Where is Biblical Sodom? Tell el Hammam doesn't make sense.

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There are many theories about the location of Biblical Sodom. One which has become popular in recent years is a site in Jordan on the eastern side of the Dead Sea called Tell el Hammam. In this short video I share some thoughts about whey the geography of Tel al Hammam doesn't fit with the Biblical story but rather Sodom would have to be much further south.

[@TanachTV]

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[@grantpatillo]

Smart. I never thought about it like that. Very plausible.

[@GeertKok]

If this was such a majestic event as an airburst with meteor like impact. You are talking about a very intens destruction. It would be very lucky for Abraham he was not part of that. And witnessing a 40 km wide strike with nuclearbomb like temperatures like 30000 degrees celsius as material was discovered at tel el Hammam he is surely aware of something even standing on that place seems to me plausible

[@JonJaeden]

But you have the same geographic problem in Gen 13 where Abraham and Lot part. They are between Bethel and Ai, north of Jerusalem. Tell Hammam is due east. The lush land north of the Dead Sea that tempted Lot is readily visible. And it is impossible to view the southern end of the Dead Sea from there. Gen 13 is very specific in identifying Sodom's location and the northern site fits. Gen 18 & 19 are describing the observed phenomena that accompanied the destruction, which, since we did not observe the event have to interpret it through our own imagination. But it's chapter 13 that describes the location with considerable precision. I, too, have puzzled over Abraham's walking with his visitors and seeing Sodom -- even attempting to identify potential spots on Google Earth from which he could have seen a northern Sodom. Some potential geologic factors also kept me leaning for decades to a southern site for Sodom. But Gen 13's description just carries more weight.

[@TanachTV]

In hem 13 Abraham was almost certainly standing on Mt Baal Hazor. This makes sense geographically and is further atested to in the Dead sea scrolls. From its elevation of over 1000 meters, on a clear day one can certainly see to the southern Sodom area. In any case the text doesn't say that he saw Sodom only that he saw the "entire plain of the Jordan". This is simply describing how Abraham offered him to choose the right or left part of the mountain range of Judea/Samaria (north or south) instead of listening to Abraham he "lifted his eyes and looked east towards the Jordan valley which was not one of the choices offered by Abraham. He thereby willingly excluded himself from the promise to Abraham.

[@JonJaeden]

@@TanachTV The text is precise that Abraham and Lot were between Bethel and Ai where other events associated with the Patriarchs occurred. No mention of Baal Hazor. Further, the campaign of the four kings in Gen 14 lays out an itinerary that goes as far south as Paran and Kadesh before returning northward to fight against Sodom. Before reaching Sodom, they conquer Hazezon Tamar, e.g. Ein Gedi. Sodom is clearly north of Ein Gedi in this description.

[@TanachTV]

I find the identification of Ai as et Tell as problematic for many reasons including the geography and dating of the site. Even if we accept the identification, the word בין in Hebrew doesn't necessarily mean between but can mean among. Baal Hazor is clearly the only large mountain in the area around Beit El and Abraham was camped on a mountain. Also God told him to look in all directions to see the land he was receiving. This is only possible from atop Baal Hazor where you can see from the Hermon down towards Hebron and beyond. The fact that second temple Jews had a tradition about this as recorded in the Genesis Apocryphon adds more weight to this. Regarding the war of the 4 and 5 kings, I don't see any reason that the armies could not have passed Sodom and attacked Hazzazon Tamar first and only then the kings of the Sodom alliance realized they must leave their cities and attack before they are next.

[@JonJaeden]

@@TanachTV I agree Baal Hazor is a good candidate for the site where God told Abraham to look in all directions. It is the high point. Thanks for drawing my attention to it. But that event in Gen 13 comes after we are told Lot has already moved his tent toward Sodom. They have separated, time has passed, Abraham is not in the same place he was when Lot was making his choice. That this was between, and not in the region of, Bethel and Ai, is confirmed from Gen 12 where Abraham built an altar at the same place. It is specifically identified as being where Bethel is to the west and Ai is to the east -- identification problems of the latter notwithstanding. In Google Earth, zoom into a spot on Hwy 60 between Bethel and et Tell with your computer screen oriented eastward. Then rotate your point-of-view to an oblique view toward Jordan. It's a straight-line to Tell Hammam. Further, where the foreground falls off into the Jordan Valley, there is a depression in the topography that makes the well-watered site more easily viewable for one standing on the ground.