daughter2 of Lot
Lot's unnamed younger daughter, who bore Ben-ammi after the destruction of Sodom.
Biography
Lot's younger daughter is the second of two unnamed women whose actions after the destruction of Sodom gave rise to neighboring peoples of Israel. Participating in her elder sister's plan recorded in Genesis 19:30–38, she also slept with their father Lot on a successive night while he was intoxicated. The son she bore was named Ben-ammi, meaning "son of my people," and became the patriarch of the Ammonites. Like her sister, she acted out of what appears to have been a conviction that the broader human race had been wiped out, a perception shaped by witnessing the annihilation of the cities of the plain. Her story is told sparingly, with the narrator preserving the historical record of origins rather than pronouncing moral verdict.
Significance
Lot's younger daughter holds theological significance as the ancestress of the Ammonites, a people frequently in tension with Israel yet sharing the same distant family roots through Abraham's nephew Lot. The Ammonites appear throughout Israel's history, as adversaries in the time of the judges, enemies in the era of Saul and David, and as the people from whom Ruth's counterpart Orpah descended, according to rabbinic tradition. Her story underscores that the origins of nations are deeply entangled with human sin and suffering, yet God's overarching plan to bless all nations through Abraham's line is not derailed by these complexities (Genesis 12:3).
Verse Appearances (1)
Genesis
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- Tyndale House, Cambridge (n.d.) Translators Individualised Proper Names with all References (TIPNR). STEPBible. Available at: https://www.stepbible.org. [CC BY 4.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]