Lot's Daughters (original fiction)

[ZVBM]

Hi!

One of the strangest, most bizarre episodes in the Tanakh (what we call what Christians call the "Old Testament"), sez me, is Genesis 19 in which Lot commits incest with his daughters after having first offered to hand them over to be gang-raped in order to protect two male strangers from the same fate. Look at the text. Not only is it the older sister who initiates the incest & pushes her younger sister into it, but she (older sister) gives her son the very unsubtle name of "Moab", literally "from father", while younger sister gives her son the far more ambiguous name of "Ben Ami", or "son of my people". Why, why and why?

I wondered how Lot's daughters might have seen the whole account.

I wrote this in August 2011. At no point do I describe, or try to depict, the contact between Lot & his daughters (beyond what Genesis 19 itself says).

All thoughts and comments are greatly appreciated.

ZVBM
__________

No Fury
by ZVBM
Copyright August 2011

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"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a daughter scorned."

(Adapted from "The Mourning Bride", Act III, Scene VIII, by William Congreve)

#

Pheine and Thamma, Lot's two youngest daughters whispered in the loft that doubled as their bedroom.

"I'm going to the new moon festival with Dili," Pheine triumphantly told her younger sister.

"The rich merchant's son?"

Pheine nodded.

"And Daddy agreed?"

"Mommy did."

"Meaning you didn't ask him."

"He would just say 'no'."

"But..."

"Thamma, most girls from Sodom our age have already had their first child and Daddy barely lets us out of the house."

"Look at who our older sisters married."

"We have to pay for their mistakes?"

"Pheine! Thamma!," Lot called up from the main room, "Come down here, please!"

"We'll talk more later," Pheine said. She and Thamma climbed downstairs

"Here," Lot said, handing them kneading boards, a jar of flour and a skin of water.

"What's this for?" Pheine inquired

"Your father is feeling charitable again," their mother muttered, not looking up from her loom.

"More guests?" Thamma asked.

"More bums," their mother mumbled.

Lot shot her a look. "Unleavened bread for our visitors," he told Pheine and Thamma, "Quickly now!"

Pheine looked around. "Where are they?"

"At the well out back," Lot answered, "Washing their feet."

"Did Uncle Abraham send them?" Thamma inquired as she and Pheine began mixing dough.

"No," Lot replied, setting out olives, dates, dried figs and cured meat on wooden platters while his daughters rolled out sheets of dough and placed them on a clay tabun oven. He poured date wine into two tankards.

"Oh, tell me you're not gonna waste our good date wine," his wife groaned.

Lot ignored her, handed the platters to Pheine and Thamma and took the tankards. The sisters followed him out back and helped serve the visitors. "Here, my lords," he told them, "You honor us and our home."

The guests nodded. "Thank you."

"Yes, thank you."

Pheine and Thamma followed their father back inside. Lot pulled the thin sheets of hot bread off the tabun and placed them on another platter, which he handed to Thamma, who disappeared out back.

Pheine drew up a stool and sat down next to their mother.

"You've got to stop doing this," Lot's wife told him, "You're not living with your uncle anymore."

Lot glared at her.

"You know, you're more like him than you think. What if you're found out? This is Sodom!"

"Idit," Lot said, addressing his wife by name, "In case you've forgotten, King Bera owes my uncle a whopping favor."

"And you expect him to be grateful?"

There was loud banging on the front door.

"Oh no," Lot's wife moaned.

"Hey Lot!" a voice called, "Send out your visitors! We wanna get to know them!"

"Yeah," another voice said, "We'll open a barrel, or at least bend them over one!"

There was boisterous laughter.

"I'll deal with this," Lot muttered, heading back into the main room.

Pheine followed him. "Daddy, what..."

"Bar the door behind me; then go back and wait with your mother."

Lot opened the door, slipped out and pulled it shut behind him.

Pheine lowered the crossbar into place and put her ear to a crack around the doorframe.

"Hey," Lot pleaded, "Don't do this. These men are my guests; they've come under my roof..."

"And we're gonna **** them senseless," a voice declared.

"I have two daughters, virgins. I'll bring them out and you can do whatever you want to them, only please, don't hurt my guests."

Pheine recoiled in horror.

"You come to our city," another voice said, "play the judge and now tell us what to do? Know what? We're gonna **** you worse than senseless. Truss him up boys!

Pheine barely felt the hand that pulled her away from the door. I have two daughters... She slumped against a wall and sank to the floor before noticing the strange light that filled the anteroom. She looked up and saw the two visitors but not as they had been. Clad all in white, they glowed and had wings. They raised their hands to the door, which vanished, and flashed blinding rays of bright light into street. Screams and curses rent the air as the visitors yanked her father back inside and shut the door, which reappeared.

(...).

 

[ZVBM]

(...).

Thamma and Idit entered the room.

Thamma ran to Pheine. "Are you hurt?" she asked, helping her sister to her feet.

Pheine grabbed her sister's arm for support. I have two daughters...

The visitors addressed Lot. "We are angels of God. Whoever you have here, sons-in-law and daughters, you must take them out of the city for we will destroy it. Its cry is very great before God who has sent us."

Lot stared, astonished. "Yes, yes, of course," he finally mumbled, "We have two married daughters. I...I will go get them."

"You will be safe," one of the angels said, "but make haste."

Lot ran out. He returned an hour later, alone.

"Where are they?" Idit cried.

"They think it's all a joke," Lot replied. "They're not coming."

Idit and Thamma burst into tears.

"It will be dawn soon," one of the angels said, "Prepare what you can. You must leave, now."

Pheine helped her mother and sister pack food and skins of water; Lot took the gold and silver pieces that he kept in the house.

When they were done, Lot looked at what they had managed to organize and fell at the angels' feet. "No, no, my lords, please," he wailed, "I own flocks and houses. I need time to outfit a proper caravan. Please!"

The angels laid hands on the four of them. There was a flash of light.

Pheine gawked. They were now on the western ridge overlooking Sodom, Gomorrah and the other cities of the plain, on the track to the nearby village of Zoar.

"Flee for your lives," one of the angels said, "and do not look back lest you be swept away."

"We can go to Zoar, yes?" Lot babbled in abject shock, "Please, can we go to Zoar?"

"Yes," the angel replied, "but hurry."

Lot and his family hastened up the track and were almost at the outskirts of Zoar as the sun rose over the eastern ridge on the far side of the plain below.

At once the sky darkened and the ground shook. The reek of sulphur pierced the air as fire and brimstone rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah.

"We must find shelter!" Lot yelled. "Idit?" he shouted at his wife who stood a short distance behind him and their daughters. "Bring mother," he told Pheine.

Pheine darted back to her mother, grabbed at her shawl, which fell away, and howled. Lot and Thamma ran up. Idit, her face turned toward Sodom, had been transformed into a pillar of salt. Pheine shrieked uncontrollably, pulling at what had been her mother's arm.

"She should not have looked back!" Lot said, shouting to make himself heard over the explosions and piteous cries carried up from the plain by the searing wind. "We must save ourselves! We can't stay here. Let's go!"

Thamma tugged on Pheine's hand. "Please!"

Pheine, seething, stumbled after Thamma.

Lot turned away from Zoar and led his daughters along a steep path that led up over the crest of the ridge in the general direction of Arad. Once they were over the crest, and Sodom and the other cities of the plain were out of view, they found shelter in a large multi-chambered cave. Lot staggered into one of the inner chambers and flopped down exhausted.

Pheine stood at the cave's mouth looking out towards the ridge.

Thamma lay down a few yards away. "Hey," she called out to her sister, "You should rest."

Pheine waved her off.

Thamma, too exhausted to protest, fell asleep.

I have two daughters...

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A ground tremor woke Thamma a few hours later, or so she guessed. She heard loud snoring from further inside the cave. Pheine still stood at the cave's entrance; she appeared not to have budged. "Pheine?"

"Come here."

Thamma rose and went to her sister.

Pheine's eyes were bloodshot. She appeared gaunt and haggard.

"Have you slept at all?" Thamma asked.

"The ground has been shaking like that ever since we got here," Pheine muttered. "Look." She pointed to the east, up at the sky and then down at the ground..

Thamma saw smoke rising from everywhere behind the ridge. The sky was a lurid red; a fine ash covered the ground. She sniffed at the air, which reeked of burnt sulphur.

"We're the only ones left."

"What?"

"Remember the story that Da..." she hesitated, closing her eyes and forcing herself to say the word, "...that Daddy used to tell us when we were little, the one he said he heard from Uncle Abraham, that the world got so wicked once, that people were so bad, that God decided to destroy everything in a great flood and start over and repopulate the world from the one family that survived?"

"In a giant boat, yes but..."

"He did it again. We're the only ones left.

"But didn't Daddy say that God put the rainbow in the sky or something as a sign..."

"That He wouldn't drown the world, yes, but now He's burnt it. We're the only ones left."

"That's not..."

"Don't you get it, Thamma?", Pheine burst out. "You and I and..." She closed her eyes again and wagged her arm, pointing towards the recesses of the cave, "...DADDY," she hissed, shaking as she spat out the word, "are the only people left in the entire world. We are the ones who will restart humanity."

"But, but how?" Thamma sputtered, "If all the men are dead..."

Pheine glared at her.

"Oh no..."

"Who else is there?"

Thamma lowered her voice to a whisper. "But you're talking about Daddy!"

"Daddy? Daddy??!! Let me tell you about that rotten son-of-a-***** you call 'Daddy'. When the mob came to demand that he hand over the visitors to be gang-raped, that ******* offered to hand us over to be gang-raped instead!"

Thamma winced.

"I was listening at the door; I heard every word! He cared more about two strangers than his own flesh-and-blood! He may be our father but please do not dignify him with the title 'Daddy'!"

Thamma was silent for a few minutes. "What do we do?"

Pheine produced a skin of date wine. "This is from last year, nice and strong. We'll get him drunk, that won't be hard, and I'll lie with him tonight. We'll get him drunk again tomorrow..."

"...and I'll lie with him." Thamma made a face.

"Don't worry. Knowing him, he won't remember a thing."

#

That night, when Pheine and Thamma took food to her father, they plied him with date wine until he became inebriated. Later, Pheine went in to lay with him. Lot appeared not to know when she lay down nor when she arose.

The next day, Pheine and Thamma persuaded their father that it was too dangerous to travel. Lot agreed that they would shelter in the cave for at least one more day.

On the second night, Pheine and Thamma again served the father. When Thamma offered him the skin of date wine, he hesitated.

"Father?"

"I...I had a dream last night that I can't quite remember. It was...bizarre."

"Maybe it's the fumes rising from the plain," Pheine interrupted. "It has been a trying few days to say the least. Don't let that stop you from enjoying good date wine."

"Ah, you're right." Lot drained the skin and was soon as drunk as he had been the night before.

"Go on," Pheine told Thamma later.

Thamma went in to lay with him. Lot appeared not to know when she lay down nor when she arose.

#

On the morning of their third day in the cave, Pheine awoke and looked around. Lot snored away in an inner chamber. Thamma was nowhere to be seen.

Pheine walked to the cave's mouth. The smoke had all but stopped rising over the ridge; the sky was almost back to its normal color. She spied her sister a short distance away on a small rise to the east and went out to her. "Are you alright?"

"I feel sick."

"That's understandable. After all, we..."

"No, look." Thamma pointed away to the northwest.

In the distance, a caravan made its way through the valley below. Clearly discernible were a line of camels, flocks of sheep and goats, a dog or two, and many people.

Pheine fell to her knees and vomited.

(...).

 

[Rainbow Mage]

It was interesting. The only thing I wonder is if you meant the reader to get the idea that the sin of Sodom was homosexuality or rape?

 

[ZVBM]

(...).

Lot awoke and, after mumbling something about another strange dream, insisted on going to Arad.

"But," Thamma pleaded as they left the cave, "Can't we go to Uncle Abraham? Surely he would take us in."

"No!" Lot replied, turning on her sharply, "I will not go crawling back to him! I have my pride! Now, come!" He turned and headed down the path, turning towards Arad.

"Pride," Pheine snorted, "Now I've heard everything. He must still be drunk."

Thamma glanced at her.

"And what do you think Uncle Abraham would say if he knew what we did? Do you think he would take us in then, the last, damned, survivors of a damned city? Are you drunk?" Pheine shouldered her pack and stalked down the path, leaving Thamma to straggle after her.

#

The family soon reached Arad, where they enjoyed a fleeting notoriety as the only apparent survivors from Sodom. With the gold and silver he had saved, Lot purchased small flocks of sheep and goats. Refusing to hire any help at least until the flocks had increased, he taught Pheine and Thamma the rudiments of shepherding. Pheine, who became increasingly sullen, took to it at once, preferring the solitude that it entailed to the bustle of Arad. For lack of any alternative, Thamma tagged along after her sister.

One night, four-and-a-half months after they reached Arad, Lot entered their tent and noticed Pheine's and Thamma's enlarged, rounded bellies. "What," he asked, "Were you with someone our first night here?"

"Something like that," Pheine forced herself to reply.

"Well, so much for your bride prices. Do you at least know who the fathers are?"

"Same one. If we have boys, maybe we'll even name them after him."

Thamma stared at Pheine.

Pheine stared back.

"Pfagh!" Lot exclaimed, "The less I know the better. I just hope, for your sakes, that there aren't any complications when they're born. Good night!" He crawled under a sheepskin and was soon fast asleep.

"I hate him," Pheine whispered, as she and Thamma crawled under their sheepskins on the other side of the tent.

"Just him?" Thamma asked.

Pheine snarled and rolled over.

#

Thamma watched as Pheine sat on the birthing bricks, holding onto the midwife for support. Lot paced around outside; custom dictated that he not be present.

"The head has crowned," the midwife said, "Now, one more push."

Pheine grunted.

"A boy!" the midwife cried, "My lady has a boy!" She waited for the afterbirth to pass, cut the cord and held the baby as Thamma removed the bricks. She then laid the baby at Pheine's breast as Pheine lay back, exhausted.

The midwife frowned. "My lady, you must hold him."

Pheine held her son as lightly as she could.

The midwife examined Thamma. "Ay, it's almost time. I'll be back to check on you soon." She turned back to Pheine before leaving. "Smile my lady; you have a healthy son."

Pheine ignored her.

The midwife rolled her eyes at Thamma and left.

"Let me see my grandson!" Lot said as he burst into the tent. He crouched at Pheine's side. "Ha, he looks just like me! What's his name?"

"Moab."

"I thought you were going to name him after his father."

"I did."

"'Mo-ab', 'from father'? I don't..." Lot stood up. "Those dreams I had..."

"Weren't dreams."

Lot glanced at Thamma.

Thamma looked at the ground.

"And who is going to believe such an outrageous story," Pheine said, "that we, your own daughters, got you drunk and had our way with you? Everyone will think that it was the other way around, that you got drunk and forced yourself on us."

"How could you?"

"How could we?" Pheine replied, handing Moab to Thamma and struggling to her feet. "How could we?" she shouted at the top of her lungs. "I-HAVE-TWO-DAUGHTERS!!"

Lot reeled. Screaming incoherently, he tore his beard and stumbled out of the tent.

Pheine and Thamma heard one of the camels grunt loudly and gallop off. Pheine's legs gave way; she tumbled back onto her straw mattress.

Thamma gave her water and then a howling Moab.

Pheine turned away.

"What's he done?" Thamma cried, "He's your child."

"Whom I had because I lay with my father."

"And that's his fault? He's hungry!"

"You must have milk; you feed him."

"You are his mother!"

"No, I'm a freak, a monster."

"And what does that make me?"

"I pushed you into it."

"Is that what this is about? You feel guilty?"

"I made you lay with our father," Pheine said, with tears running down her face.

"That's ancient history, which we'll have to live with forever. But this is not ancient history." Thamma held up a yowling Moab and put him in Pheine's arms before waddling over to her mattress and lying down. "Welcome to the present; deal with it. We'll talk later." She turned on her side and soon fell asleep.

#

Thamma awoke barely an hour later to Moab crying. "Will you feed him, please?" She shifted onto her back and looked at her sister. "Pheine?"

Pheine sat cross-legged, her right hand poised in the air. She held a wool-stuffed cushion over Moab, who lay in her lap.

"Pheine?" Thamma struggled to her feet.

"I can't do it," Pheine croaked, lowering her arm and laying the cushion on the ground, "I can't do it."

Pheine picked up Moab and held him to her breast; he latched onto the nipple and began to nurse. "He's beautiful," she said and burst into tears.

"See, you're not a monster." Thamma cried with her sister.

#

Two days later, Thamma gave birth to a son and named him Ben-Ami. The sisters never saw their father again. Arad's elders ruled that, in Lot's absence, all of his property belonged to Pheine and Thamma. The sisters took the flocks north to Mamre to consult with their Uncle Abraham, who received them with grace and compassion. When Abraham later moved his family south and then to Gerar, Pheine and Thamma stayed in Mamre for a while before journeying to the lands east of the Dead Sea.

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No Fury
by ZVBM

All rights reserved. Content may not be copied or used either in whole or in part without the author's explicit consent.

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Postscript #1:

As a "religious" orthodox Jew, it always bugs me when religious Jews & Christians, usually of a more fundamentalist bent, see the Bible as an adult version of a first grade reader, i.e. with everything very simply and simplistically laid out, no depth, no use of simile, metaphor & allegory, no layers of meaning, and with shallow, uncomplex, made-out-of-cardboard monochrome characters who never have mixed motives and who are more caricature than character. (This is not my Bible.) There are many Biblical characters whom these people will break their teeth on. While Samson & Saul spring to mind, Lot tops the list. Lot fascinates me precisely because he is complex, tragic and because he can teach us, um, a lot, even though he is a fairly minor supporting player.

Lot wanders, first with grandfather Terah from Ur to Haran, then with Uncle Abram from Haran to Canaan to Egypt & back to Canaan again. Then he goes off to Sodom. Then he is taken captive and hauled all the way up to near Damascus before being rescued by Uncle Abram. Then he goes back to Sodom. Then he is forced to leave Sodom. His physical wandering is matched by his spiritual wandering. Lot's not at home with godly Uncle Abram because there's too much of ungodly Sodom in him. But neither is Lot really at home in ungodly Sodom, there's too much of godly Uncle Abram in him. Lot is torn & is at home nowhere. Lot never finds his place in the world; wherever he is, he wanders on the fringes. If "Outsider" was one of Jung's archetypes, Lot would be it.

Postscript #2:

About my use of "non-historical language". I highly doubt that Lot & his family spoke King James Version English or the proto-Hebrew/Canaanite equivalent thereof. ("What?!!" thou sayest, "Verily the Hebrew doth jest!") And I further doubt that the ancient Hebrew & ancient Canaanite (mutually-intelligible sister-languages) were all high-falutin' & rarefied. No, they spoke a colloquial lingo & that's how I wrote "No Fury".

 

[Gjallarhorn]

It was interesting. The only thing I wonder is if you meant the reader to get the idea that the sin of Sodom was homosexuality or rape?

Inhospitality actually.

 

[ZVBM]

Hello Egyptian Phoenix and Gjallarhorn!

The only thing I wonder is if you meant the reader to get the idea that the sin of Sodom was homosexuality or rape?

I really didn't think about that when I wrote the story; I just wanted to write a good (hopefully) story.

But now that you mention it, traditional (i.e. orthodox) Jewish sources tend to emphasize not so much the attempted (homosexual) gangrape as they do Sodom's miserliness and unkindness to strangers, and cite Ezekiel 16:49

Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: Pride, fulness of bread, and careless ease was in her and in her daughters; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy

in this regard. (Notice what's not mentioned.)

ZVBM

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Oh it had 3 parts. I liked it. Its not easy to attempt this with the bible. Kudos.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Really it was well written.