Bitumen

Bitumen is the inflammable mineral substance used in the early narratives as waterproofing and mortar, found native in the Valley of Siddim, and related to the pitch figured in the prophets as the burning material of judgment.

Sealing Noah's Ark

The first appearance of pitch in the narrative is the divine instruction for sealing the ark of gopher wood: "Make an ark of gopher wood. You will make the ark with a series of compartments, and will pitch it inside and outside with pitch" (Gen 6:14). The substance is exhibited as the double-faced sealing-material by which the wooden vessel is made water-tight on both inner and outer surfaces.

Mortar at Babel

In the Babel narrative, bitumen appears as the mortar used to bind the kiln-fired bricks: "And they said one to another, Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and they had bitumen for mortar" (Gen 11:3). Bitumen here functions as the cementing-agent in the construction of the tower.

The Bitumen Pits of Siddim

The Valley of Siddim, where Sodom and Gomorrah lay, is described as a region of natural bitumen-pits — the geological source of the substance: "Now the valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and they fell there, and those who remained fled to the mountain" (Gen 14:10). The pits are the topographical feature that traps the fleeing kings during the war of the four-against-five.

Daubing the Basket of Moses

In the infancy narrative, Moses' mother applies both substances to seal the bulrush ark: "And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with bitumen and with pitch; and she put the child in it, and laid it in the flags by the river's brink" (Ex 2:3). The pairing of bitumen and pitch waterproofs the reed-vessel committed to the Nile.

Edom Turned to Burning Pitch

In the prophetic oracle against Edom, pitch becomes the substance into which the judged land is transmuted: "And the streams of [Edom] will be turned into pitch, and its dust into brimstone, and its land will become burning pitch" (Isa 34:9). Pitch is exhibited here not as inert sealant but as actively burning fuel, paired with brimstone for a Sodom-class conflagration.