Righteous Righteous Lot

Righteous Lot was the son of Haran and nephew of the patriarch Abraham. After his father's death, Lot journeyed with Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees to the land of Canaan. When strife arose between the herdsmen of Abraham and Lot over grazing land, Abraham generously let Lot choose his territory first; Lot chose the fertile Jordan plain and settled near Sodom, even though its inhabitants were "wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly."

When God resolved to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for their iniquity, Abraham interceded, and two angels who visited Lot forcibly led him, his wife, and his two daughters out of the doomed city. Lot's wife, disobeying the angels' command by looking back at the burning city, was turned into a pillar of salt. Lot himself, who preserved his faith and hospitality amid the surrounding corruption, is called "righteous" by the Apostle Peter (2 Peter 2:7-8).

After the destruction, he took refuge in a mountain cave, where his daughters bore him Moab and Ammon, ancestors of the Moabite and Ammonite peoples. The Church commemorates Lot together with Abraham on the same day, as reflected in the liturgical title "Righteous Abraham the Forefather and his nephew Lot."