LOT AND LOT'S WIFE

When Abraham first left his homeland of Ur, he was accompanied by his nephew Lot. Later, Lot continued with him to Canaan, but once established there, they separated: Lot took the fertile land of the Jordan valley, settling in Sodom, while Abraham stayed in the territory to the west (Gen. 13:8-12).

Despite this separation, Abraham continued to look after his nephew. When Lot was taken prisoner in the war that broke out between the city-states of the Jordan valley and their eastern overlords (Genesis 14), Abraham went into battle to free him. Later, when God announced to Abraham that He was going to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their "wickedness" (Gen. 18:16-33), Abraham intervened to try to save them--presumably on Lot's account. Lot was indeed saved, but the whole region was scourged; when Lot's wife looked backward, she became a pillar of salt. Later, in their place of refuge, Lot's daughters conspired to get their father drunk so that they might have relations with him. From the resulting pregnancies were born the ancestors of two nations, Ammon and Moab.

It was hard for interpreters to know what to make of Lot. Was he good or bad? On the one hand, he was Abraham's nephew, and like Abraham, he had willingly left Ur and its presumed evils--this certainly made him sound good. Moreover, when Abraham pleaded with God to spare Sodom, he did so on the grounds that destroying the city might mean killing the righteous along with the wicked. Presumably, Lot was among these "righteous"--and, in fact, God then did send angels specifically to get Lot and his family out of Sodom before its destruction. So here too was an indication that Lot was good.

On the other hand, some of Lot's deeds were questionable at best. Given a choice of where to live in Canaan, he had moved right into Sodom. The Bible narrates the event in these terms:

So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan valley, and Lot journeyed to the east; thus they separated from each other. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, while Lot dwelt among the cities of the valley and moved his tent up to Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were evil and very sinful against God.

--Gen. 13:11-13

If the text observes (quite needlessly, at this point in the story) that the men of Sodom were evil sinners, then why did Lot move in with them? Certainly he could have pitched his tent elsewhere in the valley. Perhaps, after all, he was not much better than the wicked men of Sodom, whom, at one point later on, he addresses as "my brothers" (Gen. 19:7). And although Lot is saved from Sodom before its destruction, his subsequent doings are hardly exemplary. He ends up having relations with his two daughters, who get him drunk for the occasion, and the two sons born from these shameful unions end up being the ancestors of the Ammonites and Moabites, the only two peoples whom God specifically excluded from the "assembly of the Lord" (Deut. 23:3). None of this, needless to say, reflects very well on Lot.

Lot the Righteous

Wisdom rescued a righteous man when the ungodly were perishing; he escaped the fire that descended on the Five Cities. Evidence of their wickedness still remains: a continually smoking wasteland, plants bearing fruit that does not ripen, and a pillar of salt standing as a monument to an unbelieving soul. For because they passed wisdom by, they not only were prevented from recognizing the good, but also left for mankind a reminder of their folly, so that their faults would not be able to pass unseen.

--Wisd. 10:6-8

[You are] the one who kindled the fearful fire against the five cities of Sodom, and turned a fruitful land into salt because of those living in it, and snatched away pious Lot from the burning.

--Hellenistic Synagogal Prayer, Apostolic Constitutions 8.12: 22

"He who walks with wise men becomes wise..."[Prov. 13:20]. This refers to Lot, who accompanied our father Abraham and learned from his good deeds and ways.

--Pirqei deR. Eliezer 25

Lot was a wholly righteous man, but since he did not study [Torah], Abraham did not wish to be his neighbor and said to him, "Depart now from me" [Gen. 13:9].

--Alphabet of Ben Sira 268

This tradition of "Lot the Righteous" is likewise found in early Christian sources. Some Christians saw in Lot yet another biblical figure who, while uncircumcised and not part of Israel, was nonetheless blessed:

By turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, He [God] condemned them to extinction and made them an example to those who were to be ungodly; and...He rescued the righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the wicked (for by what that righteous man saw and heard as he lived among them, he was vexed in his righteous soul day after day with their lawless deeds).

--2 Pet. 2:6-8

Because of his hospitality and piety, Lot was saved from Sodom.

--1 Clement 11:1

Lot was saved out of Sodom without circumcision, when those very angels and the Lord led him forth.

--Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 19:4

[Paul recalls:] When these had passed on I saw another with a beautiful face and I asked, "Who is this, sir?"...And he said to me, "This is Lot who was found righteous in Sodom."

--Apocalypse of Paul 27

In Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot was righteous.

--(Armenian) Story of Noah (in Stone, Armenian Apocrypha, 93)

Lot also appears in the Qur'an as a righteous figure:

And behold, Lot also was one of those who had been [divinely] sent, and We saved him and his household, every one, except for an old woman [Lot's wife] who stayed behind.

--Qur'an 37:132-134

Lot the Wicked

A great many other interpreters nonetheless found Lot to be a less than positive figure. If he was saved in the destruction of Sodom, perhaps (as Gen. 19:29 seemed to imply) it was only because of Abraham's earlier supplications, or because of Abraham's own moral stature:

And in like manner, God will execute judgment on the places where they have done according to the uncleanness of the Sodomites, just as the judgment of Sodom. But Lot we [the angels] saved; for God remembered Abraham, and sent him out of the midst of the overthrow.

And he [Lot] and his daughters committed sin upon the earth, such as had not been on the earth since the days of Adam till his time; for the man lay with his daughters.

--Jubilees 16:6-8

For Lot was saved not for his own sake so much as for the sake of the wise man, Abraham, for the latter had offered prayers for him.

--Philo, Questions and Answers in Genesis 4:54

If he was able to escape Sodom, as Scripture indicates, he owed this more to Abraham's merits than his own.

--Origen, Homilies on Genesis 5:3

And when the Lord was destroying the cities of the plain, the Lord remembered Abraham's merit and He sent forth Lot from the midst of the destruction.

--Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Gen. 19:29

When the angels overthrew Sodom and saved him [Lot] because of Abraham's merit, they said to him "Escape to the mountain lest you perish" [Gen. 19:17], [meaning that] by the merit of that great mountain Abraham you have escaped; now go to him.

--Pesiqta Rabbati, Bayyom ha-shemini 3

As mentioned earlier, the fact that Lot chose to live in Sodom certainly seemed suspicious. But even his earlier decision to separate from Abraham--caused, the Bible says, by strife between their own shepherds (Gen. 13:7)--did not reflect well on Lot:

[Abraham recounts:] After that day, Lot departed from me because of the deeds of our shepherds. And he departed and settled in the valley of Jordan, taking all his riches with him; and I myself added much to his possessions. As for him, he grazed his flocks and came to Sodom. At Sodom, he bought for himself a house and lived in it. And I lived on the mountain of Bethel. And I was disturbed that my nephew Lot had parted from me.

--Genesis Apocryphon 21:5-7

[Lot] was an unsteady and indecisive person, turning this way and that, sometimes fawning on him [Abraham] with loving embrace, sometimes rebellious and refractory through the instability of his character.

--Philo, Abraham 212( also Questions and Answers in Genesis 4:47)

It is written, "And there was strife between Abraham's shepherds and Lot's" [Gen. 13:71. And why did they strive with each other? When a man [that is, Abraham] is righteous, then the members of his household are likewise righteous...but when a man is wicked [like Lot], then the members of his household are likewise wicked.

[Later,] God said to them [Lot's shepherds]: I said to Abraham that I would give this land to his sons--to his sons and not to that wicked man [Lot] as you suppose.

--Pesiqta Rabbati, Bayyom ha-shemini 3

When he [Lot] separated from Abraham, Scripture says, "And Lot chose for himself all the Jordan valley" [Gen. 13:11] --that is, Sodom. For Lot saw that the people of Sodom were plunged in wantonness and he chose Sodom so that he might do as they did. Similarly, Lot [later] says to the men of Sodom, "Behold, I have two daughters..." Normally, a man will sacrifice himself for his daughters or his wife: either he kills or is killed [on their behalf]. But Lot was ready to turn over his daughters to them for iniquity! Said God to him: Well then, you can keep them for yourself, and eventually little schoolchildren will laugh about you when they read, "And Lot's two daughters became pregnant from their father" [Gen. 19:36].

--Midrash Tanhuma, Vayyera 12

Sodomites' Sexual Sins

If early interpreters were thus somewhat divided about Lot, they were equally perplexed about the city of Sodom. God destroyed it because of the terrible things that were being done there--but what exactly were those things? Strangely, the Genesis narrative does not say. The men of Sodom are said to be "evil and very sinful" (Gen. 13:13), and at one point God observes that the Sodomites' "sin is very grave" (Gen. 18:20), but that is all we are told.

To some interpreters Sodom's sin seemed clear enough: homosexual practices. After all, when the angels sent by God arrived at Lot's house, "the men of Sodom, both young and old, every one of them" (Gen. 19:4) came to surround the house and demanded to have sexual relations with them. Was this not clear proof that the unnamed sin of the Sodomites consisted of just such practices (later known, as a result, by the word "sodomy")?

In addition to specifically homosexual practices, some interpreters attributed to the Sodomites other, heterosexual sins, specifically, adultery and fornication. The reason is a certain verse in the book of Jeremiah:

They [Jerusalemite prophets] commit adultery and deal falsely and encourage evildoers, so that no one repents--they are all like Sodom to me.

--Jer. 23:14

If God equated adulterers in Jerusalem to the people of Sodom, then it followed that the latter were no less guilty of adultery than of homosexual acts. As a result, Sodom came to be known generally as a place of sexual profligacy:

And in this month the Lord executed his judgments on Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Zeboim, and all the region of the Jordan, and He burned them with fire and brimstone, and destroyed them until this day, even as I have declared to you all their works, that they are wicked and exceedingly sinful, and that they defile themselves and commit fornication in the flesh, and work uncleanness on the earth. And in like manner, God will execute judgment on the places where they have done according to the uncleanness of the Sodomites, just as the judgment of Sodom.

[Later on,] he [Abraham] told them [his descendants] about the punishment of the giants and the punishment of Sodom--how they were condemned because of their wickedness; because of the sexual impurity, uncleanness, and corruption among themselves they died in sexual impurity.

--Jubilees 16:5-6, 20:5

You make married women impure, you lie with whores and adulteresses, you marry heathen women, and your sexual relations will be like Sodom and Gomorrah.

--Testament of Levi 14:6

My children, recognize in the skies, in the earth, and in the sea, and in all created things, the Lord who made all things, so that you do not become as Sodom, which changed the order of nature.

--Testament of Naphtali 3:4

You shall commit fornication with the fornication of Sodom, and shall perish, all save a few, and shall renew wanton deeds with women.

--Testament of Benjamin 9:1

And made them an example to those who were to be ungodly; and...He rescued the righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the wicked.

--2 Pet. 2:6-7

...just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise acted immorally and indulged in unnatural lust, serving as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

--Jude 7

The whole region of that irreligious city was destroyed, where lewdness between males had become as habitual as other deeds that the law declares permissible.

--Augustine, City of God 16.30

The Proud and the Stingy

Interestingly, however, there was another tradition that held that the Sodomites' sin actually had nothing to do with homosexual acts or adultery or fornication. Instead, their fault was pride or stinginess, an unwillingness to help the unfortunate of this world.

The origin of this other tradition is not hard to find. It comes from a passage in the book of Ezekiel, where the prophet compares the people's sins to those famous sins of the (now defunct) people of Sodom:

Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, surfeit of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty, and did abominable things before Me; therefore I removed them when I saw it.

--Ezek. 16:49-50

According to this list, it was primarily the Sodomites' pride and their failure to aid the poor amidst their own prosperity that caused God to smite them. (The "abominable things" may also refer to Sodom's licentiousness, but this is not certain.)

As a result, a great many interpreters read the story of Lot quite differently. He had settled in a city of haughty, wealthy, but inhospitable and tight-fisted people. In such circumstances, Lot was, if anything, a victim of the Sodomites, since, as a newcomer and a stranger, he was likely to suffer from their lack of hospitality.

He did not spare the neighbors of Lot, whose arrogance made them hateful.

--Sir. 16:8

You [O God] burned with fire and brimstone the arrogant Sodomites, who were unseen in their vices, and you made them an example to posterity.

--3 Macc. 2:5

Others [the Sodomites] had refused to receive strangers when they came to them.

--Wisd. 19:14

Now, about this time the Sodomites, overweeningly proud of their numbers and the extent of their wealth, showed themselves insolent to men and impious to the Divinity, insomuch that they no more remembered the benefits that they had received from Him, hated foreigners and avoided any contact with others. Indignant at this conduct, God accordingly resolved to chastise them for their arrogance, and not only to uproot their city, but to blast their land so completely that it should yield neither plant nor fruit whatsoever from that time forward.

--Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 1:194-195

[Jesus tells his disciples:] And if anyone does not receive you [that is, fails to be hospitable]...truly I say to you it shall be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.

--Matt. 10:14-15

Someone who says, "What is mine is mine and what is yours is yours" [that is, who is unwilling to be generous]...this is the disposition [characteristic] of Sodom.

--m. Abot 5:10

R. Yehudah said: They announced in Sodom that anyone who gave bread to the poor, the sojourner or the destitute would be burned. Now, Pelotit was Lot's daughter and she was married to one of the leaders of Sodom. She saw a poor man afflicted in the public square and she was sorely grieved for him. What did she do? Every day, when she went to draw water, she would take some food from her house and put it in her pitcher, and so would feed the poor man. The people of Sodom wondered: how is this poor man managing to live? When they found out, they took [the woman] to be burned.

--Pirqei deR. Eliezer 25

But what were the Sodomites really guilty of, fornication or arrogance and stinginess in the midst of their prosperity? Perhaps it was an of these.

The region of the Sodomites...was laden with innumerable injustices, especially those arising from gluttony and lust...The cause of this excess in licentiousness among the inhabitants was the unfailing abundance of their wealth, for, provided with deep soil and ample water, this region every year enjoyed a harvest of all manner of crops...They threw off from their necks the law of nature by indulging in strong drink, rich food, and forbidden forms of intercourse.

--Philo, Abraham 134-135

Indeed, the fact that the Bible seemed to contain an unnecessary duplication in its description of the Sodomites--they are said to be both "wicked" and "sinful" (Gen. 13:13)--might in itself be a subtle hint that two entirely different and unrelated sorts of sins were involved:

Now the men of Sodom were wicked with their wealth, and they were sinful with their bodies before the Lord, exceedingly.

--Targum Onqelos Gen. 13:13

And the people of Sodom were wicked toward one another and sinful with sexual sins and bloodshed and idolatry before the Lord, exceedingly.

--Targum Neophyti Gen. 13:13

Abraham's Hospitality

Being stingy and unhospitable, especially to strangers, was no small matter. From ancient times, this had been considered a particularly grave fault. Indeed, the Sodomites' stinginess (if that was in fact their crime) stood in sharp contrast to Abraham's behavior. For he was celebrated among early interpreters for his generosity, especially to strangers.

This tradition derives mainly from the description of Abraham's generosity when he encounters God's angels on their way to destroy Sodom. The incident begins as follows:

And God appeared to him [Abraham] at the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. And he lifted up his eyes and saw three men standing near him; and when he saw he ran from the door of the tent to meet them, and he bowed down to the ground. He said: "My lords, if I have found favor with you, please do not depart from your servant. Let a little water be taken to wash your feet, and take your rest under the tree, while I fetch some bread so that you may sate yourselves, after which you may continue on--since, after all, you have stopped by your servant's place. They answered: "Do indeed as you have said." So Abraham hastened to Sarah in the tent, and said, "Hurry! Knead three measures of fine flour and make cakes!" Then Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and goodly, and gave it to his servant-boy, who hastened to slaughter it. Next he took butter and milk, and the calf that had been slaughtered, and he served it to them. Then he stood near them under a tree while they ate.

--Gen. 18:1-8

The whole lesson of this lengthy passage (and why was such a detailed description necessary if it were not in order to teach some lesson?) seemed to be that hospitality and generosity to strangers are a great virtue. Thus, seeing the three strangers (who later turn out to be angels and no mere mortals, Gen. 19:1), Abraham immediately offers them every courtesy. He runs to meet them and with exceeding humility begs them to take a meal; the passage then stresses how he and his household hurry lest these guests be kept waiting one extra moment.

For interpreters, all this was an indication that Abraham was a man of extraordinary generosity, in particular with regard to strangers:

That [Abraham] had a multitude of servants is clear...[Yet] he himself becomes as an attendant and a servant [to the visiting angels] in order to show his hospitality.

--Philo, Questions and Answers in Genesis 4:10 (also Abraham 107-114)

All the years of his life he [Abraham] lived in quietness, gentleness, and righteousness, and the righteous man was very hospitable. For he pitched his tent at the crossroads of the oak of Mamre and welcomed everyone--rich and poor, kings and rulers, the crippled and the helpless, friends and strangers, neighbors and passersby--[all] on equal terms did the pious, entirely holy, righteous, and hospitable Abraham welcome.

--Testament of Abraham (A) 1:1-2

0 my sons, be generous to strangers and you will be given exactly what was given to the great Abraham, the father of fathers, and to our father Isaac, his son.

--Testament of Jacob 7:22

And remember always to welcome strangers, for by doing this, some people have entertained angels without knowing it.

--Heb. 13:2

Abraham...used to go out and look all around and when he would find travelers he would invite them into his house. To someone who was not used to eating wheat bread he would [nonetheless] give him wheat bread, to someone who was not used to eating meat he would give meat, and to someone who was not accustomed to drink wine he would nonetheless give wine. Moreover, he went and built for himself a large mansion on the road and would leave food and drink there so that anyone who came by would enter and eat and drink and bless God, and that gave him [Abraham] great satisfaction.

--Abot deR. Natan (A) 7

Lot Learned from Abraham

But the angels came to the city of the Sodomites and Lot invited them to be his guests, for he was very kindly to strangers and had learned the lesson of Abraham's generosity.

--Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 1:200

Because of his hospitality and piety, Lot was saved from Sodom.

--1 Clement 11:1

"He who walks with wise men becomes wise..." [Prov. 13:20]. This refers to Lot, who accompanied our father Abraham and learned from his good deeds and ways.

--Pirqei deR. Eliezer 25

Lot's Wife Sinned

But Lot's wife, who during the flight was continually turning round towards the city, overly curious about it, notwithstanding God's prohibition of such action, was changed into a pillar of salt.

--Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 1:203

And since Lot's wife was a descendant of the people of Sodom, she looked back to see what ultimately would happen to her father's house. And she remains a pillar of salt until the time of the resurrection of the dead.

--Targum Neophyti Gen. 19:26

Remember Lot's wife: Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it.

--Luke 17:32-33

Lot was saved from Sodom, when the entire region was judged by fire and brimstone. In this way the Master clearly demonstrated that He does not forsake those who hope in him, but destines to punishment and torment those who turn aside. Of this his wife was destined to be a sign, for after leaving with him she changed her mind and no longer agreed, and as a result she became a pillar of salt to this day, that it might be known to all that those who are of two minds and those who question the power of God fall under judgment and become a warning to all generations.

--Clement 11:1-2

[She] serves as a solemn and sacred warning that no one who starts out on the path of salvation should ever yearn for the things that he has left behind.

--Augustine, City of God l0.8

A Visible Reminder

The inhabitants of this region had sinned; they should have been punished, by all means. But was that a reason for God to blight the landscape forever, turning what once was a flourishing and rich valley into a smoldering wasteland? The biblical narrative offered no explanation, but it was not hard for interpreters to come up with one. If the land itself had been destroyed forever, was this not so that the area would stand as a visible token, a vivid reminder for later generations of what can befall those who defy God's word?

[Sodom and environs] were turned into a smoking waste as a testimony to their wickedness; with plants that bear fruit before they ripen, and a pillar of salt standing there as a memorial of an unbelieving soul. For having passed Wisdom by, they were not only distracted from a knowledge of the good, but also left behind for the world a monument of their folly, so that they were unable to go undetected in their failure.

--Wisd. 10:7-8

And to this day it goes on burning...a monument of the disastrous event...providing proof of the sentence decreed by the divine judgment.

--Philo, Abraham 141

By turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, He [God] condemned them to extinction and made them an example to those who were to be ungodly.

--2 Pet. 2:6

Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities...serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

--Jude 7

You [O God] burned with fire and brimstone the arrogant Sodomites, who were unseen in their vices, and You made them an example to posterity.

--3 Macc. 2:5

[Lot's wife] was changed to a pillar of salt: I have seen this pillar, which remains to this day.

--Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 203

Of this his wife was destined to be a sign, for after leaving with him she changed her mind and no longer agreed, and as a result she became a pillar of salt to this day.

--1 Clement 11:1-2

For what is to be learned from the fact that those who were rescued by the angels were then forbidden to look back--if not that a soul ought not to return to its old life after it has been freed from it through grace?...Hence, Lot's wife remained [fixed] where she looked back, and she was turned into salt in order to supply men of faith with a grain of wisdom, serving as an example of that of which they are to beware.

--Augustine, City of God 26:30

Lot's Daughters Meant Well

And [Lot] and his daughters committed sin upon the earth, such as had not been on the earth since the days of Adam till his time; for the man lay with his daughters. And behold, it was commanded and engraved concerning all his seed, on the heavenly tablets, to remove them and root them out, and to execute judgment upon them like the judgment of Sodom, and to leave no seed of the man on earth on the day of condemnation.

--Jubilees 16:8-9

It is interesting, however, that some interpreters seized upon a detail in the biblical text to defend the daughters' actions. For when the daughters resolve to do this deed, it is because the older says to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come to us after the manner of all the earth" (Gen. 19:31). Now, in context, this seems to mean merely that Lot's daughters, dwelling alone in an isolated mountain cave with their father (Gen. 19:30), had no one ("not a man on earth") to turn to for a mate. But perhaps the expression "not a man on earth" meant more:

These virgins, because of their ignorance of external matters and because they saw those cities burned up together with all their inhabitants, supposed that the whole human race [had been destroyed at the same time], and that no one remained anywhere except the three of them.

--Philo, Questions and Answers in Genesis 4:56

His maiden daughters, in the belief that the whole of humanity had perished, had intercourse with their father, taking care to elude detection; they acted thus to prevent the extinction of the race.

--Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 1:205

In keeping with their simplicity and innocence, these daughters imagined that all humanity had perished, just as the Sodomites had, and that the anger of God had descended upon the whole earth.

--Irenaeus, Against the Heresies 4.31.2

They saw the fire, they saw the burning sulphur, they saw the destruction of everything, and...they saw as well that their own mother had not been saved. Thus they imagined that there was taking place something similar to what had happened in the time of Noah, and that they had been left with their father alone to insure the continuity of the human race.

--Origen, Homilies on Genesis 5:4 (also Contra Celsum 4.45)

They believed that the entire world had been destroyed, as in the generation of the flood.

--Genesis Rabba 51:8

Since they [Lot's daughters] thought that a sea of fire had destroyed the whole world, just as water had in the time of Noah, the older said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth. Come let us make our father drink wine" [Gen. 19:31-32].

--Ephraem, Commentary on Genesis 19:31

However, the justification that is offered for the daughters, namely, that they thought that the entire human race had been killed and for that reason lay with their father, still does not exculpate the father.

--Jerome, Questions in Genesis 19:30

In short. Many interpreters held Lot to have been a righteous and good man, whose generosity--in stark contrast to the stinginess of the Sodomites--was at least one reason for his having been rescued from the doomed city. If so, this virtue had no doubt been taught to Lot by his uncle Abraham, whose hospitality to strangers was unparalleled. Despite Lot's apparent virtues, other interpreters believed him to have been wicked and saw his settling in sinful Sodom as hardly accidental. Whether Sodom's sin was stinginess or sexual license, such interpreters judged Lot to have been scarcely better than his neighbors. As for Lot's wife, she was turned into a pillar of salt as a lesson to humanity. His daughters, however, could hardly be blamed for their sin: they believed that all of humanity had perished in the destruction of Sodom, and so were merely seeking to perpetuate the human race.