Lōt's Wife – Pillars of salt deposits in Yâm ha-MëlꞋakh.9 |
As the sun was coming up over the land, Lōt was coming toward TzōꞋar. In the pre-dawn darkness, by the hands of the military forces of the ma•lâkh•imꞋ, ä' had rained down arrows tipped with flaming sulfur on the wood and thatch roofs of the mud brick buildings of both of the major cities along the southeast shore of Yâm ha-MëlꞋakh, Sᵊdōm and A•mōr•âhꞋ, creating a wildfire that trapped the inhabitants, consuming them along with all of the trees and brush.
Meanwhile, unnoticed by others in the caravan, Lōt's wife had stopped near Sᵊdōm to watch what would happen. She was caught in the fires and all they later found was a pillar of salt that reminded them of her – and commemorated the cost of her assimilation.
Lot's cave — Wadi Araba, adjacent to Yâm ha-MëlꞋakh, Jordan (photo © SonyaandTravis.com) |
Because of Lōt's association with the ma•lâkh•imꞋ who had rained flaming Godfire-stone down on the cities of Sᵊdōm and A•mōr•âhꞋ, the residents of TzōꞋar and all of the surrounding peoples regarded him as an enemy. Consequently, Lōt and his two daughters lived in danger of being lynched by the townspeople. Afraid to remain in TzōꞋar, he and his two daughters moved back to the mountain that the ma•lâkhꞋ had indicated, just east of the ruins of Sᵊdōm.
Life was harsh living in the arid wilderness as a hermit family. The surrounding peoples were unfriendly, threatening and a danger. Cut off from all other humans, the girls realized that their prospects for marriage were zero. Looking ahead, the outlook for the girls after their father died would become even worse: facing the harsh life in the arid wilderness completely alone. Talking over their situation, the girls concluded that they only way they could survive would be to imitate the Egyptian royalty: have children by their father.
But the girls also knew that Lōt wasn't assimilated into the culture and morality the girls had always known in Sᵊdōm or Egyptian influences. So, without Lōt's awareness, the two girls conspired to get their father drunk in order to get pregnant by him; first one daughter, the next night the other daughter. So, the two girls became pregnant and each gave birth to a son. The eldest named her son Mo•âvꞋ and the younger of the two daughters called her son Bën-Am•iꞋ, the patriarch of the Bᵊn•eiꞋ-Am•ōnꞋ.11
Gᵊrâr12 (Tël Ha•rorꞋ12), southwest of Khë•vᵊr•onꞋ, between Hellenist Greco-Minoan Philistia13 and Bᵊeir ShëvꞋa and showing Mo•âvꞋ ( corrupted to "Moab") and Am•ōnꞋ (corrupted to "Ammon" and Arabized to Amman), capital of modern Jordan. (Hammond) |
Three months later,16 Avᵊrâ•hâmꞋ visited Greco-Minoan Philistine13 Gᵊrâr,12 which was a buffer zone between his lands and Greco-Minoan Philistia,13 to homestead. His growing ranching empire required expanding pasture and more water wells. Accordingly, he sojourned to the west of Bᵊeir ShëvꞋa to lay claim to additional grazing lands and to dig wells that would extend his grazing lands and rights – to the edge of Greco-Minoan Philistia,13 which neighbored him on the west. Avᵊrâ•hâmꞋ negotiated these land grazing rights with the local Greco-Minoan Philistia13 mëlꞋëkh — Avi-mëlꞋëkh.14
Just as earlier, when visiting Egypt,15 Avᵊrâ•hâmꞋ feared that, because SârꞋâh was so desirable, the Greco-Minoan Philistine13 mëlꞋëkh might have him killed so that he could have her. So Avᵊrâ•hâmꞋ – once again – arranged for her to pose as his sister.
Avi-mëlꞋëkh, having been advised how desirable SârꞋâh was, and being told that SârꞋâh was Avᵊrâ•hâmꞋ's sister, took her into his harem.
But something didn't compute for Avi-mëlꞋëkh. His subconscious misgivings expressed themselves in a dream – of Ël•oh•imꞋ warning him that he would die for having brought SârꞋâh into his harem, because she was the wife of a husband.
When Avi-mëlꞋëkh awakened the next morning, feeling very relieved that he had not approached SârꞋâh, he told his servants of his dream, and all of the men were terrified. Then Avi-mëlꞋëkh summoned Avᵊrâ•hâmꞋ and paid him recompense for the disrespect of his wife with gifts – 1,000 silver-coins plus yet more herds and staff to work the new areas (and, no doubt, arranging for the Greco-Minoan Philistines13 to stream back intelligence about Avᵊrâ•hâmꞋ's activities back to Avi-mëlꞋëkh).
Optional parental preparation:
Questions you might anticipate that your child might raise and be prepared to discuss: