(9) Character. That Lot was a good man is evinced by his deliverance from among the guilty, and is affirmed by St.Peter (2 Pet. ii :7) : his pres ervation is alluded to by our Savior (Luke xvii :18, etc.) ; and in Deut. ii :9, 19, and Ps. lxxxiii :9, his name is used to designate the Moab hes and Ammonites, his descendants.
2. Lot (Heb. same as foregoing) is mentioned in two passages of Scripoire, in both of which it is erroneously translated myrrh in the Authorized Version, In Gen. xxxvii:25, 'Behold a company of Ish maelites came from Gilead with their camels bear ing spicery (nceolh ), and balm (tceri), and myrrh (lot), going to carry it down to Egypt.' Again, in ch. xliii:11, Jacob directs his sons to take into Egypt 'of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm (iceri), and a little honey, spices (necoth), and myrrh (/ot), nuts (bointm), and almonds (slzakadim): In this enumeration, in one case, of merchandise, and in the other, of several articles intended for a present, and both destined for Egypt, at that time a highly civilized nation, it is evident that we are to look only for such substances as were likely to be acceptable in that country, and therefore not such as were produced there, or as were more easily procura ble front elsewhere than from Syria, as was the case with myrrh, which was never produced in Syria, and could not have been an article of ex port from thence. This difficulty has been felt by others, and various translations of /at have been proposed, as /otus, chestnuts, mastiche, stacte, balsam, turpentine, pistachio nuts. Junius and
Tremellius render it ladanum, which is suitable, and appears to be correct.
Ladammt, or gum ladanum, as it is often called, was known to the Greeks as early as the times of Herodotus and Theophrastus, and bore the names of /cdon and ladanon, which are very closely allied to ladun, the Arabic name of the same drug. It has been well observed by Rosen miiller, that: the proper root and origin of these names is led, but that the Hebrew has the hard consonant 1 instead of the softer d.
Tournefort, in modern times, has given a de tailed description of the mode of obtaining ladanum, and relates that it is now gathered by means of a kind of rake with whip-like thongs, which is passed over the plants. When these thongs are loaded with the odoriferous and sticky resin, they are scraped with a knife. It consists of resin and volatile oil, and is highly fragrant, and stimulant as a medicine, but is often adulterated with sand in commerce. Ladanum seems to have been produced in Judma, according to writcrs in the Talmud (Cels. /. c. p. 286.) It is said by Pliny, as long before by Herodotus, to be a produce of Arabia, though this has not been proved to be the case in modern times. Sufficient, however, has been adduced to show thit Wanton was known to, and esteemed by, the ancients, and as its Greek and Arabic names are similar to the Hebrew, and as it is stated to have been a produce of Syria it was very likely to have been sent to Egypt both as a present and as merchandise. (See Mvartn.) J. F. R.