page_title: Lot (biblical person)
section_title: Lot's background
hierarchical_section_title: Lot (biblical person) / Biblical account / Lot's background
caption_attribution_description: This scene is painted on the reverse side of Dürer's Madonna and Child
context_page_description: Lot was a patriarch in the biblical Book of Genesis, chapters 11–14 and 19. Notable events in his life include his journey with his uncle Abram and his flight from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, during which Lot's wife became a pillar of salt, and Lot was made drunk by his daughters so that they could have children with him.
context_section_description: Lot and his father Haran were born and raised in Ur of the Chaldees (Genesis 11:28, 31) in the region of Sumeria on the River Euphrates of lower Mesopotamia. Haran died in that land before his father Terah. (Genesis 11:28)
  Genesis 11:26–32 gives the "generations of Terah", Lot's grandfather, who arranged for their large family to set a course for Canaan where they could reestablish a new home. Among the family members that Lot travelled with, was his uncle Abram, (later called Abraham), one of the three patriarchs of Israel.
  En route to Canaan, the family stopped in the Paddan Aram region, about halfway along the Fertile Crescent between Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean. They settled at the site called Haran where Lot's grandfather, Terah, lived the rest of his days.  He was 205 years old when he died. (Genesis 11:32)
  Genesis 12 reveals Abram's obedience to the Lord at the age of 75, in continuing his journey to the land of promise. After his grandfather Terah died in Haran Lot joined Abram on his journey to Chanan. There is no mention of Lot's having a wife yet. They went southwestward into the land of Canaan, to the place of Sichem, the present day West Bank of Nablus. Later they travelled south to the hills between Bethel and Hai, before journeying further toward the south of Canaan.
  After they dwelt in the land of Canaan for a little while, a famine overtook the countryside, and they journeyed many miles farther south into Egypt. After having dwelt in Egypt for some time, they acquired vast amounts of wealth and numbers of livestock and returned to the Bethel area.
caption: Albrecht Dürer, Lot and His Daughters, c. 1499 (National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.). His wife is left as a pillar of salt on the road behind.
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