Lot לוט
Avraham's nephew, saved from Sodom
Lot is the son of Haran, Avraham's brother who died in Ur Kasdim. He travels with his uncle to Canaan and shares his wandering and his wealth. When their herdsmen quarrel, Avraham offers to separate; Lot lifts his eyes, sees the Jordan plain "like the garden of the Lord", and chooses it. The Torah adds only: "and the men of Sodom were very wicked".
He is taken captive in the war of the four kings, and Avraham marches to free him. When Sodom is condemned, the angels lead Lot, his wife and two daughters out almost by force: "he lingered, and they seized his hand". His wife looks back and becomes a pillar of salt.
In a cave above Tzoar comes the last, grim episode: his daughters, believing the world has ended, make him drunk, and Moav and Amon are born. The sages do not excuse it, but note the outcome: from Moav comes Ruth, and from Ruth King David.
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Tanakh
- Bereishit 11–14; 19 — the departure with Avraham, the choice of Sodom, the captivity and the rescue
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Bereishit Rabbah 41, 50–51 — the midrashim about Lot and about his daughters
- Nazir 23a — “from a good motive or an evil one” — the discussion of the daughters’ act
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.