Abraham's Intercession for Lot

Alice C. Linsley


Is the account of Abraham's intercession for Lot and Sodom simply about intercessory prayer? It is often supposed that Lot was among the wicked, having become involved in the politics of the city, but Abraham did not think so. He said, "Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?" Lot, as with many people of Faith, was living in the midst of moral decadence and paying the consequences.

Lot was Abraham's nephew, the son of his older brother Harran. Lot was a righteous man to whom Abraham deferred, as was fitting for a kinsman who had taken a younger fatherless kinsman under his protection. Lot's choice to move his flocks to the plain was motivated by his desire for greener pastures, but it would have been regarded as breaking with the pattern of his Horite ancestors who inhabited the higher terrain, called the "hill country."

Along with the other residents of Sodom, Lot apparently was unaware for the imminent danger. The destruction of his city and his future sons-in-law follow the angelic announcement of the "blessed event" that was to come to Abraham and Sarah within the year. Having feasted with Abraham and delivered this announcement, the angels turn toward Sodom saying: "We are to go over and check out Sodom to see if all that we have heard is true."

Angelic beings visited with Abraham in the heat of the day. This image signals divine judgment. Consider the contrast between this and the communion in the Garden where God came in the "cool of the day" (Gen.3:8). Cool encounters speak of fellowship and hot encounters speak of divine wrath, not a popular concept these days.

The angelic announcement foreshadows Jesus' birth. The shepherds would have known the story of the angels coming to Abraham and their announcement of the birth of a son. The angelic beings appeared in the "heat of the day" this visit being a hot encounter with God because the angels were on their way to a city under divine judgment. The chiastic structure of the Sodom narrative places the destruction of Sodom between the promise of a son for Abraham and the birth of two sons to Lot. The theme of the birth of God's Son can be found even in the story of Sodom's destruction.

Abraham was interceding for his kinsman. God shared His plans with Abraham: "The sins of Sodom have come up to my nostrils and I am going to see if everything I have heard is true. If it is, I am going to destroy the city! (Gen. 18:16-33)

Why did God not inform Lot directly about His plans? The answer is not that Lot was far from the Lord, living in disobedience, as is often stated in commentaries on this passage. The text does not tell us all the details of Lot's life because the focus has shifted from Abraham's Horite ancestors to Abraham himself. He is the great patriarch who had been Lot's protector, patron and who delivered him when he was taken captive (Gen. 14). The rescue took Abraham from Hebron, where Sarah resided, to Dan, the lion's whelp (Deut. 33:22).

Lot's Story

“Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more: Suppose ten should be found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.” So the Lord went His way as soon as He had finished speaking with Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place.” (Gen. 18:32-33)

Reading this, some suppose that there were not even ten righteous in the city. We do not know about the survivors of the destruction of the cities of the Plain. Clearly, Lot survived and he became established as a great chief with familial connections to other powerful rulers.

Lot's sister married Nahor and gave birth to eight sons (Gen. 22:20). The most notable of Milcah's sons was Kemuel, the father of Aram the Younger. Aram the Elder was one of Shem's sons (Gen. 10:22) and he had a son named Uz. The name Kemuel is found in Numbers 34:24 where a descendent of Kemuel is named as a leader for the Ephraimites. I Chronicles 27:17 tells us that the Ephraimite Kemuel had a son named Hashabiah who was a Levite chief. In I Chronicles 26:30, this same Hashabiah is called a "Hebronite" and is put "in charge of Israel west of Jordan in everything pertaining to Yahweh and to the service of the king."

Lot's Ammonite and Moabite descendants were relatives of the Arameans and at least one of them was a Levite. In Patriarchal times the rulers among these peoples would have intermarried. In his commentary on Genesis, E.A. Speiser recognizes this. He believes that the “parallel treatment of the histories of Abraham and Lot is added proof that interrelationship was particularly intimate and important in early times.” (Anchor Bible Commentary, p. 146)

Likely, the original meaning of the names pertains to the Horite practice of clan endogamy. Moab means "by father" and Ben-Ammi means "son of kin" - and the people of Israel were to treat them as such. "And the Lord said unto me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give thee of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for a possession" (Deut. 2:9). "And when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon, distress them not, nor meddle with them: for I will not give thee of the land of the children of Ammon any possession; because I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession." (Deut. 2:19).

Whether Moab and Ben-Ammi were Lot’s first-born sons by two wives or his grandchildren, he is presented in Genesis as a great chief with the same familial pattern as Terah, Abraham and Jacob. The pattern involves two first-born sons by different women. The first wife is the half-sister (as was Sarah to Abraham) and the second wife is a patrilineal cousin or niece (as was Keturah to Abraham). Keturah resided in Beersheba.

Related reading: Lot's Daughters; Two Passovers and Two Drunken Fathers; A Cautionary Note About Collins' Sodom; Abraham's Habiru Ancestors; Abraham and Job: Horite Rulers

A Cautionary Note about Collins' Sodom

Is this the location of biblical Sodom?

Several recent news articles speculate about the destruction of Sodom. Was it destroyed by a volcano or a meteorite? The exact location of Sodom has not be established. Phillip J. Silvia, Ph.D (Trinity Southwest University) explains, "Sodom was visible from and directly east from Bethel and Ai. In the biblical narrative, cardinal directions are given from a perspective of looking east (up/forward). In the narrative context, Abraham has already distinguished between north (left, when facing east) and south (right, when facing east). The narrative says that "Lot looked up..."

Dr. Silvia is responding to my suggestion that the destroyed cities may have been Bab edh Drha and Numeira. (Dr. Bryant Wood had argued for Bab edh-Dhra as Sodom.) However, as Dr. Silvia points out, these are not visible from Bethel and Ai because the view is blocked by the spine of the Judean Highlands.

David E Graves, Ph.D. (Aberdeen University) also notes that Bab edh-Dhra and Numeria were destroyed 250 years apart. Dr. Graves writes, "There was no human remains in the destruction layer at Bab edh-Dhra (only the cemetery) which compared with Tall el-Hammam was small. I compare Bad edh-Dhra and Tall el-Hammam in my book: The Location of Sodom: Key Facts for Navigating the Maze of Arguments for the Location of the Cities of the Plain."

"One other detail...The destruction date for Tall el-Hammam and the other cities of the plain (ca. 1650 BCE) does fit within the hi-lo date range proposed by scholars for the Exodus."

Alice C. Linsley

Has Steven Collins found the site of Biblical Sodom? After eight years of archaeological discovery in the Jordan Disk he believes he has, and if he is correct the conventional dating of the events of Genesis and Exodus must be revised.

Collins' argument is based on three main assertions. First, he asserts that the Hebrew word "kikkar" can only be applied to the wide circular area of the southern Jordan Valley north of the Dead Sea where Tall el-Hammam is located. Genesis 13:10 says that Abraham and Lot saw "all the valley of the Jordan."

In Hebrew, this reads kikkar hayarden, and Collins insists that this refers to the Jordan Disk, not the Valley of Siddim. He claims that the area is visible from the region between Bethel and Ai where Abraham had pitched his tent; the area had bitumen, and the battle of the kings would have been fought as far away from Abraham's home as possible. Genesis 14:3 states that the kings fought "in the valley of Siddim." 

At Tall el-Hammam, Collins and his team excavated "numerous vessels spanning a thousand years with interiors stained and/or coated with bitumen."

Collins' claim has received much attention from scholars who refer to Tell-el-Hammam as the "Sodom of the north." However, he was not the first to suggest this possibility. In the late 19th century, Tristram, Conder, Merrill, and Thomson made a case for a location north of the Dead Sea in the southern Jordan Valley.

Tall el-Hammam is located about 14 kilometers northeast of the Dead Sea in the Jordan Disk, or "the Kikkar" (ring, disk, circle). This is a wide circular area of the southern Jordan Valley north of the Dead Sea. (Exodus 25:11 kikar zahav tahor = circle of pure gold.)

The Jordan Disk was home to many fortified Middle Bronze Age occupations, including Tall Nimrin, Tall Kafrayn and Tall el-Hammam. Tall el-Hammam is the largest of these. Situated on a major ancient trade route, it enjoyed prosperity with numerous satellite towns. The site has had a long history of occupation including the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Periods and the Bronze Ages (3600-2000 BC). The city was surrounded by dolmens and cave and shaft tombs, and agricultural lands to the west. The importance of the site is indicated by the 6-meter thick Early Bronze Age (3600-2350 BC) ramparts that surrounded the city (see image below).

Collins writes: "Tall el-Hammam’s necroscape is much larger and more elaborate than the southern cemeteries, with thousands of cave and shaft tombs, standing stones, stone circles, henges, menhirs and dolmens spread over several square kilometers around Tall el-Hammam. There's even evidence of menhir alignments with astronomical significance, and alignments with the central sacred precinct of lower Tall el-Hammam."

Many regard Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 13-19) to be "Cities of the Plain," and based on Rabbinic sources, Sodom and Gomorrah have been linked with Bab edh-Dhra and Numeira. Collins argues that these sites are too early and in the wrong place. He believes that the evidence of a Middle Bronze Age destruction of Tall el-Hammam with the ensuing 500-year occupational hiatus strongly supports his theory that Tall-el-Hammam is Sodom. However, both the Jordan Disk and the valley of Siddim hAD equally ancient populations. The ramparts at Bab edh-Dhra in the south were started circa 3000 B.C. and the city thrived between 2500 and 2100. This corresponds closely to the time when Abraham would have been living in Canaan (c. 2150-1988).

The 1965-1968 excavations of Paul Lapp at Bab edh-Dhra cleared twenty seven shaft tombs with forty seven chambers in cemetery A, six tombs with single chambers on the slopes of cemetery C, and thirty shaft tombs with seventy three chambers in areas A, C, F, and G. It is fascinating to note that the majority of the graves were circular like the “pan graves” of Abraham's Nilo-Saharan ancestors.


The Habiru/Abru (from the Akkadian "Abrutu", referring to a caste of ruler-priests.)

Collin's portrays Abraham and Lot as 'Apiru or Habiru (Hebrew) warlords who made treaties with regional rulers. His depiction aligns with some biblical data. Certainly, there were Hebrew warrior-priests, especially the clan of Levi. However, the early Hebrew were skilled in many areas, including animal husbandry, metal work, stone work, medicine, and astronomy.

In ancient texts the ruler-priest caste was associated with the number seven. The linguistic connection between the number seven and the words Habiru, 'Apiru, or the Akkadian Abru (priest) is evident in the Nilotic Luo word for seven: abiriyo. Joshua 6:4 speaks of seven priests who walk before the Ark, each carrying a ram's horn. Genesis 1:1–2:3 is rich in the numerical symbolism of seven. The number seven also appears in the account of the flood (Gen. 7:2-8).

The biblical Hebrew (Abrutu) were a ruler-priest caste that appears to have originated in the Nile Valley. The oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship is Nekhen (3800 BC).  They were one people divided into two ritual groups (a moiety): the Horites and the Sethites. They dispersed across Arabia, and had shrines in Beersheba, Timna, Edom and probably Tall el-Hammam, the site that Collins believes is biblical Sodom.

Related reading: Horite Mounds; Early Resurrection Texts; Finding Sodom; Abraham's Habiru Ancestors; The Migration of Abraham's Ancestors; Lot's Story; Nilo-Saharan and Saharo-Nubian Populations

Finding Sodom

Alice C. Linsley

There has been a great deal of speculation about the location of biblical Sodom. Recently, Steven Collins claimed to have found the site in Jordan. He believes that he has solid evidence that Tall el-Hammam is Sodom, and if his hypothesis is correct the conventional dating of the events and persons in Genesis must be radically revised. The pottery that Collins uncovered at Tall el-Hammam dates to a much later period. It would place Abraham and Lot in that region only two centuries before the Exodus.

Collins has received much attention by claiming that Tall el-Hammam is the true Sodom, or what scholars call the "Sodom of the north." However, he was not the first to suggest this possibility. In the late 19th century Tristram, Conder, Merrill and Thomson made a case for a location north of the Dead Sea in the southern Jordan Valley. Even after all these attempts the location of Biblical Sodom remains uncertain.

Collins' main argument hinges on his understanding of the Hebrew word kikkar or ki-kar. He maintains that this term can apply only to the wide circular area of the southern Jordan Valley north of the Dead Sea where Tall el-Hammam is located. This assertion is backed by suggestive, but far from convincing, evidence. Collins fails to look at the bigger picture and seems unaware of the linguistic evidence that kikar means a basin or circular place where there is water or at one time was filled with water or bounded by water.

Kar is a word of Nilotic origin. In Luo, for example, Kar is a noun that refers to a place that bestrides certain boundaries. It is also a verb meaning to bestride or straddle. Kar is one's stake with boundaries. Khar (ghar) was a unit of measurement used in trade in the Egyptian inscriptions (See James Orr, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, page 1421.) It appears to be associated with the ancient Horite traders.

Kar-nak was a Horite temple along the Nile and it may be that Abraham's maternal grandfather was a priest of this temple. Kar means place and nak refers to the ritual removal of six front teeth, a practice found among the Nilotic Luo and the ancient Natufians. Nak likely referred to rituals in general so that kar-nak would mean a "place of rituals" and in the ancient world these were water shrines.

Kar is a very ancient root KR that represents a complex of related ideas. Ki-kar refers to a circle as in Exodus 25:11: ki-kar za-hav ta-hor, meaning "circle of pure gold." In the Anchor Bible Commentary on Genesis, E.A. Speiser recognizes that kikar refers to a circle.

So it is clear that Collins' claim that "kikar" can refer only to the Southern Jordan Basin is mistaken. Tall el-Hammam is located in the circular Jordan Valley about nine miles northeast of the Dead Sea. Thousands of years ago this city would have been much closer to the water. The circular basin left by the recession of the waters is a “kikar” (ring, disk, circle), but the term can apply to more than one place.

"Kikkar ha-yarden" is usually translated "all the valley of the Jordan" (Genesis 13:10), but it simply means a circular basin with a shrine along the Jordan, or a Jordan Valley water shrine. All the Bronze Age (3600-2000 BC) cities along the Dead Sea were shrine centers in circular basins. One kikar was in the north where Tall el-Hammam is located, and another was in the south where Bab edh-Dhra and Numeria were located. Each basin had multiple cities and towns, spaced apart by a day's journey, similar to the Spanish missions along El Camino Real in California. The southern basin at one time connected Beersheba to Bab edh-Dhra, the city many archaeologists and Bible scholars believe to be ancient Sodom.

Genesis 13:10 says that Abraham and Lot saw "all the valley of the Jordan." In Hebrew this reads, "kikkar ha-yarden" and Collins insists that this refers to the Jordan Disk, not the Valley of Siddim at the southern end of the Dead Sea. He attempts to reinforce this with these additional claims: (1) The Jordan Disk is visible from the region of Bethel and Ai where Abraham had pitched his tent; (2) the area had bitumen, and (3) the battle of the kings would logically have taken place in the Valley of Siddim, as far away from Abraham's home as possible. Genesis 14:3 states that the kings fought "in the valley of Siddim."

The Jordan Disk was home to many fortified Middle Bronze Age occupations, including Tall Nimrin, Tall Kafrayn and Tall el-Hammam. Tall el-Hammam is the largest of these. The importance of the site is indicated by nearly 20-feet thick Early Bronze Age (3600-2350 BC) ramparts that surrounded the city. Situated on a major trade route, the shrine city enjoyed prosperity with numerous satellite towns. Genesis calls these "cities of the plain."

Collins believes that the evidence of a Middle Bronze Age destruction of Tall el-Hammam with the ensuing 500-year occupational hiatus strongly suggests that this northern city is the Biblical Sodom. He argues that the pottery and the cemeteries at Tall el-Hammam correspond more to the time of Abraham and Lot than those of the Cities of the Plain. However, both basins are sustained equally ancient populations. The ramparts at Bab edh-Dhra were started circa 3000 B.C. and the city thrived between 2500 and 2100. This corresponds closely to the time when Abraham would have been living in Canaan (c. 2050-1984).

The 1965-1968 cemetery excavations of Paul Lapp at Bab edh-Dhra cleared twenty seven shaft tombs with forty seven chambers in cemetery A, six tombs with single chambers on the slopes of cemetery C, and thirty shaft tombs with seventy three chambers in areas A, C, F, and G. It is fascinating to note that the majority of the graves were circular (kikar) like the “pan graves” of Abraham's Nilo-Saharan ancestors.

There is much in Collin's portrayal of Abraham that is supported by other research. For example, he argues that Abram and Lot were 'Apiru (Hapiru/Habiru) warlords who made treaties with regional rulers. The 'Apiru or Habiru (Abru in Akkadian) were an ancient caste (abrutu) of ruler-priests who excelled in war, metal work, astronomy, stone work, water management, and animal husbandry. They are called “Horim” by the Jews, which is rendered “Horite” in English Bibles. The Horite rulers were dispersed widely from Sudan to Southern India. Genesis 36 lists the Horite Hebrew rulers Edom, Abraham’s kinsmen.

Collins believes that Abraham would have fought the battle in the valley of Siddim because this was far removed from his home. However, Abraham already had a wife in Beersheba. She is the mother of Abraham’s first born son, Joktan (Yaqtan). Beersheba is where Abraham spent much of his time, and Isaac was living in the region of Beersheba when Abraham’s servant returned with Rebecca. Beersheba, to the west of Bab edh-Dhra, is situated where the eastern and western basins (kikars) of the Negev meet. "Kikar" in modern Hebrew refers to a circular space (a roundabout), suggesting a circular plain.

Collins does not believe that the Patriarchs can be dated with accuracy based on the chronologies of Genesis. However, analysis of the Genesis King Lists has confirmed that these Horite Hebrew rulers lived, married, and ruled over territories according to a pattern that can be traced to as early as 3300 B.C. among their Nilo-Saharan ancestors. Those ancestors are named in the king lists of Genesis 4, 5 and 10.


Related reading:  The Location of Sodom: Key Facts by Dr. David E. Graves; The Pan Grave Culture; The Genesis Record of Horite Rule; Was Keturah Abraham's Wife? Kushite Kingdom Building; Expedition to the Dead Sea Plain; Genesis on Homosex: Beyond Sodom; Sodom's Death and the Birth of Sons

Sodom's Death and the Birth of Sons

Alice C. Linsley

Sodom was a large city of the Plain well south of Mamre where Abraham pitched his tent between Ai (on the west) and Bethel (on the east).  Here in the heat of the day, Abraham was visited by the Three Person God (Baal Shalisha) who spoke to Abraham of the impending judgment of Sodom. The Septuagint adds Gomorrah to the narrative, but in the Masoretic Text, the focus is on Sodom because this is where Lot resided. Lot was Abraham's nephew, the son of Abraham's brother Haran.

The destruction of the city is described to Abraham in Genesis 18 and the city's is remembered by this description, which in Arabic is sdm, meaning "One who causes a collision with bad results".  Very likely the true name of the city has been lost. However, there is no reason to doubt that a major city existed in the area described. Canaan had many ancient shrine cities in the time of the Partiarchs. Some of these, such a Hazor, were overthrow in the time of Joshua.

The overthrow of the city and the angelic rescue of Lot and his family is described in chapter 19.  Chapters 18 and 19 have a chiastic structure (ABB'A').  The Jewish Study Bible gives this structure: 18:1-15, the annunciation of Issac's birth - A; 18:16-33, the annunication of Sodom's destruction - B; 19:1-29 the destruction of Sodom - B; and 19:30-38, the report of the birth of 2 sons to Lot.

This structure suggests that the narrative may originally have been from Lot's point of view rather than from Abraham's. Here Lot's two sons become the fathers of nations just as Abraham's son Isaac will become  the father of a nation. The theme of two sons for Lot and one son for Abraham seems to point to a tradition associated with Lot.

The suggestion that Lot's sons were the product of incest is likely a later addition to the text, intended to disgrace the Ammonite and Moabites. Or it may be that this carefully worded narrative is intended to deflect the drunken patriarch's sexual misbehavior upon his daughters. Genesis 19:8 says that Lot offered his daughters who "have never slept with a man" to the Sodomites. These were chaste young women. Sexually inexperienced.  It seems unlikely that they would have initiated sex with their father. This is not the first time that the drunken behavior of the father leads to a bad name for his children. We remember how Noah awoke from a drunken stupor and cursed Canaan (who wasn't born yet).  He did not curse his son Ham because Ham would become a ruler after Noah and the lines of Ham and Shem would intermarry.

Noah was angry because his son Ham had looked upon his nakedness. Jacob was angry because his son Reuben slept with his concubine. This "exposed" the father's nakedness.  Noah’s curse falls on Canaan, Ham’s son, which is a deflection of guilt. Jacob’s blessing of Joseph's sons places the youngest above the first-born. The excuse given for Jacob’s behavior is that he was blind. The excuse given for Noah’s behavior is that he was drunk. 

The curse of Canaan parallels the curse of Cain (Gen. 4:11). Cain’s curse involves his being expelled from his homeland. The curse of Canaan is intended to justify Israel’s driving out of the inhabitants of principal cities of the Canaanites. Many of these cities were shrine centers with Horite ruler-priests, also known as Ha-biru (Hebrew). Some of the Hebrew rulers married Canaanite woman who were also of the Horite ruler caste. This appears to be the case with Salmon, of the tribe of Judah, who married Rahab.

The chiastic structure place the destruction of the Sodomites between the promise of a son for Abraham and the birth of two sons to Lot.  Three sons represent a tribal confederation in Genesis, so the destruction of the cities of the Dead Sea Plain made way for these Horites to populate the area, which they did. Mount Harun was sacred to the Horites. (Har and Hur are related to the words Horim and Horite.)

The Cities of the Plain

The kingdoms of Moab and Ammon were in what is now central Jordan. Although not confirmed, the site of Sodom may be what remains of the ancient walled town of Numeira which was consumed by fire around 2350 BC. The town of Zoar, to which Lot fled, is south of Numeira.

Excavations over two seasons at Numeira uncovered the foundations of homes and the remains of a winery. Deuteronomy 32:32 refers to the vineyards of Sodom, "For their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter."

The cities of the plain had relatively large populations, as evidenced by the cemeteries found there.  The cemeteries of Numeria and Khanazir have not been located. The Early Bronze Age burial grounds at Safi and Feifa are as large as those found at Bab edh-Dhra which contains 500,000 bodies, some in shaft tombs dating to 3200 B.C. The number of burials in this area of the Dead Sea is greater than 1,500,000 bodies, indicating that this was a heavily populated area in the time of the Patriarchs.

Related reading:  Lot's Story; Lot's Daughters; Searching for Sodom; Genesis on Homosex: Beyond Sodom; Who Were the Canaanites?; Hazor's Destruction: Another Theory; Finding Sodom

Lot's Story

Alice C. Linsley

In Segment 1, we see that Abraham and Na'Hor are brothers and have the same mother. Abraham married his half-sister (Gen. 20:12). Her brother was Haran, named for his maternal grandfather, according to the cousin-bride's naming prerogative, a distinctive feature of the Hebrew marriage and ascendancy pattern.

In Segment 2, we see that Abraham also had two wives. Sarah was his half-sister (principal wife) and Keturah was his patrlineal cousin bride. Keturah named their first-born son Joktan after her father.

Lot's story begins when he leaves Haran with his uncle Abraham and aunt Sarah. Genesis 12:5 tells us that, "Abram took his wife, Sarai, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their wealth that they had amassed, and the souls they had made in Haran, and they left to go to the land of Canaan."

This departure was precipitated by the fact that Abraham's older brother, Nahor, had inherited the territory of their father, Terah. This was the ascendancy pattern of the Horite Hebrew (Habiru) ruler-priest caste to which Abraham belonged. The firstborn son of the sister-wife ascended to the throne of his biological father. So Isaac was Abraham's heir since Sarah was Abraham's half-sister. The firstborn son of the cousin/niece wife ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather, after whom he was named. So Joktan (Yaqtan), Abraham's firstborn by Keturah, served as a high ranking official in the territory of his maternal grandfather, Joktan the Elder, after whom he was named. This marriage and ascendancy pattern involving two wives and two first born sons is unique to the ancient Horite Hebrew and continued to New Testament times.

Lot's relationship to Abraham is explained earlier in Genesis 11:27 where we are told that he is the son of Haran, Sarah's brother who died in Ur. Sarah was Lot's closest blood relative, other than his sister, Milcah who married Abraham's brother, Nahor. The Horite Hebrew ruler-priest lines intermarried exclusively because they believed that the promise made to their ancestors in Eden (Gen. 3:15) concerning the birth of Messiah (the Seed of God) would be fulfilled through their people.


Lot's Father and Uncles

Lot's father was Haran, a son of the ruler-priest Terah. Haran was probably named for his maternal grandfather, Haran the Elder. Haran is also a place name designating a boundary of Haran the Elder's holdings in southern Turkey. Haran the Elder would have been a contemporary of Terah's father, Nahor.

Haran died in Ur of Chaldees and later his fatehr Terah died in Haran. Upon Terah's death, Nahor ruled over Terah's properties in Mesopotamia and Abraham became a Sent-away son. 

When Abraham left Haran, Lot traveled with him and his aunt Sarah to Canaan (Gen. 12:1). This is a turning point in biblical history. The calling of Abraham to Canaa would change history and Lot's story is an important sub-text in understanding that history.

Lot לוֹט

Lot's name means veil, hidden or covering. It is the same as the name Lotan, a son of Seir the Horite Hebrew chief of Edom (Gen. 36). One of Lot's royal kin was the Kushite ruler Nim-Lot. Min-Lot means the "waters of Lot." This refers to a 3-clan confederation of Ar, Arvd and Arkt. The last two clans are named in Genesis 10:15-17 and the clan of Ar is linked to Lot in Deuteronomy 2:9. This confederation appears to have had control of the entrance to the Mediterranean from the island kingdom at Arvad. It is an ancient confederation, dating to before Lot's time.

Analysis of the relationship between Abraham, Nahor and Lot indicates a pattern of marriage between patrilineal parallel cousins (clan endogamy) such as that found in Genesis 4 and 5 between the lies of Cain and Seth.

According to Genesis 22:20, Lot's sister married Nahor and gave birth to eight sons. The most notable of Milcah's sons was Kemuel the father of Aram.

Lot's regional identity was Aramean but he was ethnically Kushite. He and Abraham belonged to the Horite caste of ruler-priests who were devotees of Horus who was called "son of God."  One of Lot's daughters apparently married Seir the Horite (Gen. 36) and named their first-born Lotan after her father.


Lot in Canaan

There was little opportunity for Lot in Padan-Aram, Nahor's territory. Like Abraham, he would seek his fortune to the west, in Canaan. It is likely that Lot's wife traveled with them, though she is not mentioned until we come to the story of the pillar of salt (Gen. 18). There she disappears and is replaced by 2 women, much more typical of the kinship pattern of Abraham's people.

In Canaan, both Abraham and Lot and their flocks prospered to the point that they found it necessary to separate (Gen. 13). Lot looked upon the whole plain of the Jordan which appeared "like the garden of the Lord" (Gen. 13:10) and chose to move eastward toward the cities of the Plain.

Lot's status in Canaan was that of a wealthy stranger, like Abraham. He had herds and men to tend the herds, but he lived in a fine house in Sodom. The Sodomites refer to Lot as a sojourner among them who plays the role of judge (Gen. 18:9). He spent time at the town gate, where the elders of the city deliberated on important matters and settled disputes. But, it is evident that Lot did not consider it wise to be out after dark because he urges the angelic visitors to stay with him and to come quickly into his house.

According to Genesis 19:24-25, Sodom (Hebrew: סְדוֹם) was destroyed by fire and brimstone which rained down from heaven. This event is said to have coincided with Lot’s hospitality to angels. Sodom was one of several towns destroyed, but it is Sodom from which we receive the term ‘sodomy’.

The city of Sodom was located on a fault line along the eastern side of a plain south of the Dead Sea, so Clapp's theory is plausible. The biblical account of Sodom's destruction comes from Abraham’s vantage point. Genesis 19:28, tells us that Abraham “looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace." Dense smoke suggests a petroleum-based fire. Smoke rising as from a furnace indicates a forced draft, such as would be expected from fault lines where underground oil and gas deposits were under pressure. Clearly there was an explosion which carried brimstone into the air above the cities. 

As Lot flees with his family from Sodom, his wife is turned to a pillar of salt when she looked back. One need not take this literally. Jesus refers to this, not as an historical event, but to teach a lesson about discipleship (Luke 17:28-32). If this woman was Abraham's niece, we understand something of the urgency of Abraham's intercession for Lot and his family.

Outside of Sodom, a very different and credible picture of Lot emerges. Lot has 2 first-born sons: Moab and Ben-Ammi, making him a chief, like his grandfather Terah. The mothers of these sons were probably wives, not daughters, and they are more vital to ths history than Lot's wife turned to salt. 

The casting of the Moabites and the Ammonites as the fruit of incest is a tribal tale told to scorn other peoples. This story is the work of the same writer who told us about Noah becoming drunk and exposing himself to his sons (Gen. 9:21-27). These stories of drunken fathers are used to bolster claims of one people over another by denigrating their ancestors and their religion. Whenever this happens, God overrules. According to Deuteronomy 23:3, no descendant of Moab was allowed in the assembly of Israel, yet David appeared in the assembly and he is a descendant of Moab by Ruth.

Lot is an interesting character, both the brunt of tribal scorn and the founder of great nations. Like Abraham, he was a wealthy sojourner in Canaan who God helped in the day of trouble. As with Abraham, God gave territory to Lot and intended that Lot's territory remain with his descendants. In Deuteronomy 2:9, we read "And the LORD said unto me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give thee of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for a possession." 

Again in Deuteronomy 2:19, we read: "And when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon, distress them not, nor meddle with them: for I will not give thee of the land of the children of Ammon any possession; because I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession."

Also like Abraham, Lot's house would be blessed through his descendants, one of whom was to be David, Israel's greatest king. David was the descendant of the Moabite Ruth and the Moabite were descendants of Lot, the Horite Hebrew.


Related reading: Abraham's Intercession for Lot; Lot's Daughters; Two Passovers and Two Drunken Fathers; Terah Means Priest