Gomorrah

Etymology

The etymology of the names Sodom and Gomorrah is uncertain, and scholars disagree about their origins. According to Burton MacDonald, the Hebrew term for Gomorrah was based on the Semitic root ʿ-m-r, which means "be deep, copious (water)".

They are known in Hebrew as סְדֹם (Səḏôm) and עֲמֹרָה (ʿĂmôrā). In the Septuagint, these became Σόδομα (Sódoma) and Γόμορρᾰ (Gómorrha); Biblical Hebrew ghayn merged with ayin after the Septuagint was transcribed.

Biblical narrative

Lot and Chedorlaomer

Sodom and Gomorrah are among the "cities of the plain" referred to when Abraham and Lot resolve their conflict over land: Lot, the nephew of the Hebrew patriarch Abraham, chose to settle in the Jordan Valley and "moved his tent as far as Sodom". The cities were distinct entities at this time: Genesis 14:2 states that Bera was king of Sodom and Birsha was king of Gomorrah.

The two cities rebel against Chedorlaomer of Elam, to whom they were subject. At the Battle of Siddim, Chedorlaomer defeats them and takes many captives, including Lot. Abraham gathers his men, rescues Lot, and frees the cities.

Destruction of the cities

Later, God resolves to inform Abraham of his plans for Sodom, because God's knowledge or choice of Abraham meant that Abraham would "keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice", while Sodom had acquired a reputation for wickedness. Abraham asks God "Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?" Starting at 50 people, Abraham negotiates with God, securing God's agreement to spare Sodom if ten righteous people could be found.

God sends two angels or messengers to destroy Sodom. They arrive in the evening and propose to spend the night in the town square, but Lot persuades them to stay with him and welcomes them into his home. Late in the evening, all the men of the town surround the house and demand that Lot surrender the visitors, that they may "know" them. Lot offers the mob his virgin daughters to "do to them as you please", but they refuse and threaten to do worse to Lot. The angels strike the crowd blind.

The messengers tell Lot, "For we are about to destroy this place; because the outcry against them before יהוה has become so great that יהוה has sent us to destroy it." (Genesis 19:13). The next morning, because Lot had lingered, the messengers took Lot, Lot's wife, and his two daughters by the hand and out of the city, and told him to flee to the hills and not look back. Lot says that the hills are too far away and asks to go to Zoara in the Transjordan instead, travelling there overnight (Genesis 19:23). God then rains sulfur (or brimstone) and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah and all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and "what grew on the ground" (Genesis 19:24–25). Lot and his two daughters are saved, but his wife disregards the angels' warning, looks back, and is turned into a pillar of salt.

Sodom and Gomorrah feature in the story of Lot's daughters (Genesis 19:29).

Other biblical references

The Hebrew Bible contains several other references to Sodom and Gomorrah. The New Testament also contains passages of parallels to the destruction and surrounding events that pertained to these cities and those who were involved. Later deuterocanonical texts attempt to glean additional insights about these cities of the Jordan Plain and their residents. Additionally, the sins which triggered the destruction are reminiscent of the Book of Judges' account of the Levite's concubine.

Hebrew Bible

"Sodom and Gomorrah" becomes a byword for destruction and desolation. Deuteronomy

29:21–23 refers to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah:

And the generation to come, your children that shall rise up after you, and the foreigner that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses wherewith the LORD hath made it sick; and that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and a burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His anger, and in His wrath; even all the nations shall say 'Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger?'

Isaiah 1:9–10, 3:9 and 13:19–22 address people as from Sodom and Gomorrah, associates Sodom with shameless sinning and tells Babylon that it will end like those two cities.

Jeremiah 23:14, 49:17–18, 50:39–40 and Lamentations 4:6 associate Sodom and Gomorrah with adultery and lies, prophesy the fate of Edom (south of the Dead Sea), predict the fate of Babylon and use Sodom as a comparison.

Ezekiel 16:48–50 compares Jerusalem to Sodom, sayingAs I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom: pride, fulness of bread, and careless ease was in her and in her daughters; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before Me; therefore I removed them when I saw it.

In Amos 4:1–11, God tells the Israelites that although he treated them like Sodom and Gomorrah, they still did not repent.

In Zephaniah 2:9, Zephaniah tells Moab and Ammon that they will end up like Sodom and Gomorrah.

Deuterocanon

Wisdom 10:6–8 refers to the Five Cities:Wisdom rescued a righteous man when the ungodly were perishing; he escaped the fire that descended on the Five Cities. Evidence of their wickedness still remains: a continually smoking wasteland, plants bearing fruit that does not ripen, and a pillar of salt standing as a monument to an unbelieving soul. For because they passed wisdom by, they not only were hindered from recognizing the good, but also left for mankind a reminder of their folly, so that their failures could never go unnoticed.

Wisdom 19:17 says that the Egyptians who enslaved the Israelites were "struck with blindness, like the men of Sodom who came to the door of that righteous man Lot. They found themselves in total darkness, as each one groped around to find his own door."

Sirach 16:8 says that "[God] did not spare the neighbors of Lot, whom he loathed on account of their insolence".

In 3 Maccabees 2:5, the high priest Simon says that God "consumed with fire and sulfur the men of Sodom who acted arrogantly, who were notorious for their vices; and you made them an example to those who should come afterward".

2 Esdras 2:8–9 says "Woe to you, Assyria, who conceal the unrighteous in your midst! O wicked nation, remember what I did to Sodom and Gomor'rah, whose land lies in lumps of pitch and heaps of ashes. So will I do to those who have not listened to me, says the Lord Almighty."

2 Esdras 5:1–13 describes signs of the end times, one of which is that "the sea of Sodom shall cast up fish".

In 2 Esdras 7:106, Ezra says that Abraham prayed for the people of Sodom.

Chapter 12 of 1 Meqabyan, a book considered canonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, references "Gemorra an Sedom".

New Testament

In Matthew 10:14–15 (cf. Luke 10:11–12) Jesus says:

And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgement, than for that city.

In Matthew 11:20–24, Jesus warns of the fate of some cities where he did some of his works:

And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades. For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you.

In Luke 17:28–30, Jesus says: Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded, but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even thus will it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.

Romans 9:29 refers to the words of Isaiah 1:9: "And as Isaiah predicted, "If the Lord of hosts had not left survivors to us, we would have fared like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah."

2 Peter 2:4–10 says that just as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and saved Lot, he will deliver godly people from temptations and punish the wicked on Judgement Day.

Jude 1:7 records that both Sodom and Gomorrah "indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire".

Revelation 11:7–8, regarding the two witnesses, reads:

When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that is prophetically called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. This wording is rendered "Sodom or Egypt" in some translations.

The sin of Sodom

In the Hebrew Bible, God destroyed Sodom for its sins, but in the Genesis story, no sin is singled out as the cause of this destruction. Other texts, including apocrypha such as the Book of Jubilees, attributed a variety of sins, both sexual and nonsexual, to the inhabitants of Sodom. Over time, "unnatural" sex began to be more predominantly included among these, and eventually homosexuality was interpreted as the primary sin of Sodom. Since 1955, scholars increasingly view the great sin of Sodom to be one of inhospitable treatment of guests. Much of the debate in modern interpretation of the greatest sin of Sodom, and relatedly, whether the story concerns or condemns homosexuality, rests upon interpreting the moment the mob from Sodom confronts Lot about his guests. The idea that the sins of Sodom were sexual in nature seems to be an innovation (deviation) of Philo of Alexandria. The homophobic Christian interpretation began in the 6th century AD, becoming fully accepted Church dogma in the 12th century AD.

Origin of the term sodomy

Sodom and Gomorrah, or the "cities of the plain", have been used historically and in modern discourse as metaphors for homosexuality, and are the origin of the English words sodomite, a pejorative term for male homosexuals; "sod", a British vulgar slang term for male homosexuals; and sodomy, which is used in a legal context under the label crimes against nature to describe anal or oral sex (particularly homosexual) and bestiality.

This is based upon Christian exegesis of the biblical text interpreting divine judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah as punishment for the sin of homosexual sex. Byrne Fone, in Homophobia: A History, analyzes the history of theological discourse surrounding Sodom and Gomorrah. He locates the origin of the argument that sodomy was sinful to a contested reading of one word in the story. Citing Sodom and Gomorrah, Christian authorities began to label and condemn acts of sodomy as the worst of all sexual sins, and one of the worst crimes in general. For many centuries, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah was used by the church to justify criminalization of sexual practices between men, and people labeled sodomites were often punished by execution. Western nations followed with similar criminalization of male homosexuality and sexual practices between men, and thousands of people were executed since 1292 under these laws.

Later, the term sodomite became an insult used against enemies of the church, regardless of sexuality or perceived sexual activity. The term began to be used on the basis of geography, ethnicity, and religion. Sodomy trials were also used by authorities against opponents, because some laws allowed the seizure of property and assets once someone was convicted of sodomy. Sodomy began to be decriminalized in Europe during the Age of Enlightenment: this process began when writers like Voltaire and the Marquis de Sade argued for tolerance of sodomy and dropping the death penalty. By the 1900s, the term sodomy began to leave legal discourse, and with the popularity of new terms like homosexual and heterosexual, people started to debate or condemn same-gender sexuality using the new terms instead.

Hospitality interpretation

A number of contemporary scholars dispute the interpretation that the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah concern homosexuality. Scholars cite Ezekiel 16:49–50, quoted above, and interpret the sin as arrogance and lack of hospitality. As with Ezekiel, later prophetic reproaches of Sodom and Gomorrah do not condemn, implicate, or even mention homosexual conduct as the reason for the cities' destruction: instead assigning the blame to other sins, such as adultery, dishonesty, and uncharitableness.

Some Islamic societies incorporate punishments associated with Sodom and Gomorrah into sharia.

Historicity

In the event the story has a historical basis, some naturalistic explanations have been proposed to explain the devastation of the cities as described in the Bible including a natural disaster. The Dead Sea area could have been devastated by an earthquake between 2100 and 1900 BC which then might have unleashed showers of steaming tar. This is possible in view of the fact that the location of the towns as described in the Bible would have been along a major fault such as the Jordan Rift Valley. There are, however, no known contemporary accounts of seismic activity that corroborate this theory. This and the suggestion that they were destroyed by a volcano have been deemed unlikely. The hypothesis that the disaster was a meteor airburst, such as the Tunguska incident, has also been dismissed. Some also argue that the story is a blend of actual locations and events rather than a singular historical incident.

Possible sites

Archibald Sayce translated an Akkadian poem describing cities that were destroyed in a rain of fire and written from the view of a person who escaped the destruction; unfortunately, the names of the cities are not given in the work. Sayce later mentions that the story more closely resembles the doom of Sennacherib's host.

The ancient Greek historiographer Strabo states that locals living near Moasada (as opposed to Masada) say that "there were once thirteen inhabited cities in that region of which Sodom was the metropolis". Strabo identifies a limestone and salt hill at the southwestern tip of the Dead Sea, and Mount Sodom (Hebrew: הר סדום, Har Sedom or Arabic: جبل السدوم, Jabal as-Sudūm) ruins nearby as the site of biblical Sodom.

The Jewish historian Josephus identifies the Dead Sea in geographic proximity to the ancient biblical city of Sodom. He refers to the lake by its Greek name, Asphaltites. Some scholars believe that the locations of the two cities are currently flooded beneath the southern basin of the Dead Sea.

In 1973, Walter E. Rast and R. Thomas Schaub discovered or visited a number of possible sites of the cities, including Bab edh-Dhra, which was originally excavated in 1965 by archaeologist Paul Lapp, and later finished by Rast and Schaub following Lapp's death. Other possibilities include Numeira, al-Safi, Feifa (or Fifa, Feifah), and Khirbet al-Khanazir, which were also visited by Schaub and Rast. According to Schaub, Numeira was destroyed in 2600 BC at a different time period than Bab edh-Dhra (2350–2067 BC). However, Kris J. Udd proposed that the date of destruction of Numeira and that of Bab edh-Dhra could be lowered to 2100–2050 BC and 2000–1950 BC respectively.

In 1993, Nancy Lapp, from the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, reported that Feifa had no Bronze Age occupation and was merely an Early Bronze Age cemetery with Iron Age walls. She reports:

In the final season of the present series of excavations of the Expedition to the Dead Sea Plain (1990–1991), the walled site of Feifa was investigated and the EB [Early Bronze Age] cemetery that stretched to its east was excavated. The most recent surveys suggested that the visible structures of the walled site belonged to the Iron Age or Roman period. At Khirbet al-Khanazir, the walls which Rast and Schaub had identified in 1973 as houses were in reality rectangular charnel houses marking shaft tombs from near the end of the Early Bronze Age and not occupational structures.

Religious views

Judaism

Later Hebrew prophets named the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah as adultery, pridefulness, and uncharitableness.

Rictor Norton views classical Jewish texts as stressing the cruelty and lack of hospitality of the inhabitants of Sodom to the "stranger". Rabbinic writings affirm that the Sodomites also committed economic crimes, blasphemy, and bloodshed. Other extrabiblical crimes committed by Sodom and Gomorrah included extortion on crossing a river, harshly punishing victims for crimes that the perpetrator committed, forcing an assault victim to pay for the perpetrator's "bloodletting" and forcing a woman to marry a man who intentionally caused her miscarriage to compensate for the lost child. Because of this, the judges of the two cities were referred to as Shakrai ("Liar"), Shakurai ("Awful Liar"), Zayyafi ("Forger") and Mazle Dina ("Perverter of Justice"). Eliezer was reported to be a victim of such legally unjust conduct, after Sarah sent him to Sodom to report on Lot's welfare. The citizens also regularly tortured foreigners who sought lodging. They did this by providing the foreigners a standard-sized bed and if they saw that the foreigners were too short for the beds, they would forcibly stretch their limbs, but if the foreigners were too tall, they would cut off their legs (the Greek myth of Procrustes tells a similar story). As a result, many people refrained from visiting Sodom and Gomorrah. Beggars who settled into the two cities for refuge were similarly mistreated. The citizens would give them marked coins (presumably used to purchase food) but were nonetheless forbidden, by proclamation, to provide these necessary services. Once the beggar died of starvation, citizens who initially gave the beggar the coins were permitted to retrieve them, provided that they could recognize it. The beggar's clothing was also provided as a reward for any citizen who could successfully overcome his opponent in a street fight.

The provision of bread and water to the poor was also a capital offense (Yalḳ., Gen. 83). Two girls, one poor and the other rich, went to a well, and the former gave the latter her jug of water, receiving in return a vessel containing bread. When this became known, both were burned alive. According to the Book of Jasher, Paltith, one of Lot's daughters, was burnt alive (in some versions, on a pyre) for giving a poor man bread. Her cries went to the heavens. Another woman was similarly executed in Admah for giving a traveler, who intended to leave the town the next day, water. When the scandal was revealed, the woman was stripped naked and covered with honey. This attracted bees as the woman was slowly stung to death (see Scaphism). Her cries then went up into the heavens, the turning point that was revealed to have provoked God to enact judgement upon Sodom and Gomorrah in the first place in Genesis 18:20. Lot's wife (who came from Sodom) had disapproved of her husband welcoming the strangers into their home; her asking for salt from neighbors had alerted the mob which came to Lot's door. As punishment, she was turned into a pillar of salt.

Christianity

Two areas of contention have arisen in modern Christian scholarship concerning the story of Sodom and Gomorrah:

Whether or not the violent mob surrounding Lot's house were demanding to engage in sexual violence against Lot's guests.

Whether it was homosexuality or another transgression, such as the act of inhospitable behavior towards visitors, the act of sexual assault, murder, theft, adultery, idolatry, power abuses, or prideful and mocking behavior, that was the principal reason for God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

The first contention focuses primarily upon the meaning of the Hebrew verb Hebrew: ידע (yada), translated as know in the King James Version:

And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? Bring them out unto us, that we may know them.

Yada is used to refer to sexual intercourse in various instances, such as in Genesis 4:1 between Adam and Eve:

And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.

Some Hebrew scholars believe that yada, unlike the English word "know", requires the existence of a "personal and intimate relationship". For this reason, many of the most popular of the 20th-century translations, including the New International Version, the New King James Version, and the New Living Translation, translate yada as "have sex with" or "know ... carnally" in Genesis 19:5.

Those who favor the nonsexual interpretation argue against a denotation of sexual behavior in this context, noting that while the Hebrew word for "know" appears over 900 times in the Hebrew Bible, only 1% (13–14 times) of those references are clearly used as a euphemism for realizing sexual intimacy. Instead, those who hold to this interpretation see the demand to know as demanding the right to interrogate the strangers.

Islam

The Quran contains twelve references to "the people of Lut", the biblical Lot, the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah presumably, and their destruction by God which is associated primarily with their idolatrous practices.

The "people of Lut" transgressed consciously against the bounds of God. Lot only prayed to God to be saved from doing as they did. Then Gabriel met Lot and said that he must leave the city quickly, as God had given this command to Lot to save his life. In the Quran, it was written that Lot's wife stayed behind, as she had transgressed. She met her fate in the disaster, and only Lot and his family were saved during the destruction of their city, with the understanding that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are identified in Genesis, but "the location remains unnamed in the Qur'an".

The Quran, chapter 15 (The Stoneland) –

So the (mighty) Blast overtook them before morning, And We turned the cities ˹of Sodom and Gomorrah˺ upside down and rained upon them stones of baked clay. Surely in this are signs for those who contemplate. Their ruins still lie along a known route.

In the Quran, chapter 26 (The Poets) –

So, We saved him and his family, all. Except an old woman among those who remained behind.

Commentary: This was his wife, who was a bad old woman. She stayed behind and was destroyed with whoever else was left. This is similar to what Allah says about them in Surat Al-A`raf and Surat Hud, and in Surat Al-Hijr, where Allah commanded him to take his family at night, except for his wife, and not to turn around when they heard the Sayhah as it came upon his people. So they patiently obeyed the command of Allah and persevered, and Allah sent upon the people a punishment which struck them all, and rained upon them stones of baked clay, piled up.

Gnosticism

A different idea is found in the Paraphrase of Shem, a Gnostic text from the literature of the Nag Hammadi library. In this narrative, the figure Shem, who is guided by a spiritual savior named Derdekeas, brings his universal teaching of secret knowledge (gnosis) to the citizens of Sodom before the city is unjustly destroyed by the base nature of the demon of human form.