Genesis 14:3

The vale of Siddim which is the Salt Sea] The words imply that what had been the fertile vale of Siddim was covered, in the author's time, by the Salt (Dead) Sea. It is a disputed question whether this vale in which were the 'cities of the plain,' was situated at its N. or S. end. 'For the N. end, it is argued that Abraham and Lot looked upon the cities from near Bethel (Genesis 13:10), whence it would be impossible to see the S. end of the Dead Sea; that the name “Circle (or plain) of Jordan” is inapplicable to the S. end; and that the presence of five cities there is impossible. On the other hand, at the S. end of the Dead Sea there lay, through Roman and mediaeval times, a city called Zoara by the Greeks and Zughar by the Arabs, which was identified by all as the Zoar of Lot. Jebel Usdum, at the SE. end, is the uncontested representative of Sodom. The name Kikhar (“circle”) may surely have been extended to the S. of the Dead Sea; just as today, the Ghôr (lower Jordan valley) is continued a few miles to the S. of Jebel Usdum. Jewish and Arab traditions fix on the S. end; and finally the material conditions are more suitable there than on the N end to the description of the region both before and after the catastrophe, for there is still sufficient water and verdure on the E. side of the Ghôr to suggest the Garden of the Lord, while the shallow bay and long marsh at the S. end may, better than the ground at the N. end of the sea, hide the secret of the overwhelmed cities' (G. A. Smith). The Dead Sea, which is about 46 m. long by 9 m. wide, is now nearly divided in two parts towards the S. end by a tongue of land jutting from the E. shore. This tongue probably once joined the opposite shore, and formed the S. limit of the Sea: but it is conjectured that, by the action of an earthquake, a subsidence took place, and, as Prof. Smith hints, what had been the fertile vale of Siddim became a desolate lagoon. The saltness of the water (26 per cent, as compared with the 4 per cent, of the ocean) is due to the presence of a mountain of rock salt (Jebel Usdum) at the S. end of the sea. Fish cannot live in it, not so much owing to its saltness as to the excess of bromide of magnesium; and the extreme buoyancy of its waters is well known. The position of this salt mountain, taken in connexion with Genesis 19:26 and the occurrence of bitumen pits at the S. end (see on Genesis 14:10), supports the theory of the position of the cities just mentioned. The name 'the Dead Sea' occurs nowhere in the Bible, and has not been found earlier than the 2nd cent. a.d.