Genesis 14:10

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“And the vale of Siddim was full of slimepits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there; and they that remained fled to the mountain.”

History, Archaeology, Geography, Earth Science, Science, Chemistry

Asphalt, Slime, Mortar, Pitch, Bitumen ^{(193) (194) (195) (196) (197) (198)}

The vale of Siddim was full of slimepits. These were “wells” or “fountains of slime” or bitumen; a liquid of a pitchy nature, cast out of fountains, and which was used for a cement in buildings; such fountains were near Babylon; so that this place was naturally prepared for what it was designed to be, a bituminous lake; and hence, when turned into one, it was called the lake Asphaltites, from this slime or bitumen, called by the Greeks “asphaltos”. These pits or wells of bitumen are at this day on the shore of the lake, each of them having pyramids erect, and such pits casting out bitumen, as fountains do water, have been found in other countries, as in Greece. Now this vale being full of such pits, the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah chose it to fight in, and here drew up in a line of battle, hoping that the enemy, being ignorant of them, would fall into them and perish, and their ranks be broke and fall into confusion; but as it often is, that the pit men dig and contrive for others they fall into themselves, so it was in this case. The battle was going hard against the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, and they not able to stand before their enemies fell there or “into them”; the slimepits, or fountains of bitumen, into which they precipitately fell, and many perished; or of their own accord they threw themselves into them for their own safety, as some think; though the sense may be this, that there was a great slaughter of them made there; this is to be understood not of the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah; for it is certain that they were preserved alive, at least the king of Sodom, for we hear of him afterwards, in Genesis 14:17; but of their soldiers.