There are many accounts in the Bible that are deeply disturbing. We read the words on the printed page and react in some way. How we react depends upon many factors – our view of the Bible, its author and its message, and how we have been conditioned by the sensitivities of modern life. However it is worth remembering, in the spirit of John 21:25, that the Bible presents just what we need know, just what is relevant to its central theme. It does not provide us with every minor detail in a gratuitous attempt to satisfy our entire curiosity. That would be practically impossible. We can therefore either throw it out in disgust or we can investigate, delve and discuss. There is always more between the lines.
One such account is that of the escape of Lot from Sodom, a wealthy yet deeply immoral city where men were gross sinners against Jehovah. We wonder why he was there in the first place. Why did he offer up his daughters to rape in order to protect two unknown visitors from a rampant, homosexual mob? Did his wife really deserve to die for looking back? Why did she look back? Lot departs from the Biblical narrative dwelling in a cave, and having had incestuous relations with his daughters whilst in a drunken stupor. It sounds ghastly. Yet centuries later Peter recalls Lot, three times referring to him as a righteous man (2 Peter 2:4-9). There must be more to the story of Lot than meets the eye. So let’s suppose.
Exactly who was Lot’s wife? We don’t know. We are not told, but she could be the key to an explanation that, whilst not making everything wonderful, at least makes things less awful. We’ll return to her shortly. Firstly, let’s recall Lot’s history from what we are told.
And that’s it! Lot exits the story never to return. So let’s summarise the account. Lot, his herdsmen and flocks have parted from Abram and headed off towards Sodom. At some point he moves into Sodom, from where he and his goods are captured. He is rescued and returned to Sodom and now it is time for the city to be destroyed. This whole narrative covers twenty four years, during which Lot and Abram were separated for at least fourteen. In Genesis 19:9 the mob note that ‘this lone man came here to reside as an alien’. So the question is: was Lot married before he left Abram or did he move into Sodom to marry a woman of the city, possibly a widow with children from a previous marriage? When Abram rescued Lot, why would the king of Sodom have been so keen to have the people back if they were all Abram’s family members? Perhaps Mrs Lot and her offspring were all citizens of Sodom. If this is true, they would probably have been old enough to be engaged to marry. Had Lot, his wife and children all been pre-Israelites (Tehrahites) existing as a family unit prior to the split, would he really have consented to their absorption into Sodomite culture by marriage, given that ‘he was tormenting his righteous soul by reason of their lawless deeds’? If his family were all Sodomites, maybe he had diminished authority over their choices of association. Had they been born in Sodom as Lot’s natural progeny there appears to be insufficient time for them to have reached an age of maturity. Surely then he would have had the natural paternal authority to move his family on before this climactic moment arrived. Does this help?
There is therefore a possibility that Lot could have been a step-father. Linguistically, the Hebrew allows for this. The word for father is ab. According to Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament this word primarily designates ‘begetter’. Most instances refer to a literal father, but may designate any man who occupies a position similar to that of a father. A grandfather, step-father, father of a nation, father figure… Hence the names Ab-ram, ‘father is exalted’, and Ab-raham, ‘father of a multitude’. The other relationships such as mother, son, daughter can be used similarly. How many [step] children might Lot have had? The angels refer to a singular son-in-law. Does that propose a third daughter who was already married? It mentions sons. How many is unspecified. Next, a collective ‘and all who are yours’. A widow with a large family to care for would no doubt have been keen to make the acquaintance of a wealthy stranger, newly in town. How many family members did Lot lose in this tragedy? One hopes that the angels knew the extent of Lot’s family rather than making suggestive enquiries. But then again, Lot spoke a warning only to his two prospective sons-in-law. Does that indicate that the others did not exist, or that they were beyond redemption? It is little wonder that he ‘was tormenting his righteous soul’!
In offering his [step] daughters to the frenzied mob, maybe Lot knew that they would be perfectly safe. They were locals and engaged to local men. Would the mob really rape their own kin’s people? Jesus later noted that the world is fond of its own (John 15:19). Why was Lot’s wife punished so harshly for looking back? It has been suggested that she was attached more to the comforts and life-style of city life than to her god Jehovah. If, on the other hand, she was a Sodomite and not a worshipper of Jehovah, then she would have been looking back and seeing her home town, her heritage, her culture and her extended family all being destroyed. If she was not in agreement with the judgement, she needed to be part of it.
When the daughters proposed sex and alcohol in the cave, this might have been a perfectly normal thing for Sodomites to do. Yes, it was immoral – isn’t that why their city was destroyed? - but at least this explanation removes the charge of incest. Not that that condones a bad idea. The result was the Moabites and the Ammonites, both nations proving, in later times, to be a thorn in the side of Israel. Nevertheless, Jehovah still showed regard for Lot when, in Deuteronomy chapter two, he instructed the Israelites not to engage or molest Moab and Ammon because of their forefather and his God-given inheritance.
None of the above is proven or not proven. The linguistics are disinterested. We are not told when Lot married and to whom. Lot’s wife just appears and dies. That is all we actually know. But by thinking laterally, reading between the lines and delving into the constructs of the language, a slightly better, or less bad, interpretation can be proposed. And we can have a bit of fun in so doing.
There is a final lesson. Abram and Lot parted ways in an attempt to preserve their combined wealth. Lot chose an affluent neighbourhood. It was a disastrous choice. He lost everything – his wife, wealth and home. Becoming a cave dweller is not an auspicious end for a once-wealthy man. He pleaded with Jehovah not to send him into the mountains. Jehovah acquiesced, allowing him to live in Zoar, thus sparing that city on Lot’s account. But life there proved to be a fearful experience and Lot went to the mountains anyway. Jehovah always knows best!
Back