Shalom everyone,
I have recently been watching various documentaries on YouTube about the supposed location of the biblical city of Sodom, and they all came up with different locations. Some of them even tried using the text of the Torah to pinpoint the location, and still came up with differing places. So I decided to try myself to figure out where Sodom was.
It has to be said that, without excavations in the right place, we won’t know where Sodom was. All we can say is where the final editor of Genesis thought it was. So that is what I’m going to try and find out with you: Where did the final editor of Genesis in the 6th century BCE think that Sodom was located?
1. It was somewhere around the Dead Sea
This is the most obvious clue. In describing how the 4 kings of Sumer and Elam went to war against the kings of the 5 cities of the Plain, these cities are described as being in the Valley of the Siddim (‘the Plains’ or ‘the Flatlands’), and it is glossed in the text as meaning the Valley of the Salt Sea, which is the Hebrew term for the Dead Sea Valley:
‘… all of these had joined forces in the Valley of the Siddim – that is, the Salt Sea.’ (MT Gen 14:3 / HEBT Tol. 16:3)
2. It was due east of Gaza
There is a description of the southern borders of Canaan in Genesis. The border goes from Gaza directly across to Sodom:
‘Now the border of the Canaanites ran from Sidon down towards Gerar as far as Gaza; then it ran across towards Sodom and Gomorrah, then to Admah and Zeboyim as far as Lasha.’ (MT Gen 10:19 / HEBT Tol. 11:19)
3. Abraham could see the ruins of Sodom from where he was staying
After the destruction of Sodom, Abraham walked over to where he had said farewell to the angels, and from there he saw the smoking ruins of Sodom:
‘That morning Abraham got up early, and went to the place where he had stood in the presence of Yahveh. He looked down towards Sodom and Gomorrah, across the whole surface of the land of the plain; and when he looked, he beheld smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.’ (MT Gen 19:27-28 / HEBT Toldot 21:28-29)
So the next question is, where was Abraham staying at this time?
4. Abraham was sojourning outside Hebron at the time
It was while Abraham was camped by the Oaks of Mamre, that he was visited by three archangels of God:
‘Now Yahveh appeared to Abraham near the Oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent during the hottest part of the day.’ (MT Gen 18:1 / HEBT Tol. 20:1)
These oaks were located outside of Hebron:
‘So Abram moved his tents and went to live by the Oaks of Mamre in Hebron.’ (MT Gen 13:18a / HEBT Tol. 15:18a)
5. Sodom has to be on the western side of the Dead Sea
When Abraham walked eastward from Hebron towards the Dead Sea, he saw the smoking cities from where he was standing. There is no mention of the angels themselves ever having crossed the Dead Sea, so Sodom has to lie on the western shore of the Dead Sea.
6. It was the first of the cities of the Plain, from south to north
When the southern border of Canaan is described (see above point 2, MT Gen 10:19 / HEBT Tol. 11:19), the first 4 cities are listed as Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim. This must mean that Sodom was the southernmost, and Zeboyim was the northernmost out of the 4.
Whenever all 5 cities are mentioned together, they are always in the same order. Presumably this is the order that you come to them as you travel northwards (for example, in the list of the kings of the area, it says):
‘Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinav king of Admah, Shemever king of Zeboyim, and the king of Bela – that is, Zoar.’ (MT Gen 14:2 / HEBT Tol. 16:2)
Sodom and Admah are mentioned in an Eblaite tablet TM 75.G.2231. About 20,000 cuneiform tablets were found in Ebla (NW Syria), dated to around 2350 BCE (about 500 years before Abraham). So the city genuinely existed; it was a real place.
7. Zoar, the northernmost city, was east of Bethel and Ai
When Avram and Lot were between Bethel and Ai (MT Gen 13:3 / HEBT Toldot 15:3), they looked out towards the area of Zoar, and saw the cities of the Plain. This places Zoar at the northernmost end of the Dead Sea (it is implied that Zoar was the nearest to where they were):
‘So Lot lifted his eyes, and he saw the whole plain of the Jordan, ……. as you go towards Zoar.’ (MT Gen 13:10 / HEBT Toldot 15:10)
The same verse mentions that the area was well-watered, and indeed, the northern end of the Dead Sea is reasonably fertile even to this day.
The location of Sodom
So according to the view of the final editor of the Book of Genesis, Sodom was located at the end of a straight line from Gaza to Hebron to the western shore of the Dead Sea (you can see the places in this link to a google map).
What caused the destruction of Sodom?
One possibility is an earthquake. When the ground shakes, the soil in desert regions takes on the properties of a liquid, and anything built on the sand sinks into the ground, as if it were in quicksand. During the earthquake, buildings could have caught fire from toppled lamps and other domestic flames.
Another possibility is that there was a meteor airburst above the city of Sodom. A meteor doesn’t have to reach the ground to cause destruction. If it explodes in the skies above a place, that can cause widespread devastation as well (the Tunguska event was also such an airburst). Torah describes the destruction coming from the skies:
‘So Yahveh rained down burning sulphur on Sodom and Gomorrah – from Yahveh, from the skies.’ (MT Gen 19:24 / HEBT Tol. 21:25)
Summary
1. It was somewhere around the shores of the Dead Sea
2. It was due east of Gaza and Hebron
3. Abraham could see the ruins of Sodom not far from where he was staying
4. Abraham was sojourning outside Hebron at the time
5. Sodom has to be on the western side of the Dead Sea (since the 2 angels did not cross the Dead Sea to get to Sodom)
6. It was the first of the 5 cities of the Plain, from south to north
7. Zoar, the northernmost city of the 5, was east of Bethel and Ai
Conclusion
From the Eblaite tablets, we know for certain that Sodom existed. From studying these above verses in the Torah, we can say that the editor of Genesis believed that Sodom stood on the western shore of the Dead Sea, due east from Gaza and Hebron. Whether that was its actual location is another matter entirely. After the airburst from a meteorite, it could indeed have sunk well below the sands and been lost to history, never to be seen again. Such an occurrence would require an extensive excavation to discover.