Lot Between the Lines

Abraham and Sarah's nephew Lot is a very busy supporting character and we can learn some interesting information about Abraham from Lot's placement in the Ancestor stories. For instance, when Lot is taken prisoner by a rival tribe at war with the cities of the south, we learn Abraham's wealth and influence must have been considerable in order for him to rally enough servants to defeat the rival's army and rescue his nephew. We also learn from the later Sodom story that Lot's hospitality skills do not match his uncle's impeccable protocol.  At the end, Lot cannot have been remembered too fondly by the Hebrew people. His two sons Ammon and Moab were the patriarchs of  two of Israel's ubiquitous antagonists, the Ammonites and the Moabites. (Illustration from the PowerPoint presentation, From Eden to Esau.)