SODOM (n'm ; IS6Sodua; Sodoma), the chief city of the Pentapoiis, situated in the valley of the Jordan. There are various opinions as to the meaning of the word Sodom. Primeval names of places were generally descriptive ; and it might throw some light on the site of this ancient city and on the features of the district in which it stood, could the signification of its name be discovered. This cannot now be done with certainty. It may be from an obsolete root equivalent to tr_rtq, to burn,' and might thus mean burning,' a significa tion applicable to the bituminous plain of Siddim, in or near which it was situated ; or the same word may signify a cultivated field,' and may have been derived from that fertile circuit of the Jordan which the sacred writer states was like the garden of the Lord' (Gen. xiii. ro). Philology throws no clearer light than this on Sodom's wondrous mystery.
The exact geographical position of Sodom is nowhere described with such accuracy in the Bible as absolutely to determine its site. When giving the bounds of the territory colonised by the old Canaanites, the sacred writer locates Sodom witb Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Lasha, in a group at the south-eastern angle (x. 19). A more definite description is given in the narrative of the separa tion of Abraham and Lot (xiii.) The patriarchs were standing on the summit of the ridge east of Bethel, which commands a portion of the plain of Jericho and of the Dead Sea beyond it. And Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the circuit NM) of the Jordan, that it was all well watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, towards Zoar' (v. io). Sodom stood in the cir cuit of the Jordan ;' but this term is indefinite. It may mean, and probably in its widest sense did mean (cE PLAIN, 5), the whole valley of the Jordan from Tiberias southward ; or it may have been ap plied in a more restricted sense to what may be called the valley of the Dead Sea basin. But whatever may be its specific meaning here, it would unquestionably be an overstraining of the words to say that Lot absolutely saw the whole of the region.
If it included merely the plain of Jericho, as some seem to suppose, this would not be strictly tnie, for the intervening hills cover a large section of its western side. The meaning evidently is, that Lot saw so much of the circuit of the Jordan,' and of its rich fields and pastures, as gave him a general idea of the whole.
Another point deserves notice. The circuit of the Jordan' extended towards Zoar' (11/V MNZ). This remark might determine the bounds of the circuit, but unfortunately the site of Zoar is dis puted. It Will be shown, however, that it pro bably stood at the south-east angle of the Dead Sea [Zomt); and if so the circuit of the Jordan' must have included the whole of the Dead Sea basin.
It has been alleged that because the Jordan falls into the Dead Sea at the northern end, the district talled the circuit of the Jordan' could not have extended farther south. This statement has no weight. Names derived from rivers and towns often extend to a wide region ; and the very word circuit would seem to denote a district defined by some great natural boundaries, such as the moun tain-ranges which shut in the Jordan valley. It is not uncommon in the present day for geographers to give the name Jordan valley' to the whole valley reaching from Hermon to Jebel Usdom. It would seem from the statement in ver. 12 that whatever may have been the bounds of the circuit of the Jordan,' Sodom was situated near its ex tremity ; for it is said, 'Lot dwelt in the cities of the circuit, and pitched his tents as far as Sodom' ontiny). Sodom appears to have been the limits of his selected region.
The words of Scripture, therefore, lead to no such conclusion as that Sodom must have been situated to the north of the Dead Sea. They are very indefinite ; but they seem on careful and criti cal examination to render it probable that Sodom stood much farther south—a view which, as will be seen, is confirmed by other considerations.