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Genesis 13 describes the Jordan Valley as lush like the Garden of Eden, with a possibly late editorial comment inserted that this was before God obliterated Sodom and Gomorrah. This comment anticipates the destruction in Genesis 19 yet the word “obliterated” used is connected to flood imagery, despite the later account involving fire.
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Genesis 13:10
Hebrew Bible
10 Lot looked up and saw the whole region of the Jordan. He noticed that all of it was well watered (this was before the Lord obliterated Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, all the way to Zoar. 11 Lot chose for himself the whole region of the Jordan and traveled toward the east. So the relatives separated from each other. 12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, but Lot settled among the cities of the Jordan plain and pitched his tents next to Sodom.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Genesis 19:24
Hebrew Bible
23 The sun had just risen over the land as Lot reached Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah. It was sent down from the sky by the Lord. 25 So he overthrew those cities and all that region, including all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation that grew from the ground. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back longingly and was turned into a pillar of salt.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... He must also have been struck by the similarity between the symbolism of flood as punishment of a sinful city, and his own people's myth about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by Yahwe. The latter myth may plausibly be viewed as an original Palestinian variant of the ancient Sumerian deluge myth, which came very early to the West Semitic environment and evolved there along a distinct line. Although, according to Genesis 19:24-25, Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by a fiery rain (a motif inspired by the scorched condition and sterility of the Dead Sea valley), this story was doubtless blended with the international motif of flooding with water (as implied in Genesis 13:10 and underlined in Genesis 14:3). In all the passages of the Bible which mention the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the term used is the verb "to overturn, to overthrow"; but in Akkadian, too, the verb sapânu, "to overthrow," is used to describe the effect of the deluge ..."
Astour, Michael C.
"Political and Cosmic Symbolism in Genesis 14 and in Its Babylonian Sources" in Altmann, Alexander (ed.) Biblical Motifs: Origins and Transformations
(pp. 65-112) Harvard University Press, 1966
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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