Lot Gained Four Kindnesses From Abraham and His Heirs Repaid With Evil

(Genesis 13:5) "And Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents." Four good things came to Lot on account of Abraham. "And Abram went as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him" (Genesis 12:4); "and Lot also, who went with Abram" (Genesis 13:5); "and he brought back all the goods, and also Lot his kinsman and his goods" (Genesis 14:16); "and it came to pass when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out" (Genesis 19:29). And corresponding to these, Lot's descendants were obliged to repay good to Abraham's children, and not only did they fail to repay good, they repaid evil. This is what is written: "And he sent messengers to Balaam" (Numbers 22:5); "and he gathered to him the children of Ammon"; "and after this the children of Moab and the children of Ammon came against Jehoshaphat" (2 Chronicles 20:1); and this: "The adversary has spread his hand over all her treasures" (Lamentations 1:10). Their sin was recorded in four places: "No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter, because they did not greet you with bread and water" (Deuteronomy 23:4-5); "My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab plotted" (Micah 6:5); "because they did not greet the children of Israel with bread and water and hired Balaam against them to curse" (Nehemiah 13:2). And four prophets arose and sealed their sentence. Isaiah said, "The burden of Moab: in a night Ar of Moab is laid waste and brought to silence" (Isaiah 15:1). And Jeremiah said, "Behold, days are coming, says the LORD, when I will cause the trumpet blast of war to be heard against Rabbah of the children of Ammon" (Jeremiah 49:2). And Ezekiel said, "I will give Ammon to the people of the East for a possession, that the children of Ammon be not remembered among the nations, and on Moab I will execute judgments" (Ezekiel 25:10-11). Zephaniah said, "Therefore as I live, says the LORD of hosts, Moab shall be like Sodom and the children of Ammon like Gomorrah" (Zephaniah 2:9). "He had flocks and herds and tents" two tents: Ruth the Moabite and Naamah the Ammonite. And likewise, "Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are found here" (Genesis 19:15) two finds: Ruth the Moabite and Naamah the Ammonite. "I have found David My servant" (Psalms 89:21) where did I find him? In Sodom. (Genesis 13:7) "And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's cattle and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle." Abraham our father's cattle would go out muzzled, and Lot's cattle would not go out muzzled. Abraham's herdsmen said to them, "Has robbery been permitted?" Lot's herdsmen said to them: Thus the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Abraham, "To your seed I will give this land" (Genesis 12:7), and Abraham is a barren mule who cannot beget; tomorrow he will die and Lot his nephew will be his heir so even when they eat from what is ours, they are only eating from their own. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Lot: I said, "To your seed I will give this land" but when? When the seven nations are uprooted from within it. For now, "the Canaanite and the Perizzite were then in the land" (Genesis 13:7) He still claims a right to the land for them. (Genesis 13:8) "And Abram said to Lot." Just as there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram and the herdsmen of Lot, so there was strife between Abraham and Lot. This is what is written, "Let there be no quarrel, I pray, between me and you for we are kinsmen" (Genesis 13:8). And were they brothers? Rather, that the cast of Lot's face resembled his. (Genesis 13:9) "Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself" it does not say "be distinguished" here, but "separate" [be cut off]: just as this mule cannot take in seed, so it is impossible for that man to mingle with the seed of Abraham. "If you go left, then I will go right" he said to him: If you go to the left I will go to the south, and if I go to the south you go to the left from any direction, I am going to the south. Rabbi Yochanan said: It is like two men who had two heaps of grain, one of wheat and one of barley. He said, "If the wheat is mine, the barley is yours; if the barley is yours, the wheat is mine in any case the wheat is mine." It does not say "and I will go left" here, but "and I will put to the left" [a different verb] from any direction, I am pushing that man to the left side. (Genesis 13:10) "And Lot lifted up his eyes" anyone who is greedy after the lust of forbidden relations is in the end fed from his own flesh. Rabbi Yochanan said: This whole verse was spoken with regard to transgression. "And Lot lifted up" as in "his master's wife lifted up her eyes" (Genesis 39:7). "His eyes" as in "for she is right in my eyes" (Judges 14:3). "And he saw" as in "and Shechem son of Hamor saw her" (Genesis 34:2). "All the plain of the Jordan" as in "for on account of a harlot a man is brought to a loaf of bread" (Proverbs 6:26). "For it was all well watered" as in "I will go after my lovers who give my bread and my water, my oil and my drink" (Hosea 2:7).