LOT. – Son of Haran of the Thareite lineage and nephew of Abraham (q.v.), with whom he emigrated from Haran in Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan, taking with him his family, a good number of servants, and livestock (Gen. 12:4 ff.). After accompanying his uncle Abraham into Egypt, he returned to Canaan, settling near Bethel (ibid. 13:1 ff.). When a dispute arose between the herdsmen of Lot and those of Abraham, the latter, to avoid any cause of disorder, decided to separate the two groups, leaving the choice of territory to his nephew. Lot chose the more fertile region, the area of the Jordan near the Dead Sea, and settled there with his family in Sodom (q.v.; ibid. 13:5-13).
During the battle in the vale of Siddim between the four eastern kings and the five kings or chiefs of the Palestinian Pentapolis, Lot was taken prisoner and deported with his household. Abraham, with a band of brave men, pursued the invaders as far as Dan on the northern borders of Palestine, and after a successful night attack drove them back beyond Damascus, thus freeing Lot and rescuing his possessions (ibid. 14:1-16). Though living among sinful people, Lot remained righteous and, even on account of Abraham’s prayers, was spared from the destruction of Sodom (cf. Wis. 10:6; 2 Pet. 2:6-8).
Warned by two angels in the guise of travelers, whom he hosted in his home and defended from the assaults of the Sodomites, he escaped with his family from Sodom before the city and the other towns of the Pentapolis were overwhelmed by the catastrophe described in Gen. 19. He took refuge in the small town of Segor (Sô‘ar) or Bela (probably on the southeastern edge of the Dead Sea, near modern es-Sâfijjeh), which was spared by virtue of his prayers. But his wife, lingering behind (the Vulgate less accurately reads: “respiciensque uxor eius post se”) despite the angels’ explicit warning, was “turned into a pillar of salt” (Gen. 19:26), that is, as modern exegetes commonly explain, she was suffocated and covered by the saline exhalations released by the fire that consumed the Pentapolis.
Later, feeling unsafe in Segor, Lot took refuge with his two daughters on a mountain, where he dwelt in a cave (ibid. 19:30). From the double incest that followed sprang the Moabites and Ammonites (q.v.), who are therefore in Holy Scripture also called “sons of Lot” (Deut. 2:9, 19; Ps. 82:9). The shameful act cannot, strictly speaking, be imputed to Lot, who at that moment was under the effects of wine; the true culprits were his daughters (Gen. 19:31-38). Nevertheless, on account of this episode Lot is left ingloriously in the shadows, and the Bible makes no mention of his death. According to tradition, Lot’s tomb is said to be near the present village of Beni Na‘im, east of Hebron. Even in the Talmudic books, Lot’s figure is generally portrayed in an unfavorable light.
Many rationalist critics, denying any truth to the biblical narrative, maintain that Lot is nothing more than an imaginary eponym indicating the supposed common ancestor of the peoples of Moab and Ammon; indeed, some (such as H. Ewald and A. Dillmann) arbitrarily identify him with Lotan, son of Seir, one of the chiefs of the Horite tribe subdued by the descendants of Esau (Gen. 36:20).
Lot’s name is linked to the tragic fate of Sodom and Gomorrah (“the days of Lot,” Luke 17:28-31). Even the name that the Arabs give to the Dead Sea (baḥr Lūt, “Lake of Lot”) perpetuates his memory. To the southwest of the Dead Sea, numerous characteristic salt pillars are still visible today, and popular imagination has identified the unfortunate wife of Lot with a saline prominence in the shape of a column at Jebel Usdum (Mount of Sodom), fifteen meters high. Already Josephus refers to a statue or salt pillar that existed in his time, said to be the petrified remains of the woman (there are also references in Clement, 1 Cor. 11:11; Irenaeus, *Haer.*, IV, 31; in the *Peregrinatio Etheriae*; and numerous fabulous details in the “Carmen de Sodoma” falsely attributed to Tertullian: *PL* 2, 1104). Wis. 10:7 also refers to the pillar of salt into which the unfortunate woman was turned as a lasting testimony to the destruction of the Pentapolis; but from this it cannot be inferred that the “statue” stood upright at the time of the writer.
Jesus cites the example of Lot’s wife to urge constancy and vigilance (Luke 17:32).