On the other hand, Mr. Tristram, who has explored the lake neighborhood more carefully than any previous investigator, strenuously contends for the northern loca- tion of Sodom with its neighboring cities, chiefly on account of the following considerations :
(1.) When it is said that Lot encamped "at" (not
"towards") Sodom (Gen. xiii, 12; Sept. tV ^oSofxatc), the statement is made in such a connection with the " Ciccdr," or circle, of Jordan as to imply that Sodom was in it. Now this Ciccdr was in view from a mountain on the east of Bethel (Gen. xii, 8; xiii, 3, 10), whence no portion of the south end of the lake can be discerned; the headland of Feshkah shuts out the view in that direction. There is good reason to believe, however, that the Ciccdr, or circle, of tlie Jordan comprehended the whole crevasse on both ends of the Dead Sea (see Jour. Sac. Lit. April, 18GG, p. 36 si).), and in the above passages it is not expressly said that Zoar itself was vis- ible from Abraham's encampment at Bethel. Similarly, in the account of Abraham's view of the plain from the place of his intercession with Jehovah (Gen. xviii, 16; xix, 27, 28), the cities themselves are not said to be in sight, but onl\- glimpses of the general Ghor, such as are still attainable through the mountain gaps from the tra- ditionary spot near Hebron (llohmson, Bibl. Res. u, \89).
(2.) In the account of the invasion of Chedorlaomer (Gen. xiv) he is described as marching from Mount Seir to Hazezon-tamar (Engedi) ; and it is said that after- wards he met the king of Sodom and his confederates in the vale of Siddim. Now, as Mr. Tristram urges, "had Sodom and the other cities been situated- at the south end of the sea, it was certainlj' not after smiting the Amalekites and Amorites at Engedi that they would have met the invader, but long before he reached Haze- zon-tamar. But when we place these cities in the plain (circle) of the Jordan, there is a topographical sequence in the whole story, while Abraham and his allies hur- riedly pursue the plunderers up the Ghor without delay or impediment until they overtake them at the sources of the Jordan" {Land of Israel, p. 862). On the con- trary, it is impossible to proceed directly from Engedi to the plain of Jericho, owing to the impassable heights of Ain Feshkah, whereas the way is open along the whole shore of the Dead Sea southerly. It was from Kadesh, on the western side of the Arabah, that Chedor- laomer passed northerly through the Negeb, or south of Palestine, and then came down upon the Dead Sea by the pass of Engedi, where he could have encountered the natives only from the southern Ghor.
(3.) The location of Zoar at the south-eastern end of the Salt Sea is inconsistent with the statement that Moses beheld it in his view from Mount Nebo (Deut. xxxiv, 3) ; for only the western outline of the lake can be seen from the most commanding position among those heights, one of which must be the mount in question. To this argument the same reply may be made as in the above (No. 1), namely, that Zoar itself is not said in this passage to be seen, but only " the plain," or Ghor. We have had occasion under the article Pisgah to notice the sweeping character of the panorama there disclosed to Moses — one doubtless of miraculous extent ; and the discussion of the location of the guilty cities will be re- sumed under Zoar. For the present we may say that, although Tristram has reiterated his views on this sub- ject in his Land of Moab (p. 343, Am. ed.), yet it is privately understood that he has since changed his mind, and now adheres to the traditionary opinion. Dr. Merrill revives the arguments in favor of the north- ern position of Zoar {Bulletin of the American Geo- graphical Society, condensed in the Quar. Statement of the " Palestine Exploration Fund," July, 1879, p. 144). See SiDuiM.
SODOM, Fkuit of. See Apples of Sodom ; Vine OF Sodom,
Sod'oma (Sd^o^n), the Greek form (Rom. ix, 29) of the name elsewhere Anglicized Sodoji (q. v.).
Sod'oniite (TIJ'^i^; huUsh, i. e. consecrated; Vulg. scorlator, effeminatus). This word does not denote an inhabitant of Sodom (except only in 2 Esdr. vii, 36), nor one of their descendants; but is employed in the A.V. of the Old Test, for those who practiced as a religious rite the abominable and unnatural vice from which the
SODOMITISII SEA
858
SODOMITISH SEA
inhabitants of Soilom and (Jomorrah have derived their iMtini; infamy. It occurs in Deut. xxiii, 17; 1 Kings xiv. '.'4; XV, V.'; xxii. 40; 2 Kings xxiii, 7; and Job xxxvi. 14 (margin). The Hebrew word kudesh is said t.) Im? dt-rived from a root ktidd.'ili, which (strange as it mav ai)i)ear) moans "iinre," and thence " holy." The words fiirtr in Latin, and "devoted" in our own lan- guage, have also a double meaning, though the subor- dinate signilicalion is not so absolutely contrary to the principal t)ne as it is in the case of kwleii/i. " This dread- ful •consecrati<)n,' or rather desecration, was spread in different forms over l'h(unicia, Syria, Plirygia, Assyria, Haliylonia. Ashtaroth, the Greek Astarte, was its chief object." It appears also to have been established at Kome, where its victims were called Galli (not from (.;allia. but from the river Gallus in Bithynia). There is an instructive note on the subject in Jerome's C'owj- tHifiit. on Hos. iv, 14. See Sodojiy.