Soder. See Soldek,
So'di (Heb. Sodi', inio, intimate; Sept. "Eov^i), fa- ther of the Zebulunite spy Gaddiel at the Exode (Numb, xiii, 10). B.C. ante 1657.
Sod'om (Heb. Sedom', Dip, meaning uncertain [see below]; Sept. and New Test, [ra] ^oCofia; Jose- phus, S(5^0jUrt, Ant. i, 9, 1 ; Vulg. Sodoma^, an ancient city in the vale of Siddim, where Lot settled after his separation from Abraham (Gen. xiii, 12 ; xiv, 12 ; xix, 1). It had its own chief or "king," as had the other four cities of the plain (xiv, 2, 8, 10), and was along with them, Zoar only excepted, destroyed by tire from heaven on account of the gross wickedness of the inhabitants; the memory of which event has been perpetuate<l in a name of infamy to all generations (ch. xix). (In the following account of this remarkable place we freely avail ourselves of the discussions found in the diction- aries of Kitto and Smith.) See Sodomitisii Sea.
I. The ]\'ame. — The word Sedom has been interpreted to mean "burning" ((iesenius, Thesaur. p. 939a), taking DHp = niC'liy, and that as = nE'1^. This is possible, though not at all certain, since Gesenius himself hes- itates between that interpretation and one which i<len- tifies it with a similar Hebrew word meaning "vine- yard," and Filrst {Humhrh. ii, 72), with nearly equal plausibility, connects it with an Arabic root meaning to enclose or fortify (TlD, as the base also of Siddim), a view in which Milhlan coincides. Simonis, again {Onomast. p. 363), renders it " abundance of dew or wa- ter," Hiller {ibid. p. 176), "fruitful land," and Chytnuns, "mystery." In fact, like most archaic names, it may, by a little ingeimily, be made to mean almost anything. Stanley {Sin. and Pal. p. 289) notices the first of these interj)retations, and, comparing it with the " Phlegrjcan fields" in the Cam])agna at Rome, says that" the name, if not derived from the subseiiuent catastrophe, sliows that the marks of fire had already passed over the doomed valley." Apparent " marks of fire" there are all over the neighborhood of the Dead Sea. They have been regarded by many travellers as tokens of confiagration and vidcanic action, and in the same manner it is (jnite possible that they originated the name Sedom, for they
SODOM
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undoubtedly abounded on the shores of the lake long before even Sodom was founded.
11. Historical Notices. — Sodom is commonly men- tioned in connection with Gomorrah, but also with Ad- mah and Zeboim, and on one occasion (Gen. xiv) with Bela or Zoar. Sodom was evidently the chief town in the settlement. Its king takes the lead, and the citj' is always named first in the list, and appears to be the most important. The four are first named in the eth- nological records of Gen. x, 19 as belonging to the Ca- naanites: "The border of the Canaanite was from Zidon towards Gerar unto Azzah, towards Sedom and Amorah and Admah and Tseboim unto Lasha." Tlie meaning of this appears to be that the district in the hands of the Canaanites formed a kind of triangle — the apex at Zidon, the south-west extremity at Gaza, the south- eastern at Lasha.
The next mention of the name of Sodom (Gen. xiii, 10-13) gives us more definite information as to the city. Abram and Lot are standing together between Bethel and Ai (ver. 3), taking, as any spectator from that spot may still do, a survey of the land around and below them. Eastward of them, and absolutely at their feet, lay the " circle ("133) of Jordan," i. e. the glwr. It was in all its verdant glory — that glory of which the traces are still to be seen, and which is so strangely and irre- sistibly attractive to a spectator from any of the heights in the neighborhood of Bethel — watered in the northern portion by the copious supplies of the Wady Kelt, the Ain Sultan, the Ain Uiik, and the other springs which gush out from the foot of the mountains; and in the southern part by Wadj' Tufileh, and the abundant brooks of the Ghor es-Safieh. These abundant waters even now support a mass of verdure before they are lost in the light, loamy soil of the region. But at the time when Abram and Lot beheld them, they were husbanded and directed by irrigation, after the manner of Egypt, until the whole circle was one great oasis — "a garden of Je- hovah" (ver. 10). In the midst of the garden the four cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim appear to have been situated. To these cities Lot descended, and retaining his nomad habits among the more civil- ized manners of the Canaanitish settlement, " pitched his tent" by (1S\ at, not " towards") the chief of the four. At a later period he seems to have been living within the walls of Sodom. It is necessar\' to notice how ab- solutely the cities are identified with the district. In the subsequent account of their destruction (ch. xix), the topographical terms are employed with all the pre- cision which is characteristic of such earh' times. "The Ciccdr" (q. v.), the " land of the Ciccdr," " Ciccdr of Jordan," recurs again and again both in ch. xiii and xix, and " the cities of the Ciccdr" is the almost technical designation of the towns which were destroyed in the catastrophe related in the latter chapter. See Jordan.