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Sodom and Gomorrah |
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Sodom and Gomorrah |
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People have dwelled around the Dead Sea for at least 5500 years, the earliest date given to some of the settlements directly around the lake's shores. One of the first mentions we have of occupation at the Dead Sea occurs in Genesis 14. We hear an account of a war between King Chedorloamer and his allies against a group of kings who had rebelled against his rule (vss. 1-4): It happened in the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goiim, that they made war with Bera, king of Sodom, and with Birsha, king of Gomorrah, Shinab, king of Admah, and Shemeber, king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar). All these joined together in the valley of Siddim (the same is the Salt Sea). Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year, they rebelled. The rebellious five kings were rulers over cities which became known as the "Cities of the Plain," a collection of cities grouped around the Dead Sea, which included Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar. As the account in Genesis 14 continues, the tide of the battle turns against the five kings (vss. 10-12): Now the valley of Siddim was full of tar pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and they fell there, and those who remained fled to the hills. They took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their food, and went their way. They took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who lived in Sodom, and his goods, and departed. At this point, obligated by family ties, Abraham intervenes, rescuing Lot for the time being. Yet, as the account in Chapter 14 notes, Lot is a citizen of Sodom, upon which the judgment of God falls as recorded a few chapters later in Genesis 19. Before the fire and brimstone descend, Lot requests and is given the opportunity to flee with his family. Realizing that he cannot reach the mountains, Lot asks the destroying angel for an alternative (19:19-24): "See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can't escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die. See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn't it a little one?), and my soul will live." He said to him, "Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. Hurry, escape there, for I can't do anything until you get there." Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then the Lord rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of the sky. He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground. But Lot's wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. The toponym "Zoar" (meaning "small") helps us immensely in locating the general area of the cities of the plains, because it is the only city of the five for whose location we have a definite tradition. On a mosaic map dating from the 6th century AD in a church at Madaba, Zoar is located at the southern end of the Dead Sea . As for Sodom and Gomorrah, one notes (and the Israelites would have noted too) the ruins at Bab edh-Dhra' and Numeira , southeast of the Dead Sea. Both were walled settlements in the middle of the third millennium BC (Early Bronze III) and underwent destruction by fire around 2300 BC, as did a great many cities at that time. Bab dh-Dhra' was the larger of the two, with a seven meter thick wall enclosing about ten acres. Roughly across from Masada, it lies 240 meters below world sea level (about 160 meters above the level of the Dead Sea). Numeira is eight miles to its south.
Later in Genesis 19, we see Lot fleeing Zoar "because he was afraid" and heading for the mountains to a cave. In 1986, investigators discovered the ruins of a 7th-century church on a slope above the modern village of Safi,southeast of the Dead Sea. A stone bearing the inscription "Saint Lot" was discovered on the site, confirming this as the place where pilgrims came to visit Lot's Cave. The cave was reached through the back of the church's north aisle. This sanctuary is clearly memorialized on the Madaba map, which locates it due west of the "little" Zoar. Text by Micah Key © 2007 Near East Tourist Agency (NET) |
