How are we to take the fact that Lot offered his daughters for rape?

Question

In Genesis two angels visited Sodom and Gomorrah to check what's what. The residents of the town wanted to rape the angels (who had visited the most virtuous man in the town, Lot). Lot to protect the angels offered his two daughters for rape:

But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.”—Genesis 19:4-8 (ESV)

What kind of man offers his daughters for rape? How are we supposed to take this? What is the meaning?

Answer 1

What follows is a reading of the Sodom narrative based on the commentary of Nachmanides which is drastically different from the way this story is commonly understood. No other reading of this story makes sense to me.

Progression of events:

The people of Sodom gather outside Lot's house and they make a request. The original Hebrew is highly ambiguous here:

וַיִּקְרְאוּ אֶל-לוֹט וַיֹּאמְרוּ לוֹ, אַיֵּה הָאֲנָשִׁים אֲשֶׁר-בָּאוּ אֵלֶיךָ הַלָּיְלָה; הוֹצִיאֵם אֵלֵינוּ, וְנֵדְעָה אֹתָם.

5 And they called unto Lot, and said unto him: 'Where are the men that came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.'

In both English and Hebrew, the word "know" can be understood here in a cognitive or sexual sense. Lot responds to this request by offering the people of Sodom his two daughters:

"do to them as is good in your eyes;"

The townspeople are infuriated by Lot's offer and they respond:

יט,ט וַיֹּאמְרוּ גֶּשׁ-הָלְאָה, וַיֹּאמְרוּ הָאֶחָד בָּא-לָגוּר וַיִּשְׁפֹּט שָׁפוֹט--עַתָּה, נָרַע לְךָ מֵהֶם

'This one fellow [Lot] came in to sojourn, and he will needs play the judge; now will we deal worse with thee, than with them.'

Implications:

It's clear from their response that the townspeople have no interest in Lot's daughters and that the offer was highly offensive to them. In my opinion, the Sodomites wanted to expel Lot's visitors from the city for any number of social/economic reasons and their justification: "that we may know them," is a thinly veiled threat, like saying: "we just want to talk." "That we may know them" also serves to highlight that these people are outsiders of the town that no one knows. Of course Lot understands the intentions of the mob and so he mocks them for their cruelty by intentionally misunderstanding their previous statement to suggest that the people want to engage in gang rape and sodomy:

ט,ז וַיֹּאמַר: אַל-נָא אַחַי, תָּרֵעוּ. יט,ח הִנֵּה-נָא לִי שְׁתֵּי בָנוֹת, אֲשֶׁר לֹא-יָדְעוּ אִישׁ--אוֹצִיאָה-נָּא אֶתְהֶן אֲלֵיכֶם, וַעֲשׂוּ לָהֶן כַּטּוֹב בְּעֵינֵיכֶם

7 And he said: 'I pray you, my brethren, do not so wickedly. 8 Behold now, I have two daughters that 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;

Lot would never give over his daughters to the people of Sodom and he understands that these people have no interest in his daughters. Lot's offer is meant to be offensive and indeed the people of the town immediately recognize that they are being criticized - "This one fellow came in to sojourn and he will need play the judge [he's judging us]?" This attack by Lot on standard immigration procedure in Sodom makes him the target of their rage in the same way the illegal aliens were the target just a few verses earlier: "now will we deal worse with thee, than with them."

Why the sin of Sodom matters:

The sin of Sodom matters because the Later Prophets regularly compare the nation of Israel to Sodom (Isaiah 1:9-10, 3:9, Jeremiah 23:14, Ezekiel 16:41-56 and more.). If the sin of Sodom was sodomy than this comparison seems hyperbolic and inconsistent with all the common themes in the Later Prophets. However, if the sin of Sodom was xenophobia, insularity and a lack of social justice then this criticism is perfectly consistent with the messages that permeate the prophetic writings from that time.

tl;dr:

Lot had no intention of giving his daughters over to people of Sodom and their original request to Lot had nothing to with sex. There was no sodomy in Sodom.

Answer 2

I actually have no intellectual or difficulties of conscience with this story. It just seems good and right to me as it is told. In fact I have always found it very comforting and true to life.

Some have difficulty thinking Lot (a righteous man according to 2 Peter 2:7) sinned in this instance, so they come up with ideas on how even this action could be without guilt. For example, Luther, argues that Lot somehow knew these men had no interest in his daughters so it was more like an appeal something like, "Men, this is such a wicked idea, I would rather that you take my daughters and to prove it I even offer them to you (knowing you have no interest of course).

I do not deny that this is a possibility that by faith and internal prayers Lot may have perceived the situation that way, but I prefer to think of Lot as a man who was righteous but at the same time very much polluted by the wickedness of his surroundings. Notice the relationship to the world, he was salt and light but it blurred that salt and light which was in him. That makes him very righteous. Yet I think it is important to see Lot was not that righteous because of his poor choice in living location. Also Lot always seems portrayed as less righteous than Abraham which is partly why he may have chosen to live where he did. Also Abraham was not perfect either, so what are we to expect of Lot who was less righteous. We must not make saint 'saints' but must remember they are also sinners just as we are.

Therefore, I simply take the story to show that among vile sinners the righteous may seem vile also, but what makes them righteous in the unexplainable value they put on heaven through faith. In this case his righteous soul values his heavenly guests so much that he would rather see his loved daughters defiled before seeing his heavenly guests defiled. In a sense he is sacrificing himself in his daughters, as Abraham was willing to sacrifice himself in killing Isaac. However, unlike Abraham, I think his choice was very much still sinful. His sin of abandoning his beloved daughters from lack of faith, was conflicting with his holy desires from faith, so that his faith was very imperfect and in conflict with his flesh. So the message is even imperfect faith under trial, disguised by many sins, is very righteous still. The world is so wicked that it knows nothing about this. It does not value what God values. The value of faith is scoffed at by the world, but to God faith is righteous.

Lot was a holy man surrounded by sinners. Whatever he did, it was better than his neighbors. Many Christians are the same way - yet God is proud to call them righteous because they are very righteouss when compared to the world. The world scoffs at the righteousness of faith, hates God and despises heavenly things. God saved the stained and tarnished Lot, but destroyed the rest with fire. And so He will do the same thing in the last day.

I think these ideas dig into the underlying spirit of the passages. It's about weak faith.

Answer 3

Was Lot righteous in his own merit, or just relatively good? The text here doesn't seem to argue for the former; if Lot was more righteous than the other residents of S'dom (evidenced by the fact that he was saved), that doesn't actually mean he was virtuous. The bar there was pretty low if the town's response to visitors was to initiate gang-rape.

So what kind of a man offers his daughters for rape? A man with low-enough moral standards that, given the choice of the whole region after his separation from Avraham, he nonetheless chose to live in S'dom, a wicked city. A truly-righteous person would do neither of these, but nonetheless Lot was apparently "good enough" to merit rescue. Either that, or being Avraham's nephew counted for something.