produces the
Lake of
Sodom.
Lot’s flight to
Bela,
and circumstances
connected
therewith.
now occupied by the Lake of Sodom and Gomorrah; which
has been ascertained to be in one part about 1200 yards deep.
The peculiar salt and bitter taste of the waters of the Dead.
Sea, and the quantity of bitumen collected on its surface, in the
manner described by Diodorus Siculus,1 with its powerful
exhalations, which are perceptible at the distance of many
miles,2 are so many circumstances in accordance with the brief
account of the destruction of this tract of country given in the
book of Genesis, as well as with that of profane historians,3 and
the traditions of the Arabs. The latter state, that in this
locality the Thamudite giants4 (in whom may be recognised the
people of Sodom) were destroyed.
It was during the awful conflagration in question that Lot
fled to Bela, a small city which had been spared for his sake;
and from thence he speedily removed to a cave in the vicinity.
According to the version given by Onkelos of the portion of
Scripture contained in the fourteenth verse of the nineteenth
chapter of Genesis, namely, “ sons-in-law, who were to marry
his daughters,” 5 it would appear that the latter had only been
affianced according to eastern custom; an explanation which,
though different from that hitherto given, appears to be borne
out by two incidental circumstances connected with this part of
the narrative. The first is suggested by the particular words
used by Lot himself regarding his daughters, at the beginning of
the eighth verse; and the second, by the fact that no reference
is made to any other daughters but those who escaped with
their father.
There is likewise a different version given of another circumstance
connected with Lot’s posterity, which is approached with
much diffidence. This version, if correct, would make the
origin of the Moabites and Ammonites much less objectionable
than that which has been hitherto ascribed to them.
1 Lib. I I ., cap. x x ix .; also Tacitus, lib. V.
2 Ibid., pp. 310, 311 ; and above, vol. I ., pp. 402, 403,404.
3 Ibid., lib. I I ., cap. x x ix .; Strabo, lib. X V I., pp. 760,763, 764 ; Pliny,
lib. V., cap. xvi., p. 504.
4 Arabic MSS., No. 7357, in the British Museum, translated by Aloys
Sprenger, M.D.
5 Gen., chap. X IX ., v. 14.
According to a recent translation, the sense of the passage is Marriages of
. , • Lot s dauga as follows:—The elder of Lot’s daughters said to her sister, ters,
“ Our father is old, and there is not a man to come to us, as b . c . 1991.
is the custom of all the land, therefore we will drink wine with
our father, then we will abide from him; thus we shall procure
posterity after our father. So they drank wine with their
father that same night, when the first-born abode from her
father, but he knew not where she abode, neither when she
married.”1 “ Now it was in after time that the first-born said
to the younger, Behold, I abode in time past from my father:
we will drink wine also this night, then go and abide from him;
thus we shall procure posterity after our father. Then they
drank wine also that night with their father, and the younger
married and abode from him; but he knew not where she
abode, neither when she married. Thus both the daughters of
Lot conceived unknown to their father. Then the first-born
bare a son who was called Moab, and the younger also bare a
son, and she called his name Ben Ammi.”2
The disobedience and deception practised by Lot’s daughters
on these occasions, were sufficient to bring a curse upon the offspring,
which was thus derived from the guilty people of the
land, and they continued in consequence distinct nations. The
former, or the Moabites, occupied the city of Ar, and the r e s t The Moabites
of the country on the banks of the river Arnon, from whence ites continue
they expelled the giant Emims of the race of Ham :3 the capital seParatetribes-
of the latter was Babbah of Ammon, the city of waters,4 from
whence they expelled the Zamzummims.5 The Moabites and Ammonites
being under these circumstances chiefly Cushite, continued,
as might be expected, in consequence separate branches.
About the period of the destruction of Sodom, the name of
the Hebrew patriarch was changed from Ab-ram (high father)
to Abraham, the intended father of a multitude of nations;
and a few years afterwards the promised heir was born in his b. c. 1987.
tent near Beersheba; on which occasion, at the instance of
1 Gen., chap. X IX ., v. 31 to 33, Bellamy’s translation.
2 Gen., chap. X IX ., v. 34 to 38, Bellamy’s translation.
3 Deut., chap. I I ., v. 10, 11. 4 2 Sam., chap. X I I ., v. 26, 27.
s Deut., chap. I I ., v. 20.