Reference: Sodom
American
One of the cities of the plain, and for some time the dwelling-place of Lot, Ge 13:10-13; 14:12. Its crimes and vices were so enormous, that God destroyed it by fire from heaven, with three neighboring cities, Gomorrah, Zeboim, and Admah, which were as wicked as itself, Ge 19:1-20. The plain of Siddim in which they stood was pleasant and fruitful, like an earthy paradise; but it was first burned, and afterwards mostly overflowed by the waters of the Dead Sea or Lake of Sodom. See JORDAN, and SEA 3. The prophets, in denouncing woes upon other countries, mention the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and intimate that these places shall be desert and dried up and uninhabited, Jer 49:18; 50:40; that they shall be covered with briers and brambles, a land of salt and sulphur, where can be neither planting nor sowing, De 29:23; Am 4:11. Throughout Scripture the ruin of Sodom and Gomorrah is represented as a most signal effect of God's anger, and as a mirror in which those living at ease in sin and lust may see their own doom. The name is given in Re 11:8, to the great and corrupt city of antichrist. "Sodomites" were men addicted to the beastly lusts alluded in Ge 19; 1Ki 14:24; Ro 1:26-27.
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And Lot, lifting up his eyes and looking an the valley of Jordan, saw that it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord had sent destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah; it was like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, on the way to Zoar. So Lot took for himself all the valley of Jordan, and went to the east, and they were parted from one another. read more. Abram went on living in the land of Canaan, and Lot went to the lowland towns, moving his tent as far as Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were evil, and great sinners before the Lord.
And in addition they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who was living in Sodom, and all his goods.
And at nightfall the two angels came to Sodom; and Lot was seated at the way into the town: and when he saw them he got up and came before them, falling down on his face to the earth. And he said, My masters, come now into your servant's house and take your rest there for the night, and let your feet be washed; and early in the morning you may go on your way. And they said, Not so, but we will take our night's rest in the street. read more. But he made his request more strongly, so they went with him into his house; and he got food ready for them, and made unleavened bread, of which they took. But before they had gone to bed, the men of the town, all the men of Sodom, came round the house, young and old, from every part of the town; And crying out to Lot, they said, Where are the men who came to your house this night? Send them out to us, so that we may take our pleasure with them. And Lot went out to them in the doorway, shutting the door after him. And he said, My brothers, do not this evil. See now, I have two unmarried daughters; I will send them out to you so that you may do to them whatever seems good to you: only do nothing to these men, for this is why they have come under the shade of my roof. And they said, Give way there. This one man, they said, came here from a strange country, and will he now be our judge? now we will do worse to you than to them; and pushing violently against Lot, they came near to get the door broken in. But the men put out their hands and took Lot into the house to them, shutting the door again. But the men who were outside the door they made blind, all of them, small and great, so that they were tired out with looking for the door. Then the men said to Lot, Are there any others of your family here? sons-in-law or sons or daughters, take them all out of this place; For we are about to send destruction on this place, because a great outcry against them has come to the ears of the Lord; and the Lord has sent us to put an end to the town. And Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were married to his daughters, Come, let us go out of this place, for the Lord is about to send destruction on the town. But his sons-in-law did not take him seriously. And when morning came, the angels did all in their power to make Lot go, saying, Get up quickly and take your wife and your two daughters who are here, and go, for fear that you come to destruction in the punishment of the town. But while he was waiting, the men took him and his wife and his daughters by the hand, for the Lord had mercy on them, and put them outside the town. And when they had put them out, he said, Go for your life, without looking back or waiting in the lowland; go quickly to the mountain or you will come to destruction. And Lot said to them, Not so, O my Lord; See now, your servant has had grace in your eyes and great is your mercy in keeping my life from destruction, but I am not able to get as far as the mountain before evil overtakes me and death; This town, now, is near, and it is a little one: O, let me go there (is it not a little one?) so that my life may be safe.
And that all the land is a salt and smoking waste, not planted or giving fruit or clothed with grass, but wasted like Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, on which the Lord sent destruction in the heat of his wrath:
And more than this, there were those in the land who were used for sex purposes in the worship of the gods, doing the same disgusting crimes as the nations which the Lord had sent out before the children of Israel.
As at the downfall of Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbouring towns, says the Lord, no man will be living in it, no son of man will have a resting-place there.
As when Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbouring towns were overturned by God, says the Lord, so no man will be living in it, and no son of man will have a resting-place there.
And I have sent destruction among you, as when God sent destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick pulled out of the fire: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord.
For this reason God gave them up to evil passions, and their women were changing the natural use into one which is unnatural: And in the same way the men gave up the natural use of the woman and were burning in their desire for one another, men doing shame with men, and getting in their bodies the right reward of their evil-doing.
And their dead bodies will be in the open street of the great town, which in the spirit is named Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was put to death on the cross.
Easton
burning; the walled, a city in the vale of Siddim (Ge 13:10; 14:1-16). The wickedness of its inhabitants brought down upon it fire from heaven, by which it was destroyed (Ge 18:16-33; 19:1-29; De 23:17). This city and its awful destruction are frequently alluded to in Scripture (De 29:23; 32:32; Isa 1:9-10; 3:9; 13:19; Jer 23:14; Eze 16:46-56; Zep 2:9; Mt 10:15; Ro 9:29; 2Pe 2:6, etc.). No trace of it or of the other cities of the plain has been discovered, so complete was their destruction. Just opposite the site of Zoar, on the south-west coast of the Dead Sea, is a range of low hills, forming a mass of mineral salt called Jebel Usdum, "the hill of Sodom." It has been concluded, from this and from other considerations, that the cities of the plain stood at the southern end of the Dead Sea. Others, however, with much greater probability, contend that they stood at the northern end of the sea. [in 1897].
Illustration: Jebel Usdom and South End of the Dead Sea
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And Lot, lifting up his eyes and looking an the valley of Jordan, saw that it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord had sent destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah; it was like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, on the way to Zoar.
Now in the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goiim, 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 (which is Zoar). read more. All these came together in the valley of Siddim (which is the Salt Sea). For twelve years they were under the rule of Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they put off his control. And in the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the kings who were on his side, overcame the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim, And the Horites in their mountain Seir, driving them as far as El-paran, which is near the waste land. Then they came back to En-mishpat (which is Kadesh), making waste all the country of the Amalekites and of the Amorites living in Hazazon-tamar. And the king of Sodom with the king of Gomorrah and the king of Admah and the king of Zeboiim and the king of Bela (that is Zoar), went out, and put their forces in position in the valley of Siddim, Against Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goiim, and Amraphel, king of Shinar, and Arioch, king of Ellasar: four kings against the five. Now the valley of Siddim was full of holes of sticky earth; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah were put to flight and came to their end there, but the rest got away to the mountain. And the four kings took all the goods and food from Sodom and Gomorrah and went on their way. And in addition they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who was living in Sodom, and all his goods. And one who had got away from the fight came and gave word of it to Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the holy tree of Mamre, the Amorite, the brother of Eshcol and Aner, who were friends of Abram. And Abram, hearing that his brother's son had been made a prisoner, took a band of his trained men, three hundred and eighteen of them, sons of his house, and went after them as far as Dan. And separating his forces by night, he overcame them, putting them to flight and going after them as far as Hobah, which is on the north side of Damascus. And he got back all the goods, and Lot, his brother's son, with his goods and the women and the people.
And the men went on from there in the direction of Sodom; and Abraham went with them on their way. And the Lord said, Am I to keep back from Abraham the knowledge of what I do; read more. Seeing that Abraham will certainly become a great and strong nation, and his name will be used by all the nations of the earth as a blessing? For I have made him mine so that he may give orders to his children and those of his line after him, to keep the ways of the Lord, to do what is good and right: so that the Lord may do to Abraham as he has said. And the Lord said, Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is very great, and their sin is very evil, I will go down now, and see if their acts are as bad as they seem from the outcry which has come to me; and if they are not, I will see. And the men, turning from that place, went on to Sodom: but Abraham was still waiting before the Lord. And Abraham came near, and said, Will you let destruction come on the upright with the sinners? If by chance there are fifty upright men in the town, will you give the place to destruction and not have mercy on it because of the fifty upright men? Let such a thing be far from you, to put the upright to death with the sinner: will not the judge of all the earth do right? And the Lord said, If there are fifty upright men in the town, I will have mercy on it because of them. And Abraham answering said, Truly, I who am only dust, have undertaken to put my thoughts before the Lord: If by chance there are five less than fifty upright men, will you give up all the town to destruction because of these five? And he said, I will not give it to destruction if there are forty-five. And again he said to him, By chance there may be forty there. And he said, I will not do it if there are forty. And he said, Let not the Lord be angry with me if I say, What if there are thirty there? And he said, I will not do it if there are thirty. And he said, See now, I have undertaken to put my thoughts before the Lord: what if there are twenty there? And he said, I will have mercy because of the twenty. And he said, O let not the Lord be angry and I will say only one word more: by chance there may be ten there. And he said, I will have mercy because of the ten. And the Lord went on his way when his talk with Abraham was ended, and Abraham went back to his place.
And at nightfall the two angels came to Sodom; and Lot was seated at the way into the town: and when he saw them he got up and came before them, falling down on his face to the earth. And he said, My masters, come now into your servant's house and take your rest there for the night, and let your feet be washed; and early in the morning you may go on your way. And they said, Not so, but we will take our night's rest in the street. read more. But he made his request more strongly, so they went with him into his house; and he got food ready for them, and made unleavened bread, of which they took. But before they had gone to bed, the men of the town, all the men of Sodom, came round the house, young and old, from every part of the town; And crying out to Lot, they said, Where are the men who came to your house this night? Send them out to us, so that we may take our pleasure with them. And Lot went out to them in the doorway, shutting the door after him. And he said, My brothers, do not this evil. See now, I have two unmarried daughters; I will send them out to you so that you may do to them whatever seems good to you: only do nothing to these men, for this is why they have come under the shade of my roof. And they said, Give way there. This one man, they said, came here from a strange country, and will he now be our judge? now we will do worse to you than to them; and pushing violently against Lot, they came near to get the door broken in. But the men put out their hands and took Lot into the house to them, shutting the door again. But the men who were outside the door they made blind, all of them, small and great, so that they were tired out with looking for the door. Then the men said to Lot, Are there any others of your family here? sons-in-law or sons or daughters, take them all out of this place; For we are about to send destruction on this place, because a great outcry against them has come to the ears of the Lord; and the Lord has sent us to put an end to the town. And Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were married to his daughters, Come, let us go out of this place, for the Lord is about to send destruction on the town. But his sons-in-law did not take him seriously. And when morning came, the angels did all in their power to make Lot go, saying, Get up quickly and take your wife and your two daughters who are here, and go, for fear that you come to destruction in the punishment of the town. But while he was waiting, the men took him and his wife and his daughters by the hand, for the Lord had mercy on them, and put them outside the town. And when they had put them out, he said, Go for your life, without looking back or waiting in the lowland; go quickly to the mountain or you will come to destruction. And Lot said to them, Not so, O my Lord; See now, your servant has had grace in your eyes and great is your mercy in keeping my life from destruction, but I am not able to get as far as the mountain before evil overtakes me and death; This town, now, is near, and it is a little one: O, let me go there (is it not a little one?) so that my life may be safe. And he said, See, I have given you your request in this one thing more: I will not send destruction on this town. Go there quickly, for I am not able to do anything till you have come there. For this reason, the town was named Zoar. The sun was up when Lot came to Zoar. Then the Lord sent fire and flaming smoke raining down from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah. And he sent destruction on those towns, with all the lowland and all the people of those towns and every green thing in the land. But Lot's wife, looking back, became a pillar of salt. And Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had been talking with the Lord: And looking in the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the lowland, he saw the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of an oven. So it came about that when God sent destruction on the towns of the lowland, he kept his word to Abraham, and sent Lot safely away when he put an end to the towns where he was living.
No daughter of Israel is to let herself be used as a loose woman for a strange god, and no son of Israel is to give himself to a man.
And that all the land is a salt and smoking waste, not planted or giving fruit or clothed with grass, but wasted like Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, on which the Lord sent destruction in the heat of his wrath:
For their vine is the vine of Sodom, from the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are the grapes of evil, and the berries are bitter:
If the Lord of armies had not kept some at least of us safe, we would have been like Sodom, and the fate of Gomorrah would have been ours. Give ear to the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; let your hearts be turned to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah.
Their respect for a man's position is a witness against them; and their sin is open to the view of all; like that of Sodom, it is not covered. A curse on their soul! for the measure of their sin is full.
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beautiful town which is the pride of the Chaldaeans, will be like God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
And in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a shocking thing; they are untrue to their wives, walking in deceit, and they make strong the hands of evil-doers, so that a man may not be turned back from his evil-doing: they have all become like Sodom to me, and its people like Gomorrah
Your older sister is Samaria, living at your left hand, she and her daughters: and your younger sister, living at your right hand, is Sodom and her daughters. Still you have not gone in their ways or done the disgusting things which they have done; but, as if that was only a little thing, you have gone deeper in evil than they in all your ways. read more. By my life, says the Lord, Sodom your sister never did, she or her daughters, what you and your daughters have done. Truly, this was the sin of your sister Sodom: pride, a full measure of food, and the comforts of wealth in peace, were seen in her and her daughters, and she gave no help to the poor or to those in need. They were full of pride and did what was disgusting to me: and so I took them away as you have seen. And Samaria has not done half your sins; but you have made the number of your disgusting acts greater than theirs, making your sisters seem more upright than you by all the disgusting things which you have done. And you yourself will be put to shame, in that you have given the decision for your sisters; through your sins, which are more disgusting than theirs, they are more upright than you: truly, you will be shamed and made low, for you have made your sisters seem upright. And I will let their fate be changed, the fate of Sodom and her daughters, and the fate of Samaria and her daughters, and your fate with theirs. So that you will be shamed and made low because of all you have done, when I have mercy on you. And your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, will go back to their first condition, and Samaria and her daughters will go back to their first condition, and you and your daughters will go back to your first condition. Was not your sister Sodom an oath in your mouth in the day of your pride,
For this cause, by my life, says the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, truly Moab will become like Sodom and the children of Ammon like Gomorrah, given up to waste plants and salt pools and unpeopled for ever: the rest of my people will take their property, the overflow of my nation will take their heritage.
Truly I say to you, It will be better for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of God's judging than for that town.
Fausets
Chief of the group Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Bela or Zoar (Ge 10:19; 13:3,10-13,18; Lu 17:29; 2Pe 2:6; Jg 1:4-7; Mr 6:11; Mt 10:15; De 29:23). (See GOMORRAH.) Palmer and Drake traversing the Negeb in a S.E. direction, as far as Mount Hor, made a detour to jebel ("mount") Madherah. At its summit and base are blocks of stone, of which the Arabs say: "a people once dwelt there, to whom travelers came seeking hospitality; but the people did to them a horrible deed, wherefore the Almighty in anger rained down stones, and destroyed them from off the face of the earth." Sodom is interpreted "burning" or else "vineyard" (Gesenius), "fortification" (Furst).
Abraham could see the smoke of the burning cities from near Hebron. The Lord over night announced to him Sodom's doom, at some spot on the way from Mamre or Hebron toward Sodom, to which he had accompanied the angels (Ge 18:16). Tradition says the spot was Caphar Berucha, from which the Dead Sea is visible through a ravine. Long ranges of hills intervene between Hebron and Sodom, but from the hill over Hebron or Mamre through a gap in the chain the whole district of the Jordan valley is visible. Lot at first pitched only towards Sodom, not until afterward did he go further south to Sodom itself (Ge 13:12; 14:12; and Ge 14:3 says expressly the vale of Siddim is the Salt Sea). This favors the S. of the Dead Sea site for Sodom, etc., which the traditional names confirm.
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Their country stretching from Zidon to Gaza, in the direction of Gerar; and to Lasha, in the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim.
And travelling on from the South, he came to Beth-el, to the place where his tent had been before, between Beth-el and Ai;
And Lot, lifting up his eyes and looking an the valley of Jordan, saw that it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord had sent destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah; it was like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, on the way to Zoar. So Lot took for himself all the valley of Jordan, and went to the east, and they were parted from one another. read more. Abram went on living in the land of Canaan, and Lot went to the lowland towns, moving his tent as far as Sodom.
Abram went on living in the land of Canaan, and Lot went to the lowland towns, moving his tent as far as Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were evil, and great sinners before the Lord.
And Abram, moving his tent, came and made his living-place by the holy tree of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and made an altar there to the Lord.
All these came together in the valley of Siddim (which is the Salt Sea).
And in addition they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who was living in Sodom, and all his goods.
And the men went on from there in the direction of Sodom; and Abraham went with them on their way.
And that all the land is a salt and smoking waste, not planted or giving fruit or clothed with grass, but wasted like Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, on which the Lord sent destruction in the heat of his wrath:
And Judah went up; and the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hands; and they overcame ten thousand of them in Bezek. And they came across Adoni-zedek, and made war on him; and they overcame the Canaanites and the Perizzites. read more. But Adoni-zedek went in flight; and they went after him and overtook him, and had his thumbs and his great toes cut off. And Adoni-zedek said, Seventy kings, whose thumbs and great toes had been cut off, got broken meat under my table: as I have done, so has God done to me in full. And they took him to Jerusalem, and he came to his end there.
Truly I say to you, It will be better for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of God's judging than for that town.
And whatever place will not take you in and will not give ear to you, when you go away, put off the dust from your feet as a witness against them.
Hastings
Morish
Sod'om Sodoma. Sod'oma
This city is first mentioned as a boundary of the Canaanites. Ge 10:19. Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom, but it is recorded that the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked before the Lord. Afterwards he dwelt therein, and was carried away captive when Sodom was taken by the five kings from the East. It is related that about the time when God fulfilled His promise of a son to Abraham, the cry of Sodom and their grievous sin had come up to Him, and He communicated to Abraham His intention to destroy the city; but, on the pleading of Abraham, He said He would not destroy it if there were ten righteous persons found therein; ten, however, were not found. Lot, his wife, and two daughters were rescued by two angels, and God rained down fire and brimstone on the place, and it was utterly destroyed. Though it was doubtless in the vicinity of the Salt Sea, its site cannot be identified. Ge 14:2-22; 18:16-32; 19:1-28.
Sodom is regarded in scripture as a symbol of wickedness. Isaiah calls the heads of Judah the 'rulers of Sodom.' Isa 1:10; cf. Eze 16:46-56; Re 11:8. The Lord, to show the exceeding wickedness of rejecting Him, after hearing His gracious words and seeing His mighty works, declared that it would be more tolerable in a day of judgement for Sodom than for the cities that rejected Him. Lu 10:12. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha, both as to its suddenness and completeness, is held up as a warning to sinners of coming judgements. Lu 17:29; Jude 1:7. In Ro 9:29 it is called SODOMA.
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Their country stretching from Zidon to Gaza, in the direction of Gerar; and to Lasha, in the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim.
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 (which is Zoar). All these came together in the valley of Siddim (which is the Salt Sea). read more. For twelve years they were under the rule of Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they put off his control. And in the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the kings who were on his side, overcame the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim, And the Horites in their mountain Seir, driving them as far as El-paran, which is near the waste land. Then they came back to En-mishpat (which is Kadesh), making waste all the country of the Amalekites and of the Amorites living in Hazazon-tamar. And the king of Sodom with the king of Gomorrah and the king of Admah and the king of Zeboiim and the king of Bela (that is Zoar), went out, and put their forces in position in the valley of Siddim, Against Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goiim, and Amraphel, king of Shinar, and Arioch, king of Ellasar: four kings against the five. Now the valley of Siddim was full of holes of sticky earth; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah were put to flight and came to their end there, but the rest got away to the mountain. And the four kings took all the goods and food from Sodom and Gomorrah and went on their way. And in addition they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who was living in Sodom, and all his goods. And one who had got away from the fight came and gave word of it to Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the holy tree of Mamre, the Amorite, the brother of Eshcol and Aner, who were friends of Abram. And Abram, hearing that his brother's son had been made a prisoner, took a band of his trained men, three hundred and eighteen of them, sons of his house, and went after them as far as Dan. And separating his forces by night, he overcame them, putting them to flight and going after them as far as Hobah, which is on the north side of Damascus. And he got back all the goods, and Lot, his brother's son, with his goods and the women and the people. And when he was coming back after putting to flight Chedorlaomer and the other kings, he had a meeting with the king of Sodom in the valley of Shaveh, that is, the King's Valley. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, the priest of the Most High God, took bread and wine, And blessing him, said, May the blessing of the Most High God, maker of heaven and earth, be on Abram: And let the Most High God be praised, who has given into your hands those who were against you. Then Abram gave him a tenth of all the goods he had taken. And the king of Sodom said to Abram, Give me the prisoners and take the goods for yourself. But Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have taken an oath to the Lord, the Most High God, maker of heaven and earth,
And the men went on from there in the direction of Sodom; and Abraham went with them on their way. And the Lord said, Am I to keep back from Abraham the knowledge of what I do; read more. Seeing that Abraham will certainly become a great and strong nation, and his name will be used by all the nations of the earth as a blessing? For I have made him mine so that he may give orders to his children and those of his line after him, to keep the ways of the Lord, to do what is good and right: so that the Lord may do to Abraham as he has said. And the Lord said, Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is very great, and their sin is very evil, I will go down now, and see if their acts are as bad as they seem from the outcry which has come to me; and if they are not, I will see. And the men, turning from that place, went on to Sodom: but Abraham was still waiting before the Lord. And Abraham came near, and said, Will you let destruction come on the upright with the sinners? If by chance there are fifty upright men in the town, will you give the place to destruction and not have mercy on it because of the fifty upright men? Let such a thing be far from you, to put the upright to death with the sinner: will not the judge of all the earth do right? And the Lord said, If there are fifty upright men in the town, I will have mercy on it because of them. And Abraham answering said, Truly, I who am only dust, have undertaken to put my thoughts before the Lord: If by chance there are five less than fifty upright men, will you give up all the town to destruction because of these five? And he said, I will not give it to destruction if there are forty-five. And again he said to him, By chance there may be forty there. And he said, I will not do it if there are forty. And he said, Let not the Lord be angry with me if I say, What if there are thirty there? And he said, I will not do it if there are thirty. And he said, See now, I have undertaken to put my thoughts before the Lord: what if there are twenty there? And he said, I will have mercy because of the twenty. And he said, O let not the Lord be angry and I will say only one word more: by chance there may be ten there. And he said, I will have mercy because of the ten.
And at nightfall the two angels came to Sodom; and Lot was seated at the way into the town: and when he saw them he got up and came before them, falling down on his face to the earth. And he said, My masters, come now into your servant's house and take your rest there for the night, and let your feet be washed; and early in the morning you may go on your way. And they said, Not so, but we will take our night's rest in the street. read more. But he made his request more strongly, so they went with him into his house; and he got food ready for them, and made unleavened bread, of which they took. But before they had gone to bed, the men of the town, all the men of Sodom, came round the house, young and old, from every part of the town; And crying out to Lot, they said, Where are the men who came to your house this night? Send them out to us, so that we may take our pleasure with them. And Lot went out to them in the doorway, shutting the door after him. And he said, My brothers, do not this evil. See now, I have two unmarried daughters; I will send them out to you so that you may do to them whatever seems good to you: only do nothing to these men, for this is why they have come under the shade of my roof. And they said, Give way there. This one man, they said, came here from a strange country, and will he now be our judge? now we will do worse to you than to them; and pushing violently against Lot, they came near to get the door broken in. But the men put out their hands and took Lot into the house to them, shutting the door again. But the men who were outside the door they made blind, all of them, small and great, so that they were tired out with looking for the door. Then the men said to Lot, Are there any others of your family here? sons-in-law or sons or daughters, take them all out of this place; For we are about to send destruction on this place, because a great outcry against them has come to the ears of the Lord; and the Lord has sent us to put an end to the town. And Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were married to his daughters, Come, let us go out of this place, for the Lord is about to send destruction on the town. But his sons-in-law did not take him seriously. And when morning came, the angels did all in their power to make Lot go, saying, Get up quickly and take your wife and your two daughters who are here, and go, for fear that you come to destruction in the punishment of the town. But while he was waiting, the men took him and his wife and his daughters by the hand, for the Lord had mercy on them, and put them outside the town. And when they had put them out, he said, Go for your life, without looking back or waiting in the lowland; go quickly to the mountain or you will come to destruction. And Lot said to them, Not so, O my Lord; See now, your servant has had grace in your eyes and great is your mercy in keeping my life from destruction, but I am not able to get as far as the mountain before evil overtakes me and death; This town, now, is near, and it is a little one: O, let me go there (is it not a little one?) so that my life may be safe. And he said, See, I have given you your request in this one thing more: I will not send destruction on this town. Go there quickly, for I am not able to do anything till you have come there. For this reason, the town was named Zoar. The sun was up when Lot came to Zoar. Then the Lord sent fire and flaming smoke raining down from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah. And he sent destruction on those towns, with all the lowland and all the people of those towns and every green thing in the land. But Lot's wife, looking back, became a pillar of salt. And Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had been talking with the Lord: And looking in the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the lowland, he saw the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of an oven.
Give ear to the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; let your hearts be turned to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah.
Your older sister is Samaria, living at your left hand, she and her daughters: and your younger sister, living at your right hand, is Sodom and her daughters. Still you have not gone in their ways or done the disgusting things which they have done; but, as if that was only a little thing, you have gone deeper in evil than they in all your ways. read more. By my life, says the Lord, Sodom your sister never did, she or her daughters, what you and your daughters have done. Truly, this was the sin of your sister Sodom: pride, a full measure of food, and the comforts of wealth in peace, were seen in her and her daughters, and she gave no help to the poor or to those in need. They were full of pride and did what was disgusting to me: and so I took them away as you have seen. And Samaria has not done half your sins; but you have made the number of your disgusting acts greater than theirs, making your sisters seem more upright than you by all the disgusting things which you have done. And you yourself will be put to shame, in that you have given the decision for your sisters; through your sins, which are more disgusting than theirs, they are more upright than you: truly, you will be shamed and made low, for you have made your sisters seem upright. And I will let their fate be changed, the fate of Sodom and her daughters, and the fate of Samaria and her daughters, and your fate with theirs. So that you will be shamed and made low because of all you have done, when I have mercy on you. And your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, will go back to their first condition, and Samaria and her daughters will go back to their first condition, and you and your daughters will go back to your first condition. Was not your sister Sodom an oath in your mouth in the day of your pride,
I say to you, It will be better in that day for Sodom than for that town.
But on the day when Lot went out of Sodom, fire came down from heaven and destruction came on them all.
And, as Isaiah had said before, If the Lord of armies had not given us a seed, we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah.
Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the towns near them, having like these, given themselves up to unclean desires and gone after strange flesh, have been made an example, undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.
And their dead bodies will be in the open street of the great town, which in the spirit is named Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was put to death on the cross.
Smith
Sod'om
(burning), one of the most ancient cities of Syria. It is commonly mentioned in connection with Gomorrah, but also with Admah and Zeboim, and on one occasion --
... --with Bela or Zoar. Sodom was evidently the chief town in the settlement. The four are first named in the ethnological records of
as belonging to the Canaanites. The next mention of the name of Sodom,
gives more certain indication of the position of the city. Abram and Lot are standing together between Bethel and Ai, ver. 3, taking a survey of the land around and below them. Eastward of them, and absolutely at their feet, lay the "circle of Jordan." The whole circle was one great oasis --"a garden of Jehovah." ver. 10. In the midst of the garden the four cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim appear to have been situated. It is necessary to notice how absolutely the cities are identified with the district. In the subsequent account of their destruction,
... the topographical terms are employed with all the precision which is characteristic of such early times. The mention of the Jordan is conclusive as to the situation of the district, for the Jordan ceases where it enters the Dead Sea, and can have no existence south of that point. The catastrophe by which they were destroyed is described in
... as a shower of brimstone and fire from Jehovah. However we may interpret the words of the earliest narrative, one thing is certain --that the lake was not one of the agents in the catastrophe. From all these passages, though much is obscure, two things seem clear:
1. That Sodom and the rest of the cities of the plain of Jordan stood on the north of the Dead Sea;
2. That neither the cities nor the district were submerged by the lake, but that the cities were overthrown and the land spoiled, and that it may still be seen in its desolate condition. When, however, we turn to more modern views, we discover a remarkable variance from these conclusions.
1. The opinion long current that the five cities were submerged in the lake, and that their remains--walls, columns and capitals--might he still discerned below the water, hardly needs refutation after the distinct statement and the constant implication of Scripture. But,
2. A more serious departure from the terms of the ancient history is exhibited in the prevalent opinion that the cities stood at the south end of the lake. This appears to, have been the belief of Josephus and Jerome. It seems to have been universally held by the medieval historians and pilgrims, and it is adopted by modern topographers probably without exception. There are several grounds for this belief; but the main point on which Dr. Robinson rests his argument is the situation of Zoar. (a) "Lot," says he, "fled to Zoar, which was near to Sodom; and Zoar lay almost at the southern end of the present sea, probably in the month of Wady Kerak." (b) Another consideration in favor of placing the cities at the southern end of the lake is the existence of similar names in that direction. (c) A third argument, and perhaps the weightiest of the three, is the existence of the salt mountain at the south of the lake, and its tendency to split off in columnar masses presenting a rude resemblance to the human form. But it is by no means certain that salt does not exist at other spots round the lake. (d) (A fourth and yet stronger argument is drawn from the fact that Abraham saw the smoke of the burning cities from Hebron. (e) A fifth argument is found in the numerous lime-pits found at that southern end of the Dead Sea. Robinson, Schaff, Baedeker, Lieutenant Lynch and others favor this view. --ED.) It thus appears that on the situation of Sodom no satisfactory conclusion can at present be readied: On the one hand, the narrative of Genesis seems to state positively that it lay at the northern end of the Dead Sea. On the other hand, long-continued tradition and the names of the existing spots seem to pronounce with almost equal positiveness that it was at its southern end. Of the catastrophe which destroyed the city and the district of Sodom we can hardly hope ever to form a satisfactory conception. Some catastrophe there undoubtedly was but what secondary agencies, besides fire, were employed in the accomplishment of the punishment cannot be safely determined in the almost total absence of exact scientific description of the natural features of the ground round the lake. We may suppose, however, that the actual agent in the ignition and destruction of the cities had been of the nature of a tremendous thunder-storm accompanied by a discharge of meteoric stones, (and that these set on fire the bitumen with which the soil was saturated, and which was used in building the city. And it may be that this burning out of the soil caused the plain to sink below the level of the Dead Sea, and the waters to flow over it--if indeed Sodom and its sister cities are really under the water.--ED.) The miserable fate of Sodom and Gomorrah is held up as a warning in numerous passages of the Old and New Testaments.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Their country stretching from Zidon to Gaza, in the direction of Gerar; and to Lasha, in the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim.
And Lot, lifting up his eyes and looking an the valley of Jordan, saw that it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord had sent destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah; it was like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, on the way to Zoar. So Lot took for himself all the valley of Jordan, and went to the east, and they were parted from one another. read more. Abram went on living in the land of Canaan, and Lot went to the lowland towns, moving his tent as far as Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were evil, and great sinners before the Lord.
Now in the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goiim,
And at nightfall the two angels came to Sodom; and Lot was seated at the way into the town: and when he saw them he got up and came before them, falling down on his face to the earth.
And at nightfall the two angels came to Sodom; and Lot was seated at the way into the town: and when he saw them he got up and came before them, falling down on his face to the earth.
And the Pharisees came out and put questions to him, requesting from him a sign from heaven, testing him.
For certain men have come among you secretly, marked out before in the holy Writings for this evil fate, men without the fear of God, turning his grace into an unclean thing, and false to our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Now it is my purpose to put you in mind, though you once had knowledge of all these things, of how the Lord, having taken a people safely out of Egypt, later sent destruction on those who had no faith; read more. And the angels who did not keep to their kingdom but went out from the place which was theirs, he has put in eternal chains and in dark night till the great day of the judging. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the towns near them, having like these, given themselves up to unclean desires and gone after strange flesh, have been made an example, undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.
Watsons
SODOM, the capital of Pentapolis, which for some time was the residence of Lot, the nephew of Abraham. The history of its destruction is given in the book of Genesis. See ABRAHAM, See LOT, and See DEAD SEA.