v. Gomorrah
Gen 13:13 men of S were wicked and sinners
Gen 18:20 the outcry against S and .. is increased more
Gen 19:24 Jehovah rained on S.. brimstone
Deu 29:23 as it happened in the destruction of S
Deu 32:32 because of the vine of S is their vine
Isa 1:9 if Jehovah of the .. as S we were
Jer 23:14 were all of them to me as S, and their
Lam 4:6 increased .. more than the sin of S, who
Eze 16:46 your younger sister is S, she and her daughters
I love 4:11 like when God upset S ya
Zep 2:9 saith Jehovah .. that Moab shall be like S
Matt 10:15; 11:24
Sodom (Heb. Sedôm, perhaps “burning place”, Deu 23:17; 1Ki 14:24; 1Ki 15:12; 1Ki 22:46; 2Ki 23:7).
Source: Hispanic World Bible Dictionary
The city of Sodom (Vulgate; Hebrew: Sdom) was the first of a federation of five cities in the valley of Siddim, as the Pentapolis region is designated in Gen 14:3.
Contrary to the hypothesis of some specialists, today most scholars place the aforementioned valley in the southern basin of the Dead Sea.
The meaning of siddim is not clear. It could mean †œplain,† and in this case the toponym could refer to the time before the destruction of the cities. But it could also be understood as “demons” or “destruction,” and then the Bible would designate the valley of destruction with a toponym that could only be given after the catastrophe.
The comparisons and combinations of the results due to literary, geological and archaeological research have made plausible the hypothesis that the five cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Adma (Adama), Seboyim and Bela (Zoar) would have been in the site that it occupies today. the Dead Sea and in the vicinity of its current southern basin.
It is also likely that four of those cities were destroyed in the “punitive judgment against Sodom.” Bela (Zoar), to which Lot fled according to the biblical narrative (Gen 19:22-23), was not destroyed, although we do not know which of the present places is the successor of the ancient Zoar.
Geological research has shown as credible a new subsidence of the ground around 1900 BC (that is to say about 150 years before the time of Abraham) and along the great fault of the Jordan, whose victims would have been above all the cities of the valley of Siddim: “Such annihilation was due especially to a great earthquake, which was probably accompanied by eruptions, lightning, release of natural gases, and a general fire” (Jack Finegan, Light from the Ancient Past, 1954). Until that time the Dead Sea would only have reached as far as the ‘tongue’ or narrowing (Hebrew: ha-lason; Arabic: el-lisan), and the southern basin would only have formed then; which coincides perfectly with Gen 14:3 : the valley of Siddim, “which is now called the Sea of Salt.” A reference, if not to historical certainty then to the tradition of ancient Israel, is provided by the word of the prophet Zephaniah , which around 635 BC alluded to the city submerged in the Sea of Salt with these words: “Moab will be like Sodom…, a field of nettles, a mine of salt” (Zeph 9:2).
Archaeological research (Nelson Glück, WF Albright), with its study of surface data on the shores of the Dead Sea and in the near eastern terrain, has proven that the entire region was densely populated until 2000 BC, and that at From that date on, the settlement becomes lighter and lighter, until around 1900 it disappears almost completely and suddenly for six hundred years. The narrator of the stories of Abraham knew of this small population, so that before Lot chose land he could say that the entire region of the Jordan stretched out before his eyes † œas a garden of Yahweh † (Gen 13:10) . Thus, the narrator moves Abraham’s immigration to the time when the country was flourishing, but when the population was already declining little by little.
While the sudden interruption of settlement can easily be related to the catastrophe, it remains an enigma why the villages and smaller towns east of the Salt Sea and in the nearby Negeb disappeared early and the settlers returned to nomadic life. . The solution to the problem has been sought by saying that for a long time the seismic movements had threatened and even destroyed the smaller settlements. But all this does not go beyond the field of hypotheses.
A strong argument in favor of the location of the submerged cities in and near the current southern basin of the Dead Sea is the assertion that, with a favorable position of the sun or the moon on the floor of the southern basin (about 25 m deep), petrified trees and walls covered with salt crusts can be seen. It is possible to be convinced of it and to really see such phenomena; but the spell of that lunar landscape makes the cold observation suspicious. It is too easy to see what you want to see.
The name of the submerged Sodom is still preserved on a gigantic mountain of salt, 3 km long, on the western shore of the southern basin of the Dead Sea. The Arabs designate it to this day as dyebel Usdum.
Possibly the toponym “Sodom” also has something to do with salt. Israeli linguists derive it from sde †˜adom, that is, †œred fields† ; such red fields would be explained by a microbe that still reddens dry boilers today. From which it could be deduced that the people of submerged Sodom were also salt miners and salineros, something perfectly possible given the imposing salt massif and the proximity of the salt sea. We do not know if the old Djebel Usdum galleries, which penetrate up to 300 m into the mountain, and the imposing halls are earlier salt formations or if they first arose with the earthquakes around 1900 BC.
We also do not know if the depravity of the city of Sodom at the time of the first account of the Abrahamic stories was already a firm tradition or if it was a mere narrative invention to explain the destruction of the city; Be that as it may, the names of Sodom and Gomorrah were already in the days of Israel proverbial places of moral corruption. When they were annihilated, there was no question that “Yahveh rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Yahveh, from the heavens” (Gen 19:24), for who but Yahveh can dispose of the forces of nature?
Some specialists believe that the ruins of Teleilat-Ghassul, north of the Dead Sea, would be the two destroyed cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. For this they rely above all on Gen 19:27s: “Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before Yahweh, and looking toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the surrounding land, he saw smoke rising from the earth like smoke from a furnace.† It has been found that Teleilat-Ghassul can be seen from the point considered to be the meeting place, but not the surface of the southern basin of the Dead Sea. But, even if we want to understand Gen 19:27f in an absolutely literal sense, can it be deduced from this text that Abraham personally saw the cities and their destruction? Another argument: the settlement of those cities suddenly ceases at the time in question; but it should be said that by then almost all the cities to the left of the Jordan were depopulated.
Today’s Israel has connected with the south-friendly tradition and a new settlement in the southwestern crook is called Sdom. Sdom is today the great salt mine of Israel.
Source: Dictionary of Bible Geography
City where Lot lived, destroyed by fire and brimstone by the Lord, due to his wickedness: (Gen 13:1-13, Gen 13:19; together with Gomorrah, is now covered by the waters of the Dead Sea: (at the southern end ).
– God’s judgment, and Abraham’s intercession over Sodom, Gen 18:17.
– The terrible destruction, Gen.19.
Christian Bible Dictionary
Dr. J. Dominguez
http://bible.com/dictionary/
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
type, CITY TYPE ARCH
see, MARDIKH
sit, a3, 433, 436
vet, One of the five cities of the Jordan plain (Gen. 13:10). Lot, separating from Abraham, decided to settle in Sodom, despite the terrible reputation of this city (Gen. 13:11-13). Chedorlaomer sacked Sodom (Gen. 14:11), taking Lot captive along with his people. Abraham freed them and recovered their goods (Gen. 14:21-24). Later, God destroyed Sodom and at least three other cities on the plain, because of their wickedness. Divine judgment consumed Sodom in a shower of brimstone and fire that undoubtedly set the many asphalt pits of that valley on fire. Lot and his two daughters escaped the cataclysm (Gen. 19:1-29; Deut. 29:23; Is. 1:9, 10; 3:9; 13:19; Jer. 49:18; 50:40; Lm 4:6; Ezek 16:46-56; Am 4:11; Zeph 2:9; Mt 10:15; 11:24; Lk 10:12; 17:29; Rom 9:29 2 Pet. 2:6; Jude 7). In Revelation the great sinful city is allegorically designated by the names of Sodom and Egypt. The precise location of Sodom has not been able to be determined. There are two arguments that can make us suppose that this city was at the northern end of the plain: (a) From a place near Bethel, Abraham and Lot could see the entire plain of the Jordan (Gen. 13:3, cf. v. 10). However, caution should be exercised with the term “all” in this passage. (b) Chedorlaomer, who came from the south, defeated the Amorites from Hazezon-tamar, that is, En-gedi, before confronting the king of Sodom and his allies (Gen. 14:7, 8), which would seem indicate that they were found between En-gedi and the northern end of the sea. But there are strong arguments for supposing that Sodom was south of the Dead Sea instead. On the one hand, bitumen or asphalt is only abundant at the southern end of the sea (cf. Gen. 14:10). In addition, there is the mention by Josephus that one of the cities, Zoar, was at the southern end of the sea (Wars 4:8, 4). WF Albright, together with other brilliant scholars, has spread the thesis that the five cities could be buried under the waters of the southern gulf, which were between 60 cm deep. and 6m. However, due to the diversion of water from the Jordan for agricultural purposes, and the decrease in the supply to the Dead Sea, a large part of the southern basin was discovered in 1979, which made it possible to explore it. The negative result of the examination of this area, however, is combined with the positive result of the explorations of Bab edh-Dhra, Numeira, Safi, Feifa and Khanazir, which are located on the eastern edge of the Lisan and Ghor plains. Although excavations have only been made of the first two sites (1975-1979), from them, and from the examinations of the last three places, the archaeologists Rast and Schaub have managed to obtain reliable and solid data for their identification with the five cities of the plain (cfr. “Have Sodom and Gomorrah been found”, in Biblical Archeology Review, Sept./Oct. 1980, vol. VI, no. 5, pp. 26-36). All these cities present evidence of having ended in a fierce conflagration. All excavated and field evidence agrees with the biblical account,…