A Biography of Lot

(8) One who witnesses Lot's wife pronounces two blessings: upon her, he says: "Blessed are you, oh G-d, King of the Universe, the True Judge", and upon Lot, he says "Blessed are you, oh G-d, King of the Universe, He who remembers the righteous".

Over Lot and his wife one recites two blessings. Over his wife he recites: Blessed…the true Judge, and on Lot he recites: Blessed…Who remembers the righteous.

As Rabbi Yoḥanan said: From the story of Lot it is possible to learn that even during a time of wrath of the Holy One, Blessed be He, He remembers the righteous, as it is stated: “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 which Lot dwelt” (Genesis 19:29).

(27) Now this is the line of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begot Lot. (28) Haran died in the lifetime of his father Terah, in his native land, Ur of the Chaldeans. (29) Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves.... (31) Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan; but when they had come as far as Haran, they settled there. (32) The days of Terah came to 205 years; and Terah died in Haran.

(1) יהוה said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. (2) I will make of you a great nation, And I will bless you;
I will make your name great, And you shall be a blessing....
(4) Abram went forth as יהוה had commanded him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. (5) Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the wealth that they had amassed, and the persons that they had acquired in Haran; and they set out for the land of Canaan.

(1) From Egypt, Abram went up into the Negeb, with his wife and all that he possessed, together with Lot....

7) And there was quarreling between the herders of Abram’s cattle and those of Lot’s cattle.... (8) Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, between my herders and yours, for we are kin. (9) Is not the whole land before you? Let us separate; if you go north, I will go south; and if you go south, I will go north.”

(10) Lot looked about him and saw how well watered was the whole plain of the Jordan, all of it—this was before יהוה had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah—all the way to Zoar, like the garden of יהוה, like the land of Egypt. (11) So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward. Thus they parted from each other;

(12) They also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, and his possessions, and departed; for he had settled in Sodom. (13) A fugitive brought the news to Abram the Hebrew.... (14) When Abram heard that his kinsman’s [household] had been taken captive, he mustered his retainers, born into his household.... and he pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus. (16) He brought back all the possessions; he also brought back his kinsman Lot and his possessions, and the women and the rest of the people.

(17) When he returned from defeating Chedorlaomer...the king of Sodom came out to meet him.... (18) And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was a priest of God Most High. (19) He blessed him, saying,
“Blessed be Abram of God Most High,
Creator of heaven and earth.
(20) And blessed be God Most High,
Who has delivered your foes into your hand.” And [Abram] gave him a tenth of everything.

(1) The two messengers arrived in Sodom in the evening, as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to greet them and, bowing low with his face to the ground, (2) he said, “Please, my lords, turn aside to your servant’s house to spend the night, and bathe your feet; then you may be on your way early.” But they said, “No, we will spend the night in the square.” (3) But he urged them strongly, so they turned his way and entered his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. (4) They had not yet lain down, when the town council [and] the militia of Sodom—insignificant and influential alike, the whole assembly without exception—gathered about the house. (5) And they shouted to Lot and said to him, “Where are the ones who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may be intimate with I.e., humiliate. them.” (6) So Lot went out to them to the entrance, shut the door behind him, (7) and said, “I beg you, my friends, do not commit such a wrong. (8) Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you please; but do not do anything to the others, since they have come under the shelter of my roof.” (9) But they said, “Stand back! The fellow,” they said, “came here as an alien, and already he acts the ruler! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” And they pressed hard against that householder —against Lot—and moved forward to break the door. (10) But the agents stretched out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. (11) And the people who were at the entrance of the house, low and high alike, they struck with blinding light, so that they were helpless to find the entrance.

(12) Then the agents said to Lot, “Whom else have you here? Sons-in-law, your sons and daughters, or anyone else that you have in the city—bring them out of the place. (13) For we are about to destroy this place; because the outcry against them before יהוה has become so great that יהוה has sent us to destroy it.” (14) So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, “Up, get out of this place, for יהוה is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law as one who jests. (15) As dawn broke, the messengers urged Lot on, saying, “Up, take your wife and your two remaining daughters, lest you be swept away because of the iniquity of the city.” (16) Still he delayed. So the agents seized his hand, and the hands of his wife and his two daughters—in יהוה’s mercy on him—and brought him out and left him outside the city. (17) When they had brought them outside, one said, “Flee for your life! Do not look behind you, nor stop anywhere in the Plain; flee to the hills, lest you be swept away.”

(18) But Lot said to them, “Oh no, my lord! (19) You have been so gracious to your servant, and have already shown me so much kindness in order to save my life; but I cannot flee to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die....

(24) יהוה rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah sulfurous fire from יהוה out of heaven— (25) annihilating those cities and the entire Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation of the ground. (26) Lot’s wife looked back, and she thereupon turned into a pillar of salt.... (29) Thus it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the Plain and annihilated the cities where Lot dwelt, God was mindful of Abraham and removed Lot from the midst of the upheaval.

(30) Lot went up from Zoar and settled in the hill country with his two daughters, for he was afraid to dwell in Zoar; and he and his two daughters lived in a cave. (31) And the older one said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to consort with us in the way of all the world. (32) Come, let us make our father drink wine, and let us lie with him, that we may maintain life through our father.” (33) That night they made their father drink wine, and the older one went in and lay with her father; he did not know when she lay down or when she rose. (34) The next day the older one said to the younger, “See, I lay with Father last night; let us make him drink wine tonight also, and you go and lie with him, that we may maintain life through our father.” (35) That night also they made their father drink wine, and the younger one went and lay with him; he did not know when she lay down or when she rose. (36) Thus the two daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. (37) The older one bore a son and named him Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today. (38) And the younger also bore a son, and she called him Ben-ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites of today.

(4) No Ammonite or Moabite shall be admitted into the congregation of יהוה; no descendants of such, even in the tenth generation, shall ever be admitted into the congregation of יהוה, (5) because they did not meet you with food and water on your journey after you left Egypt, and because they hired Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor of Aram-naharaim, to curse you.— (6) But your God יהוה refused to heed Balaam; instead, your God יהוה turned the curse into a blessing for you, for your God יהוה loves you.— (7) You shall never concern yourself with their welfare or benefit as long as you live.