* Cf. Clem. Rom. Ep. 1 ad Cor. xi. 1, διὰ φιλοξενίαν xai εὐσέβειαν Λωτ ἰσώθη, κ.τ.λ.
+ Sir G. Grove in Smith, DB iii. 1180; see also Rob. BR ii. 107-9; Hull, Mount Seir, Sinai, and W. Pal. (1889) 129-182.
t Narrative of U.S. Exped. to the Jordan and Dead Sea, ed. 1849, p. 307 f. (with a view), ed. 1852 (condensed), p. 201f.
could identify the pillar in question. In Wis 107 mention is made of a στήλη ἁλός, near the Dead Sea, standing as a μνημεῖον ἀπιστούσης ψυχῆς Josephus (Ant. I. xi. 4) says, ἱστόρησα δ' αὐτήν" ἔτι yap καὶ viv διαμένει. Clem. Rom. (1 Cor. 11°), Irenzeus (Her. iv. 31. 3), and the unknown author of a poem on Sodom (ap. Tertull., ed. Oehler, ii. 771 ff., 1. 121 f.), speak of it, though not apparently from personal knowledge, as still remaining. Whether, however, the pillar referred to by all these writers is the same one, must remain uncer- tain ; as Robinson (ii. 108) remarks, during the rainy season such pillars are constantly in the process of formation and destruction, so that it is doubtful how far any particular one would be permanent (cf. Grove in Smith, DB? ii. 145).
Lot’s wife ‘looked back’ with regretful longings for the possessions and enjoyments which she was leaving behind her, and so proved herself unworth of the salvation offered to her. Our Lord (Lk 17%) refers accordingly to the narrative about her, when inculeating indifference to all worldly interests, as the attitude with which the advent of the Son of man should be met. ‘Note that Christ says, “Remember,” not ‘“‘Behold.” Nothing that is in existence is appealed to, but only what has been told’ (Plummer, ad loc., in the ‘International Crit. Comm.’). S. R. DRIVER.
LOTAN (γον, Awrdv).—The eponym of a Horite elan, Gn 36-22 %=1 Ch 1%, Ewald (Gesch.* i. 448 [Eng. tr. i. 313]), followed by Dillmann (Genesis, ad loc.), identifies with Lot, the father of Moab- Ammon, who appears in Gn 19° as a “in ‘cave dweller.’ See Lor.
LOTHASUBUS (Awédcovfos), 1 Es 94.—A cor- ruption of HasHuM in Neh 8*; owm was perhaps read avimb.
LOTS (573. In Est 37 9%: 38 we have the problem- atic word 5, the plur. of which is tr? by LXX in 936 φρουραί [see PURIM, FEAST OF]. The ordinary rendering in LXX for bs is κλῆρος, which is the NT term also),—The lot was employed in ancient Israel as a mode of deciding important issues in cases when they were not decided by other me- chanical modes, or were not left to the expressed arbitrament of a priest, prophet, elder, judge (p>), or king. The use of lots was governed by the presupposition that divine influence controlled their employment, and that the result coincided with God’s will. We have, in fact, here only one of a large cycle of modes of divination practised by Israel and other nations of antiquity. Some of these, as Urim and Thummim, were sanctioned by the Jewish Torah as legitimate (see art. URIM AND THUMMIM), and were at all events tolerated (as the use of the ephod) in pre-exilian Israel (see art. EpHop, No. 2). Others, on the contrary, were regarded as illegitimate, as the pieces of stick (ῥα βδομαντία, Hos 4:3) or arrows (βελομαντία, Ezk 21° [Heb.]). See Davidson on Ezk 21* in Camb. Bible for Schools ; and for the usage among ancient Arabs, Wellhausen, Reste Arab. Heiden- tums? p. 132. For Assyr. parallels see Lehmann, Aberglaube u. Zauberei, p. 40.
The religious aspect in the employment of lots is expressed in the phrase 7 35 (Jos 18:8), and still more explicitly in Pr 16%— ;
‘The lot is cast into the lap, But all its decision cometh from Jehovah.’
The verb used here for casting the lot is the Hiph. of be. In Jos 188 it is 7e7, in v.® it is 7. In J1 3%, Ob4, and Nah 3” the verb 77 isemployed, while in Jon 17 and many other passages we have ben, When the word for ‘lot’ stands as subject,
LOTS
the int ansitive verb aby (Lv 16°) or xy; (Nu 33%, Jos 19") is employed. ΤῸ take by lot is 12).
The occasions on which decisions were deter- mined by lot may be classified as follows :—
(1) In criminal cases, in order to discover the culprit. The earliest recorded instance is that of Achan (Jos 7). Next comes that of Jonathan (1S 14%). In Jon 17 we read that the lot was used as a means of fixing on the guilty source of the continued stormy weather. This example is in- structive, as it exhibits the common and identical tradition as existing among ancient Hebrews and the Pheenician sailors, as we may assume them to
have been, who accompanied Jonah (cf. Josephus, BJ Mi. viii. 7).
(2) In appointing to office, e.g. to that of king 1S 10%", where the choice of Saul as the first
ing of Israel is recorded). We have another
example in the NT, when the vacancy occasioned by the death of Judas is supplied Ey the election by lot of Matthias (Ac 138). Similarly, priestly functions in the temple-worship were apportioned among the sixteen sons of Eleazar and eight sons of Ithamar (1 Ch 24*°; cf. Lk 1°); so also in the service of song (1 Ch 25°") and in the delivery of wood for the altar (Neh 10"; οἵ. 11).