Sodom

Sodom is a city of the Plain of the Jordan, named with Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar, and remembered for the cry of its sin and the brimstone-and-fire overthrow that left its land salt and burning. Once Lot's neighbor and host to two angels, Sodom becomes scripture's standing illustration of judgment, named back at Israel, at Jerusalem, at Babylon, at Edom, at Moab and Ammon, and finally at the city where the Lord was crucified.

The Plain of the Jordan

Before its destruction, the country around Sodom is well-watered land. "And Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw all the Plain of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, before [the Speech of] Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of Yahweh, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar" (Gen 13:10). The table of nations sets Sodom at the southeastern reach of the Canaanite border: "And the border of the Canaanite was from Sidon, as you go toward Gerar, to Gaza; as you go toward Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim, to Lasha" (Gen 10:19). When Abram and Lot separate, Lot moves toward this country: "Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the Plain, and moved his tent as far as Sodom" (Gen 13:12).

The War of the Kings

Sodom first appears in narrative action in the campaign of Chedorlaomer. Bera king of Sodom joins Birsha of Gomorrah, Shinab of Admah, Shemeber of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (Zoar) against the four eastern kings (Gen 14:1-3). After twelve years' service and a thirteenth-year revolt, Chedorlaomer and his allies sweep through the surrounding peoples and meet the five kings in the valley of Siddim, "the Salt Sea" (Gen 14:4-9). "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. And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way. And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed" (Gen 14:10-12).

Wickedness and the Cry

The men of Sodom are named wicked from their first appearance: "Now the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners against Yahweh exceedingly" (Gen 13:13). Their sin rises as a cry that reaches Yahweh. "And Yahweh said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to its [Sodom's] cry, which has come to me; and if not, I will know" (Gen 18:20-21). The narrative of Genesis 19 shows the cry made plain: when two angels lodge with Lot, "the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter; and they called to Lot, and said to him, Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them" (Gen 19:4-5). Lot pleads, "I pray you⁺, my brothers, don't act so wickedly" (Gen 19:7); the men press at the door until the visitors strike them with blindness (Gen 19:9-11). The visitors then say, "we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxed great before Yahweh: and Yahweh has sent us to destroy it" (Gen 19:13).

Abraham's Intercession

Between the cry's announcement and the overthrow stands Abraham's dialogue. Yahweh does not hide what he is about to do (Gen 18:17-19). Abraham draws near and asks, "Will you consume the righteous with the wicked? . . . Far be that from you to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be that from you: will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen 18:23, 25). The exchange descends by stages — fifty, forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty, ten — and at each step Yahweh agrees to spare the place for the sake of that number of righteous (Gen 18:26-32). "And Yahweh went his way, as soon as he had left off communing with Abraham" (Gen 18:33).

The Overthrow

The angels arrive at Sodom in the evening; Lot meets them in the gate and presses them into his house (Gen 19:1-3). After the assault on the door, they hurry Lot, his wife, and his daughters out of the city: "Arise, take your wife, and your two daughters who are here, or else you will be consumed in the iniquity of the city" (Gen 19:15). When Lot lingers, Yahweh's mercy moves the men to lay hold of his hand (Gen 19:16). They charge him, "Escape for your soul; don't look behind you, neither stop in all the Plain; escape to the mountain, or else you will be consumed" (Gen 19:17). Lot pleads for the small city of Zoar, and is granted it (Gen 19:18-22). "The sun was risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then [the Speech of] Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Yahweh out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt" (Gen 19:23-26). Looking back from his place before Yahweh, Abraham sees the smoke of the land go up "as the smoke of a furnace" (Gen 19:27-28). "And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the Plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt" (Gen 19:29). Sirach remembers the same event compactly: "And he did not spare the place where Lot sojourned; Those who were furious in their pride" (Sir 16:8). Luke's later witness states the day plainly: "but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all" (Lu 17:29).

A Burning Land

The land left behind becomes scripture's image of barren judgment. The whole country is "brimstone, and salt, [and] a burning, [that] it is not sown, nor bears, nor any grass grows in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which [the Speech of] Yahweh overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath" (Deut 29:23). The vine that grows from this soil is bitter: "For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, And of the fields of Gomorrah: Their grapes are grapes of gall, Their clusters are bitter" (Deut 32:32).

Sodom as the Pattern of Judgment

Later prophecy returns to Sodom whenever a comparable overthrow is in view. Babylon's coming end is named in Sodom's terms: "And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah" (Isa 13:19). Edom's: "As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities, says Yahweh, a man will not dwell there, neither will any son of man sojourn in it" (Jer 49:18). Babylon's again, in nearly the same words: "As when [the Speech of] God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities, says Yahweh, so a man will not dwell there, neither will any son of man sojourn in it" (Jer 50:40). Moab and Ammon's: "Surely Moab will be as Sodom, and the sons of Ammon as Gomorrah, a possession of nettles, and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation" (Zeph 2:9). Israel itself was reduced to a near-Sodom remnant: "[My Speech has] overthrown [cities] among you⁺, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you⁺ were as a brand plucked out of the burning: yet you⁺ have not returned to me, says Yahweh" (Am 4:11). Isaiah and Paul both name the survival of any seed in Israel as itself a deliverance from Sodom's fate: "Except Yahweh of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, we should have been like Gomorrah" (Isa 1:9); "And, as Isaiah has said before, Except Yahweh of hosts had left us a seed, We had become as Sodom, and had been made like Gomorrah" (Rom 9:29).

Sodom Named at Israel and Jerusalem

The figurative use turns the comparison inward. Isaiah addresses Jerusalem's rulers in those words: "Hear the word of Yahweh, you⁺ rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, you⁺ people of Gomorrah" (Isa 1:10). Of his contemporaries' shamelessness Isaiah says, "they declare their sin as Sodom, they do not hide it" (Isa 3:9). Jeremiah indicts Jerusalem's prophets: "they commit adultery, and walk in lies; and they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that none returns from his wickedness: they are all of them to me as Sodom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah" (Jer 23:14). Lamentations holds the daughter of Zion against Sodom and finds her worse: "For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, That was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands were laid on her" (Lam 4:6).

Sister Sodom in Ezekiel

Ezekiel makes Sodom the younger sister of Jerusalem and the elder sister Samaria's mirror (Ezek 16:46). He measures Jerusalem against her and finds Jerusalem the more corrupt: "Yet you have not walked in their ways, nor followed their disgusting behaviors; but, as [if that were] a very little [thing], you were more corrupt than they in all your ways" (Ezek 16:47-48). The named iniquity is specific: "Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And then they were lifted up, and then did disgusting things before me: therefore I took them away as I saw [this]" (Ezek 16:49-50). Jerusalem has so multiplied her own that she has "justified" her sisters by comparison (Ezek 16:51-52). Yet the oracle ends with restoration in view: "I will turn again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and the captivity of your captives in the midst of them" (Ezek 16:53). Sodom, in this passage, was something Jerusalem "was not mentioned by your mouth in the day of your pride" (Ezek 16:56).

The New-Testament Memory

The apostolic writings hold Sodom up as an enacted warning. "Turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, having made them an example to those coming who should live ungodly" (2 Pet 2:6). Jude names the same example with the surrounding cities and the specific charge of sexual depravity and homosexuality: "As Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, which committed sexual depravity and homosexuality as do these [men], are set forth as an example, serving a penalty of eternal fire" (Jude 1:7). At the end of scripture, Sodom returns once more, this time as the spiritual name laid on the city of the Lord's crucifixion: "And their dead bodies [lie] in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified" (Re 11:8).