Valley of Siddim

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The valley of Siddim ( Hebrew עמק השדים) is a geographical name mentioned in the Old Testament in Gen 14  EU . The etymological derivation of the name as well as the geographic location of the valley is controversial. Due to linguistic parallels in Ugaritic and Akkadian , the meaning “valley of the furrows” is often assumed.

Biblical description and location

In Gen 14.3  EU the valley of Siddim is equated with “the salt sea”, ie the Dead Sea . According to Gen 14.10  EU , there are said to have been many earth pit pits there. Therefore, some interpretations assume that the valley should not be equated with the entire area of ​​today's Dead Sea, but only with its southern end. At the southern end of the Dead Sea there are natural deposits of asphalt and chunks of asphalt that repeatedly float on the surface, which is also reported by Flavius ​​Josephus and other Greek and Latin sources.

Biblical narration

In Genesis 14 it is told how the four kings Amrafel of Shinar , Arjoch of Ellasar , Kedor-Laomer of Elam and Tidal , the king of the nations, against the five kings of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah , Adma , Zebojim and Bela ( Zoar ) in go to war because they had fallen away from King Kedor-Laomer. The valley of Siddim becomes the scene of the battle in which the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fall into asphalt pits and the attackers are victorious. Lot is among the prisoners , which prompts his uncle Abram to go after the kings to free Lot.

In the Genesis Apocryphon , a work among the Dead Sea Scrolls , which retells the story of Abraham, the name can be found accordingly.

literature

  • Yôḥānān Aharônî: The land of the Bible: a historical geography . Westminster John Knox Press, 1979, pp. 140ff.
  • Othmar Keel , Max Küchler , Christoph Uehlinger : Places and landscapes of the Bible. A handbook and study guide to the Holy Land. Vol. 1, Benziger / Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Cologne 1984, ISBN 3-525-50166-8 , p. 298

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bromiley: The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: QZ. P. 499; see. also Fritz Rienecker: Lexicon for the Bible. P. 1483
  2. ↑ Aharon Horowitz The Jordan Rift Valley 2001, p. 46
  3. ↑ Cf. Arie Nissenbaum … and the vale of Siddim was full of slime [5bitumen, asphalt?] Pits ”(Genesis, 14:10) Geochemical investigations in Earth and Space Science 2004: 359-364
  4. ^ MG Lay, James E. Vance: Ways of the World: A History of the World's Roads and of the Vehicles That Used Them . Rutgers University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-8135-1758-3 , p. 50.

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