Lot
Israelite / Jew Hebrew family of Terah (nephew of Abraham); father of Moab and Ammon · Creation & Patriarchs · Old Testament
- Name means
- Covering; veil (commonly given)
- Role
- Nephew of Abraham, rescued from Sodom
- When
- c. 2000 BC (traditional)
What they did
Travelled with Abram to Canaan, then chose the well-watered plain and settled in Sodom. Angels led him out before God destroyed the city; his wife looked back and became a pillar of salt.
Why it matters: the purpose of their role
God remembered Abraham and delivered 'just Lot' (2 Peter 2:7), showing that He knows how to rescue the godly from judgment. Jesus pointed to his days as a warning to be ready.
And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: 2 Peter 2:7 (KJV)
Bible references
So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came. Genesis 12:4-5 (KJV)
And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other. Genesis 13:10-11 (KJV)
And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city. Genesis 19:15-16 (KJV)
And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt. Genesis 19:29 (KJV)
Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot’s wife. Luke 17:28-32 (KJV)
And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: 2 Peter 2:7 (KJV)
Family
- Father
- Haran
- Spouse(s)
- Unnamed wife
- Children
- Two daughters (unnamed)
- Brothers / sisters
- Milcah, Iscah
His grandsons by his daughters were Moab and Ben-ammi, fathers of the Moabites and Ammonites (Genesis 19:37-38).