Lot, (Hebrews lot), a covering; veil, the son of Haran, and nephew of
Abraham (Genesis 11:27). On the death of his father, he was left in charge
of his grandfather Terah (31), after whose death he accompanied his uncle
Abraham into Canaan (12:5), thence into Egypt (10), and back again to
Canaan (13:1). After this he separated from him and settled in Sodom
(13:5-13). There his righteous soul was “vexed” from day to day (2 Peter
2:7), and he had great cause to regret this act. Not many years after the
separation he was taken captive by Chedorlaomer, and was rescued by
Abraham (Genesis 14). At length, when the judgment of God descended on
the guilty cities of the plain (Genesis 19:1-20), Lot was miraculously
delivered. When fleeing from the doomed city his wife “looked back from
behind him, and became a pillar of salt.” There is to this day a peculiar crag
at the south end of the Dead Sea, near Kumran, which the Arabs call Bint
Sheik Lot, i.e., Lot’s wife. It is “a tall, isolated needle of rock, which really
does bear a curious resemblance to an Arab woman with a child upon her
shoulder.” From the words of warning in Luke 17:32, “Remember Lot’s
wife,” it would seem as if she had gone back, or tarried so long behind in
the desire to save some of her goods, that she became involved in the
destruction which fell on the city, and became a stiffened corpse, fixed for
a time in the saline incrustations. She became “a pillar of salt”, i.e., as some
think, of asphalt. (See SALT.)
Lot and his daughters sought refuge first in Zoar, and then, fearing to
remain there longer, retired to a cave in the neighbouring mountains
(Genesis 19:30). Lot has recently been connected with the people called on
the Egyptian monuments Rotanu or Lotanu, who is supposed to have been
the hero of the Edomite tribe Lotan.
- LOTAN coverer, one of the sons of Seir, the Horite (Genesis 36:20, 29).
- LOVE This word seems to require explanation only in the case of its use
by our Lord in his interview with “Simon, the son of Jonas,” after his
resurrection (John 21:16, 17). When our Lord says, “Lovest thou me?” he
uses the Greek word agapas; and when Simon answers, he uses the Greek
word philo, i.e., “I love.” This is the usage in the first and second questions
put by our Lord; but in the third our Lord uses Simon’s word. The
distinction between these two Greek words is thus fitly described by
Trench:, “Agapan has more of judgment and deliberate choice; philein has
more of attachment and peculiar personal affection. Thus the ‘Lovest
thou’ (Gr. agapas) on the lips of the Lord seems to Peter at this moment