town or village

Sodom

• Today in the Valley of Siddim
• Location disputed

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Questions

• Where was Sodom?

History

Sodom was the chief of the five cities of the plain of the Jordan, with Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Bela, which is Zoar. Genesis describes the plain as well watered, like the garden of the Lord, before its destruction, and places the battle of the four kings with the five in the vale of Siddim, "which is the salt sea". Where Sodom stood is unknown. Ancient writers looked for it at the south end of the Dead Sea, near Zoar, and this map marks it in the south.

The southern candidates are Early Bronze Age towns on the plain east of the Dead Sea's southern basin. Bab edh-Dhra, found by W. F. Albright's survey in 1924, had a walled town and a vast cemetery; Paul Lapp excavated the cemetery in 1965–1967, and after Walter Rast and Thomas Schaub surveyed nearby Numeira, Safi, Feifa and Khanazir in 1973, these sites were compared with the cities of the plain. Others object that they are too small, too early and in the wrong place, and the dates of their ends are themselves disputed. A different proposal, made by Steven Collins, who has dug there since the mid-2000s, puts Sodom at Tall el-Hammam, north-east of the Dead Sea. In 2021 a paper claimed that an airburst destroyed that city about 1650 BC; it was corrected twice and retracted by its journal in 2025 after critics found errors in its methods and in its reading of the data.

In Genesis, Lot settles near Sodom, whose people are "wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly"; Abraham pleads for the city, and the Lord rains brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, while Lot escapes to Zoar. Later the prophets and Jesus himself name Sodom as the byword for judgement: Isaiah calls the rulers of Jerusalem rulers of Sodom, Ezekiel names her sin as pride, fulness of bread, idleness and neglect of the poor, and Jude and 2 Peter hold it up as an example.

Strabo, about the turn of the era, heard from local people that thirteen cities had once stood near Masada, with Sodom as their capital, and that earthquakes, fire and hot waters full of asphalt and sulphur had destroyed them. Josephus wrote that the land of Sodom beside the lake was burnt up and that traces of five cities could still be seen. In the fourth century Eusebius placed Sodom near the Dead Sea and noted that Zoar, the one city spared, was still inhabited, with a Roman garrison.

Scripture: Gen 13:10–13; Gen 14:1–12; Gen 18:20–33; Gen 19:1–29; Isa 1:10; Ezek 16:49; Matt 10:15; 2 Pet 2:6; Jude 1:7

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (50)

Gen 10:19

And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha.

Gen 13:10

And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.

Gen 13:12

Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.

Gen 13:13

But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.

Gen 14:2

That these 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.

Gen 14:8

And there went out the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Admah, and the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar;) and they joined battle with them in the vale of Siddim;

Gen 14:10

And the vale of Siddim was full of slimepits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there; and they that remained fled to the mountain.

Gen 14:11

And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way.

Gen 14:12

And they took Lot, Abram’s brother’s son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.

Gen 14:17

And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king’s dale.

Gen 14:21

And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.

Gen 14:22

And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth,

Gen 18:16

And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom: and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way.

Gen 18:20

And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;

Gen 18:22

And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD.

Gen 18:26

And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.

Gen 19:1

And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;

Gen 19:4

But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter:

Gen 19:24

Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;

Gen 19:28

And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.

Deut 29:23

And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:

Deut 32:32

For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:

Isa 1:9

Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

Isa 1:10

Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

Isa 3:9

The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.

Isa 13:19

And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

Jer 23:14

I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.

Jer 49:18

As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the LORD, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it.

Jer 50:40

As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the LORD; so shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein.

Lam 4:6

For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.

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King James Version