Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

ABRAHAM AND LOT 14~1-12
Jainieson (CECG, 137) : “It is pre-eminently entitled to
be called ‘the salt sea,’ for it is impregnated with saline
qualities far beyond other seas.” It is must noted that it
is not the entire Dead Sea as we lcnow it that is designated
here, but only that part in which the Vale of Siddim was
located. The Valley of Siddiin, writes Speiser (ABG,
IoI), is “apparently the authentic name of the area at
the southern end of the Dead Sea, which was later sub-
merged.” Cf. BBA (56-57): The Cities of the Plain
“were located in what is now the southern portion of the
Dead Sea below the tongue of land lriiown as the Lisan
which protrudes from its eastern shore. . . . Evidence in-
dicates that an earthquake struck the area about 1900
B.C. The petroleum and gases of the region helped produce
a conflagration which totally obliterated the Cities of the
Plain.’’ Cf. NBD (299) : “The concentrated chemical de-
posits (salt, potash, magnesium, and calcium chlorides and
bromide, 25 per cent of the water), which give the Dead
Sea is buoyancy and its fatal effects on fish, may well have
been ignited during an earthquake and caused the rain of
brimstone and fire destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. . . .
Archaeological evidence suggests a break of several centuries
in the sedentary occupation from early in the second
millenium B.C. A hill of salt (Jebel Usdum, Mt. Sodom)
at the southwest corner is eroded into strange forms, in-
cluding pillars which are shown as ‘Lot’s Wife’ by local
Arabs. (Cf. Wisdom x. 7). Salt was obtained from the
shore (Ezek. 47:11), and the Nabateans traded in the
bitumen which floats on the surface.” (cf. 14:10, 19:23-
28). Kraeling contributes like evidence (BA, 68) : ‘Vale
of Siddim’ is apparently a name for the district at the
south end of the Dead Sea, It is described as full of slime
pits (R.S.V., bitumen pits), which proved disastrous for
the fleeing defenders (cf. v. 10). We have previously
noted that the Dead Sea at times spews up some bitumen
or asphalt. Whether there originally were asphalt pits or
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