SODOM
856
SODOM
camp, "l<H>ketl townnls Stxiom and Gomorrali, and to- wards all the land ul'tlie plain, and beliild, and lo, the Dinuke of the country went up as the smoke of a fur- nace" (vcr. 27). These are the simple facts of the case. The followinj; are the naturalistic explanations that have U'cn attcinpied of the plaMKimena:
1. It has usually hcen assmncd that the vale of Sid- dim o<-.'upiid the lia.<in of what is now the Dead Sea, which dill not previously exist^ but was one of the re- sults of this catastrophe (see Milman, //Lit. of the Jens, i, 15 sq.). It has now, however, been estjiblishcd that a lake to receive the .Ionian and other waters must have occupied this basin Ion;; before the catastrophe of Sod- om, as all the ;;eolo;:;ical characteristics of the region go to show that its present contiguration is in its main feat- ures coeval with the present condition of the surface of the earth in general, and is not the effect of any local catastrophe at a subsequent period (Dr. Buist, in Trini^: of Hiimhiiy (ifot/r. ^i)<\ xii, p. xvi). See Dkai> Ska.
2. Hut although a lake must then have existed to re- ceive the .Ionian and other waters of the north, which could not have passed inore southward, as was at one time supposed, and which must even, as is now proved, have received the waters of the south also, we are at liberty to assume, and it is necessary to do so, that the Dead Sea anciently covered a much less extent of sur- face than at present. The cities which were destroyed must have been situated at the edge of the lake as it then existed, for Lot Hed to Zoar, which was near Sod- om ((ien. xix. 20). This view has the support of sev- eral incidental circumstances. Thus the abundant water supply (as above noticed) still exists at both ends of the lake. "Even at the present day," says Robinson, "more living streams flow into the Ghor, at the south end of the sea, from wadys of the eastern mountains than are to be found so near together in all Palestine; and the tract, although now mostly desert, is still bet- ter watered through these streams and by the many fountains than any other district throughout the whole country" {/iiM. lie.i. ii, 603). The slime-pits, or wells of asphaltum, are no longer to be seen; but it seems that masses of floating asphaltum occur only in the southern part of the lake; and as they are seen but rarely, and immediately after earth(iuakes. the asphal- tum appears to be gradually consolidated in the lake, and not l)eing able to flow off, forms by consequence a layer at the bottom, portions of which may be detached by earih(|uakes and other convulsions of nature, and then ap|)ear <in the surface of the water or upon the (thore. The eminent geologist I^ojMild von Huch, in his letter to Dr. kobinson (/iihl. /iis. ii. COO -COS), thinks it(|uite pnibablc that this accumulation may have taken |)lace in remote times as well as at the ])resent day. Thus another circumstance of importance is produced in coincidence with the sacred accounts, especiallv with reference to the southern portion of the present lake, suggi-sting the pn)bability that the remarkable bay, or "back water," at its southern extremity, is the por- tion of it which did not in ancient times exist— that it, in fact, covers the more fertile vale of Siddim, and the nite of .S.dom and the other cities which the Lord deslmyed; and that, in the wonis of Dr. Hobins(m, "by some convulsion or cntastniphe of nature connected with the miraculous destruction of the cities, either the sur- face of this plain was scoo|km1 out or the bottom of the nea was heaved up ho as to cauM- the waters to overtlow and cover permanently a larger tract than formerly. The country is, as we know, subject to earthquakes, aiul cxhibita also frequent traces of volcanic action. It would have been no uncommon effect of either of these cautTH to heave up the U.ttom of the ancient lake, and thus pniduce the phenomenon in (piestion. IJut the hiittoriral account of the desirucii.in of the cities implies also the agency of tin-. IVrhaps both causes were there- fore at work, for volcanic action and earthquakes go hand in hand, and Iheaccompanyini; electric discharges uwtlly cause lightnings to play an<l thunders to rolL
In this way we have all the phenomena which the most literal interpretation of the sacred records can demand." The same writer, with the geological sanc- tion given above, repeats the conjecture of Le Clerc and othersthat the bitinnen had become accumulated around the sources, and had ])crhaps formed strata, spreading for some distance upon tlie plain; that possibly these strata in some parts extendeil under the soil, antl might thus approach the vicinity of the cities: "If, indeed, we might suppose all this, then the kindling of such a heap of combustible materials, through volcanic action or lightning from heaven, would cause a conflagration sufficient not only to ingidf the cities, but also to de- stroy the surface of the plain, so that 'the smoke of the country would go up as the smoke of a furnace, and the sea rushing in, woidd convert it to a tract of waters.' The supposition of such an accumulation of bitumen, with our present knowledge, appears less extraordinary than it might in former times have seemed, and re- quires notliing more than nature presents to our view in the wonderful lake, or rather tract, of bitumen in the island of Trinitlad. The subsequent barrenness of the remaining portion of the plain is readily accounted for by the presence of the masses of fossil salt which now abound in its neighborhood, and which were perhaps then, for the first time, brought to light. These, being carried by the waters to the bottom of the valley, would suffice to take away its productive power. In connec- tion with this fact, the circumstance that the wife of Lot 'became a pillar of sail' is signiticant and suggestive, whatever interpretation we may assign to the fact re- corded" (see ^a.\er, De Excidio Hodumw [Francf. 1095]). See Lot.