page_title: Lot (biblical person)
section_title: Lot in the plain of Jordan
hierarchical_section_title: Lot (biblical person) / Biblical account / Lot in the plain of Jordan
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: Genesis 13 helps and discusses Abram and Lot's return to Canaan after the famine had passed and the lands became fertile again. They traveled back through the Negev to the hills of Bethel. With their constant movement and the sizeable numbers of livestock each family owned requiring pasture, the herdsmen of the two groups began to bicker. These arguments became so troublesome that Abram suggested to Lot that they part ways, lest conflict continue among the "brethren".
  Although Abram gave Lot the choice of going either north (the left hand) or south (the right hand), Lot instead looked beyond Jordan toward a well-irrigated plain and chose that land, for it seemed "like the garden of the LORD". Alas, ahead Lot could not foresee the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the transformation of the water into a saline sea. (Genesis 13:9–11) Abram then headed south to Hebron, staying within the land of Canaan. (Genesis 13:12, 18)
  
  Lot camped among the cities of the green Jordan plain and initially pitched his tent facing Sodom. Eight or so years before, the five kingdoms had become vassal states of an alliance of four eastern kingdoms under the leadership of Chedorlaomer, king of Elam.   They served this king for twelve years, but "the thirteenth year they rebelled." (Genesis 14:1–4) The following year Chedorlaomer's four armies returned and at the Battle of the Vale of Siddim, the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fell in defeat. Chedorlaomer despoiled the cities and took captives as he departed, including Lot, who by then "dwelt" in Sodom.
  When Abram heard what had happened to his "brother" Lot, he armed a rescue force of three hundred and eighteen of his trained servants and caught up to the armies of the four kings in the territory of the Tribe of Dan. Abram divided his forces, which attacked at night from multiple directions, and the four kings fled northeast. Abram's pursuit continued and the "slaughter of Chedorlaomer" and the other kings was completed at Hobah, north of Damascus. Abram brought back "his brother Lot" and all the people and their belongings. (v. 15–24)
caption: Abraham and Lot separate. Gen: 13.7 &.c, etching by Wenceslaus Hollar, 17th century (Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, Toronto)
exif: {}