweier wichtig. Schriftstellen (Hamb. 1761); Michaelis and Rosenmü ller on Genesis 19:26; Gesenius, Thesaur. Heb. page 72.

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