Genesis 19, part 2

The story of Lot's daughters is quite sordid. For some reason they don't consider any alternatives to what they chose to do, like making thier father take them to live with Uncle Abraham's family. No, the only solution to their plight is to get their old father drunk and have him impregnate each of them without him knowing anything about it. Does this seem highly implausible to anyone else? Of course, once is all it  takes and soon they both deliver sons who become the fathers of the Moabite and Ammonite nations. I would guess that this little gem of a story is supposed to be an etiological account of how the Moabites and Ammonites came into existence, and was written by someone who wasn't very fond of them.

One of the earliest extra-biblical accounts of Moabites is from the time of Pharoah Ramesses II, in the 13th century B.C.E., over 500 years from the time of this story, if we follow Ussher's Chronology. They continue to be mentioned in other sources until the Persian era.

A significant source of information about the Moabites is the Mesha Stele from about 840 B.C.E. , over 1000 years from the supposed date of this story. The Mesha Stele shows that the Moabites and Israelites (supposed descendants of Abraham) were mortal enemies at the time it was inscribed. Interestingly, it contains the earliest confirmed extra-biblical mention of  Abraham's God Yahweh. Where was God for the three thousand years (by the bible) that came before that?

The earliest extra-biblical evidence I can find for the Ammonites is from the 10th century B.C.E. Both the regions of Moab and Ammon were east of the Jordan and had more natural resources than the Canaanite hill country. They also lay along lucrative trade routes.

This chapter is the last appearance of Lot. Apparently Abraham has nothing more to do with him.