Bible Synapse
Was Lot a righteous man?
Hard question · Creation, the flood and the patriarchs · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
God “delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked”; Peter calls him “that righteous man”.
And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
Lot meets the two strangers at the gate of Sodom, presses them to stay in his house and makes them a feast.
And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground; And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant’s house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night. And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.
To protect his guests, Lot offers his two virgin daughters to the mob.
Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.
In a cave, Lot’s daughters make him drunk and conceive by him; “he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose”.
And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth: Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. …
The objection
Peter calls Lot “that righteous man” whose soul was vexed by the wickedness of Sodom (2 Peter 2:8). But Genesis tells how Lot offered his two virgin daughters to a violent mob (Genesis 19:8), and how he was later made drunk and fathered children by those same daughters (19:30–36). How can such a man be called righteous?
The answer
Peter does not say that Lot was blameless. He sets him against the people of Sodom, and the contrast in Genesis 19 is real. Lot welcomed the two strangers, pressed them to shelter in his house and fed them (19:1–3), when the men of the city meant to abuse them. He went out to the mob, shut the door behind him and pleaded, “I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly” (19:6–7). He warned his sons-in-law to flee, and God spared him, as Abraham had prayed that the righteous would not perish with the wicked (18:23; 19:29). Peter adds what Genesis implies: living there, Lot was distressed day after day by what he saw and heard (2 Peter 2:8). His point is that “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly” (2:9), even one as weak as Lot.
Genesis does not approve of what Lot did. It reports his offer of his daughters without praise, and the classic commentators condemn it: Matthew Henry calls it ‘unjustifiable’, and Keil ‘a grievous violation of his paternal duty’. The incest was his daughters’ scheme. They made him drunk, and Genesis twice says that he did not know what was happening (19:33, 35), though his drinking was his own fault. In Scripture ‘righteous’ does not mean sinless. Noah was “a just man” (Genesis 6:9) and later lay drunk in his tent (9:21); David was an adulterer. Lot was righteous as a man who believed and feared God and was set apart from Sodom, and his failures stand recorded as a warning.
Other answers Christians give
Righteous by faith
John Gill reads ‘just’ here of a man justified by God and given a new heart, who lived uprightly though not without sin. On this view Peter speaks of Lot’s standing before God and the bent of his life, not of each thing he did.
Jewish tradition
Gill notes that many later rabbis judged Lot harshly, while Philo spoke better of him, and the Wisdom of Solomon (10:6) calls him ‘the righteous man’ whom wisdom delivered from the fire. Peter’s description fits the second line of Jewish reading.
Still open
Commentators differ on how far Lot’s offer was meant in earnest and how far it was a desperate attempt to hold the mob back; Keil notes that the daughters were betrothed to men of the city (19:14). Genesis gives no verdict beyond the facts.
From the classic commentators
he unadvisedly and unjustifiably offered to prostitute his two daughters to them, Gen 19:8. It is true, of two evils we must choose the less; but of two sins we must choose neither, nor ever do evil that good may come of it.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Genesis 19 (1706)
Sources
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: 2 Peter 2 (HelloAO)
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible: Genesis 19 (HelloAO)
- Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis 19 (HelloAO)