Genesis 11 to 19 · Person · Featured Study
Lot
Genesis follows Lot through chapters 11 to 19, and Jesus and Peter both recall his escape from Sodom.
Two angels found Lot in the gateway of Sodom on the evening before the city burned.
- Family
- grandfather: Terah; father: Haran; uncle: Abraham; son: Moab; son: Ben-ammi
- Places
- Ur, Haran, Bethel, Sodom, Zoar
- First named
- Genesis 11:27 “…Haran became the father of Lot.”
- Last named
- 2 Peter 2:7 “and if He rescued Lot, a righteous…”
Albrecht Dürer, Lot and His Daughters, 1496 to 1499. CC0.
Summary
Lot was the son of Abraham's brother Haran and the father of the Moabites and the Ammonites.
- He travelled with Abram from Haran into Canaan and down to Egypt and back.
- When their herds grew too large to share the land, he took the plain of the Jordan and settled near Sodom.
- Angels brought him and his two daughters out of the city before the LORD destroyed it, and his wife died on the way.
Where Lot Stands in Scripture
His first verse in Genesis 11 and his last in 2 Peter 2
Lot is named in 37 verses of the Berean text, 30 of them in Genesis. Deuteronomy 2 and Psalm 83 use his name for the nations that came from him.
This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.Genesis first names Lot in the family record of Terah, the record that carries Abram's story.
and if He rescued Lot, a righteous man distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawlessPeter's letter holds the last verse of Scripture that names Lot.
A Life in Nine Turns
From Ur of the Chaldeans to the hills beyond Zoar
Lot's life in Genesis turns on the day he parted from Abram and chose the plain.
- Named as the son of Haran, who died in his native landUr of the ChaldeansGenesis 11:28
- Leaves with Terah and Abram for Canaan and stops at HaranHaranGenesis 11:31
- Goes on with Abram into CanaanCanaanGenesis 12:5
- Comes up out of Egypt with Abramthe NegevGenesis 13:1
- Chooses the plain of the Jordan and parts from Abrambetween Bethel and AiGenesis 13:11
- Is carried off by four kings and brought back by AbramSodom and HobahGenesis 14:16
- Receives the two angels at the gateSodomGenesis 19:1
- Is led out of the city and flees to ZoarZoarGenesis 19:23
- Lives in a cave with his two daughtersthe hills near ZoarGenesis 19:30
Nine turns in the order Genesis tells them, each with its verse. Genesis gives no year of Lot's life.
Receives the two angels at the gate, Is led out of the city and flees to Zoar, Lives in a cave with his two daughters
His Story in Genesis
Genesis 11 to 14 and Genesis 19
Terah took his grandson Lot with Abram and Sarai toward Canaan, and when the LORD called Abram on from Haran, Lot went with him.
But the land was unable to support both of them while they stayed together, for they had so many possessions that they were unable to coexist.The verse gives the reason the two households could no longer live side by side.
Abram's herdsmen and Lot's herdsmen quarrelled, and Abram let Lot choose the land he wanted. Lot looked east from the hills near Bethel to the watered plain of the Jordan, chose it, and moved his tents as far as Sodom.
But the men of Sodom were wicked, sinning greatly against the LORD.Genesis names the wickedness of Sodom in the same breath as Lot's move toward it.
Four eastern kings defeated the five kings of the plain, and they carried off Lot and his goods along with the spoil of Sodom. Abram took 318 trained men of his household, routed the raiders by night and brought back Lot, his possessions, the women and the people.
Now the two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them, bowed facedown,Lot's greeting at the gate opens the night the angels spend under his roof.
Lot pressed the two visitors to stay the night in his house. When the men of the city surrounded the house and demanded them, he went out to plead with them, and the angels pulled him back inside and struck the crowd with blindness.
The flight from SodomGenesis 19:12 to 26
The angels told Lot to take his family out, and the men pledged to marry his daughters took his warning for a joke.
But when Lot hesitated, the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters. And they led them safely out of the city, because of the LORD’s compassion for them.Lot's hesitation at daybreak is the last thing Genesis records of him inside Sodom.
Lot asked to flee to a small town instead of the mountains, and the town was spared for his sake and named Zoar. His wife looked back and became a pillar of salt.
The cave in the hillsGenesis 19:30 to 38
Afraid to stay in Zoar, Lot went up into the hills and lived in a cave with his daughters. On two nights they made him drunk with wine and lay with him without his knowing it.
The older daughter gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites of today. The younger daughter also gave birth to a son, and she named him Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites of today.Genesis closes Lot's story with his daughters' two sons and the nations named after them.
His World
Herds that needed pasture, the cities of the plain and the court at the city gate
Abram and Lot lived as herdsmen whose wealth was counted in flocks, herds and tents, and the Canaanites and Perizzites were living in the land around them. The plain of the Jordan had five cities, Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Bela, which is Zoar. In Israel's towns the elders held court at the city gate, and The City Gate as the Court sets out that custom. Adam Clarke reads Lot's place in the gateway of Sodom as a sign that he held office there.
“Get out of the way!” they replied. And they declared, “This one came here as a foreigner, and he is already acting like a judge! Now we will treat you worse than them.” And they pressed in on Lot and moved in to break down the door.The men of Sodom throw Lot's standing back at him as an outsider who judges them.
The Family of Lot
His grandfather, his father, his uncles, his sisters, his wife, his daughters and his sons
Lot's line ran from Terah through Haran to the fathers of Moab and Ammon.
| Person | Tie to Lot | Verse |
|---|---|---|
| Terah | His grandfather, who took him from Ur toward Canaan. | Genesis 11:31 |
| Haran | His father, a son of Terah. | Genesis 11:28 |
| Abram | His uncle, who took him to Canaan and told him they were brothers. | Genesis 13:8 |
| Nahor | His uncle, who stayed in Mesopotamia. | Genesis 11:27 |
| Milcah and Iscah | His sisters, daughters of Haran; Milcah married Nahor. | Genesis 11:29 |
| His wife | She left Sodom with him and died on the road to Zoar. | Genesis 19:26 |
| His two daughters | Pledged in marriage to men of Sodom who stayed behind. | Genesis 19:14 |
| Moab | His son by his elder daughter, father of the Moabites. | Genesis 19:37 |
| Ben-ammi | His son by his younger daughter, father of the Ammonites. | Genesis 19:38 |
His two daughters, Moab, Ben-ammi
The Places of His Life
Six places on his road and two where Abram rescued him
Lot followed Abram from Ur into Canaan and settled in the cities of the plain.
- Located: the site is known
- Proposed: a site OpenBible scores under 500 of 1,000
- The route, in the order the text gives
- 1Ur, The family's first home, in the land of the Chaldeans. Genesis 11:31
- 2Haran, Lot set out from here with Abram for Canaan. Genesis 12:4
- 3Bethel, Abram had built an altar here, between Bethel and Ai. Genesis 13:3
- 4Egypt, Lot went down with Abram in the famine and came back with him. Genesis 13:1
- 5?Sodom, Lot lived here with his wife and daughters. Genesis 14:12
- 6Dan, Abram caught up with the kings who had taken Lot. Genesis 14:14
- 7?Hobah, Abram chased the raiders this far, north of Damascus. Genesis 14:15
- 8?Zoar, Lot fled here at sunrise, and the town was spared for him. Genesis 19:22
Not placed: Egypt (4).
Base map: Reference map of ancient Palestine, Rand McNally reference map (1926), public domain. Places with a place page stand at its coordinates and the others at the point cited for each, set on the plate by Jerusalem and Damascus, as the plate prints them.
Sodom, Hobah and Zoar are marked as proposals, and Hobah and Zoar stand at the sites OpenBible scores highest.
Hobah, Zoar
Where Scripture Stops
Three things Genesis leaves unsaid about him
What was his wife's name?never given
Genesis gives no name for Lot's wife or for his daughters.
When and where did he die?not recorded
Genesis leaves Lot in the cave with his daughters and their sons and records no death or burial.
Did he see Abraham again?Genesis 19:27 to 29
On the morning of the burning, Abraham looked down toward the plain from the place where he had stood before the LORD. Genesis records no later meeting between the two men.
Where He Points
Moses, Jesus and Peter each return to his story
In Deuteronomy the LORD tells Israel not to take the lands of Moab and Ammon, because He had given them to the descendants of Lot. Ruth, the great-grandmother of David, was a woman of Moab.
It was the same in the days of Lot: People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.Jesus sets the ordinary days of Lot's Sodom beside the day the Son of Man is revealed.
Remember Lot’s wife!Jesus turns the story of Lot's wife into a warning to His own hearers.
if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.Peter draws one conclusion from Noah and Lot together, about the godly and the unrighteous.
Voices on Lot
Four comments on the parting from Abram, his house in Sodom and the night in the cave, from Origen to Matthew Henry.
died 253 · Origen of Alexandria
SELECTIONS ON GENESIS
Lot waits at the gate of Sodom
The quotation1 quotation
“Lot was not inside Sodom ‘but at the gate.’ I might have said, just as Abraham was sitting outside his tent, out of hospitality, even at an inconvenient time (for it was the middle of the day) on the lookout for travelers, so his relative and the imitator of his morality ‘was sitting at the gate’ ready to invite those passing through the land, even though evening had now come. For he surely knew the impiety of the Sodomites and that there was no rest for the stranger in that place.”
Origen of Alexandria · Selections on Genesis · on Genesis 19:1Patristic
died 253 · Origen of Alexandria
HOMILIES ON GENESIS 5.3
Lot as the victim of his daughters' plot
The quotation1 quotation
“After these things now that well-known story is related in which it is written that Lot's daughters cunningly lay with their father by stealth. In this matter I do not know if anyone can so excuse Lot as to free him from sin. Nor again do I think he should be so accused that he ought to become party to such serious incest. For I do not find him to have plotted against or to have violently snatched away the chastity of his daughters but rather to have been the victim of a plot and cunningly ensnared.”
Origen of Alexandria · Homilies on Genesis 5.3 · on Genesis 19:33 to 35Patristic
died 397 · Ambrose of Milan
On Abraham
The parting of uncle and nephew
The quotation1 quotation
“In fact, since [Lot] had already deliberately begun to deviate from his uncle, the land could not support both of them dwelling together; indeed, no space can be large enough for those who love discord.… Even limited spaces are more than adequate for those who are meek and peace-loving, while for those whose mentality is one of discord even wide open spaces are too restricted.”
Ambrose of Milan · On Abraham · on Genesis 13:6Patristic
1662 to 1714 · Matthew Henry
Commentary on the Whole Bible
What the choice cost him
The quotation1 quotation
“While he lived among them, he vexed his righteous soul with their conversation, and never had a good day with them, till, at last, God fired the town over his head, and forced him to the mountain for safety who chose the plain for wealth and pleasure. Note, Sensual choices are sinful choices, and seldom speed well.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on Genesis 13:10 to 11Puritan
Ambrose of Milan, Matthew Henry
Was Lot a Righteous Man?
Peter calls him righteous, and an old Jewish reading counts his household among the wicked
A righteous man grieved by the lawless2 Peter 2:7 to 8; Clement of Rome; John Gill
Peter calls Lot a righteous man who was tormented day after day by the lawless deeds he saw and heard in Sodom. Clement of Rome, in his letter to the Corinthians, takes the rescue as proof that the Lord does not abandon those who hope in Him. John Gill, in his Exposition of the New Testament of 1746 to 1748, calls Lot a just man, justified by the righteousness of Christ, though not without sin.
The objection: Genesis records no altar, prayer of praise or word of faith from Lot, and it tells of his drunkenness in the cave.
A household that grazed in other men's fieldsGenesis Rabbah 41:5 and Midrash Tanchuma, as Rashi reports them
Rashi, on Genesis 13:7, reports from Genesis Rabbah that Lot's herdsmen were wicked men who grazed their cattle in other people's fields and claimed the land as Lot's inheritance. On Genesis 13:14, after Midrash Tanchuma, he says that the word of God kept away from Abram while Lot was with him.
The objection: the New Testament names Lot as righteous, and Genesis itself records no theft by his herdsmen.
Books to Read Next
Two works, each free to read online
Rashi on Genesis
Rashi, translated by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann · 1929 to 1934
Rashi comments on every verse of Genesis 13 and draws on Genesis Rabbah and Midrash Tanchuma.
Read at SefariaCommentary on the Whole Bible
Matthew Henry · 1710
Henry follows Lot from his choice of the plain to his last night in the hills.
Read at CCELSources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- Strong's Hebrew dictionary, h3876.
- Rashi on Genesis 13:7 and 13:14, citing Genesis Rabbah 41:5 and Midrash Tanchuma, Vayetzei 10, in the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain.
- Clement of Rome, Letter to the Corinthians 11.1, on 2 Peter 2:7.
- Origen of Alexandria, Selections on Genesis, on Genesis 19:1, and Homilies on Genesis 5.3, on Genesis 19:33 to 35.
- Ambrose of Milan, On Abraham, on Genesis 13:6.
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Genesis 13:10 to 11.
- John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament, 1746 to 1748, on 2 Peter 2:7.
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 19:9.
- OpenBible.info, Bible Geocoding Data, ancient.jsonl, CC BY.
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