The Life of Jesus in Harmony | Index

Gomorrah

GOMOR'RAH (go-mor'ra; apparently meaning "submersion"; Arab. ghamara, to "overflow, inundate").

The city in the Jordan Valley (Gen 10:19; 13:10) that, with Sodom, became a type of intolerable wickedness and was destroyed by fire (19:24-28).

The bible points out that the district of the Jordan where Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar were located was exceedingly productive and well populated around 2054 B.C., but that not long afterward it was abandoned. This circumstance is in full agreement with archaeological findings.

These cities were located in the valley of Siddim (Gen 14:3). Probably this was the area at the southern end of the Dead Sea, now covered with water. Somewhere in the vicinity of 2050 B.C. this region was overwhelmed by a great conflagration. The country was said to have been "full of tar pits" (14:10). Bitumen deposits are still to be found in that area. Being on the fault-line forming the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea, and the Arabah, this region has been the scene of earthquakes throughout history.

The salt and free sulfur of this area, now a burned-out region of oil and asphalt, were mingled by an earthquake to form a violent explosion. Evidently salt and sulfur were blasted red-hot into the sky so that literally it rained fire and brimstone over the whole plain (19:24,28). Lot's wife being turned into a pillar of salt is reminiscent of "the Mount of Sodom" known to the Arabs as Jebel Usdum, a five-mile-long salt mass stretching N and S at the southeastern end of the Dead Sea.

Somewhere under the slowly rising water of the southern part of the lake the five cities of the plain are to be found. According to Tacitus's History 5.7 and Josephus's Wars 4.8.4, their ruins were still visible in classical and NT times, not yet being covered with water.