Sodom
A place in the Bible
A city in the Jordan Valley, near the Dead Sea. The Bible says its people were very sinful.
What happened here
- Lot: Lot chose the Jordan Valley, which was very green then, and went to live in Sodom.
- Abraham pleads for the city: Abraham asked the Lord whether he would destroy the innocent with the guilty. The Lord told him he would not destroy it if he found ten innocent people there.
- Lot leaves: two angels took Lot, his wife, and his daughters by the hand and led them out. They told them not to look back.
- The end: the Lord rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot’s wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt.
Today
No one knows where it was. People look for it near the Dead Sea.
Where it appears in the Bible
Genesis 13:13; Genesis 13:10-12; Genesis 18:23; Genesis 18:32; Genesis 19:15-17; Genesis 19:24-26
What the Bible says
Genesis 13:13
And the men of Sodom were very wicked, and sinners before the face of the Lord, beyond measure.
Genesis 13:10-12
10And Lot, lifting up his eyes, saw all the country about the Jordan, which was watered throughout, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha, as the paradise of the Lord, and like Egypt as one comes to Segor. 11And Lot chose to himself the country about the Jordan, and he departed from the east: and they were separated one brother from the other. 12Abram dwelt in the land of Chanaan; and Lot abode in the towns that were about the Jordan, and dwelt in Sodom.
Genesis 18:23
And drawing nigh he said: Wilt thou destroy the just with the wicked?
Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.
Source: Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “Sodom and Gomorrha”