Zoar

The city of Lot’s refuge. The very name signifies little. (Gen 29:22.)

Zo´ar a town originally called Bala, and one of the five cities of the plain of Siddim. It was doomed with the rest to destruction, but spared at the intercession of Lot as a place to which he might escape. He alleged the smallness of the city as a ground for asking this favor; and hence the place acquired the name of Zoar, or ’smallness’ (Gen 13:10; Gen 14:2; Gen 14:8; Gen 19:20; Gen 19:22; Gen 19:30). It is only again mentioned in Deu 34:3; Isa 15:5; Jer 48:34; which passages indicate that it belonged to the Moabites, and was a place of some consequence. Eusebius and Jerome describe it as having in their day many inhabitants, and a Roman garrison. Stephen of Byzantium calls it a large village and fortress. In the Ecclesiastical Notitia it is mentioned as the seat of a bishop of the Third Palestine, down to the centuries preceding the Crusades. The Crusaders seem to have found it under the name of Segor, and they describe the place as pleasantly situated, with many palm-trees. Dr. Robinson supposes that it must have lain on the east of the Dead Sea, and he thinks that Irby and Mangles have rightly fixed its position at the mouth of the Wady Kerak, at the point where the latter opens upon the isthmus of the long peninsula which stands out from the eastern shore of the lake towards its southern end. At this point Irby and Mangles discovered the remains of an ancient town. Here ’stones that have been used in building, though for the most part unknown, are strewed over a great surface of uneven ground, and mixed with bricks and pottery. This appearance continues without interruption, during the space of at least half a mile, quite down to the plain, so that it would seem to have been a place of considerable extent. We noticed one column, and we found a pretty specimen of antique variegated glass. It may possibly be the site of the ancient Zoar’ (Travels, p. 448).

A city on the south-east side of the Dead sea, was destined, with the other four cities, to be consumed by fire from heaven; but at the intercession of Lot it was preserved, Gen 14:2 ; 19:20-23,30. It was originally called Bela; but after Lot entreated the angel’s permission to take refuge in it, and insisted on the smallness of this city, it had the name Zoar, which signifies small.\par

Zo’ar. (smallness). One of the most ancient cities of the land of Canaan. Its original name was Bela. Gen 14:2; Gen 14:8. It was in intimate connection with the cities of the "plain of Jordan" -- Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, see also Gen 13:10, but not Gen 10:19. In the general destruction of the cities of the plain, Zoar was spared to afford shelter to Lot. Gen 19:22-23; Gen 19:30. It is mentioned in the account of the death of Moses as one (of the landmarks which bounded his view from Pisgah, Deu 34:3, and it appears to have been known in the time both of Isaiah, Isa 15:5, and Jeremiah. Jer 48:34.

These are all the notices of Zoar contained in the Bible. It was situated in the same district with the four cities already mentioned, namely, In the "plain" or "circle" of the Jordan, and the narrative of Gen 19:1 evidently implies that it was very near to Sodom. Gen 19:15; Gen 23:27. The definite position of Sodom is, and probably will always be, a mystery; but there can be little doubt that the plain of the Jordan was at the north side of the Dead Sea and that the cities of the plain must therefore have been situated there instead of at the southern end of the lake, as it is generally taken for granted they were. See Sodom. (But the great majority of scholars from Josephus and Eusebius to the present of the Dead Sea).

Originally Bela; still called so when Abram first settled in Canaan (Gen 14:2; Gen 14:8; Gen 14:10). Connected with the cities of the plain, Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim (Gen 13:10). The southern division of the Dead Sea (apparently of comparatively recent formation), abounding with salt, and throwing up bitumen, and its shores producing sulphur and nitre, answers to the valley of Siddim, "full of slime pits," and to the destruction of the cities by fire and brimstone, and to the turning of Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt. The S. bay is probably the vale of Siddim. Scripture does not say the cities were buried in the sea, but overthrown by fire from heaven (Deu 29:23; Jer 49:18; Jer 50:40; Zep 2:9; 2Pe 2:6). Josephus speaks of Sodomitis as burnt up and as adjoining the asphaltite lake (B. J., 4:8, Section 4).

All ancient testimony favors the position of the cities being at the southern end. The traditional names of Usdum, etc., the traditional site of Zoar (called by Josephus, Ant. 1:11, Section 4, Zoar of Arabia), the hill of salt traditionally made Lot’s wife, all favor their site being within or around the shallow southern bay. Tristram however identifies Zoar with Zi’ara at the northern end. Jerome (ad Jos. 15, and Quaest. in Genesis 14) and Theodoret (in Genesis 19) say Zoar was swallowed up by an earthquake probably after Lot had left it. So Wisdom (Wis 10:6) says five cities were destroyed; so Josephus (B. J. 4:8, Section 4). But Deu 29:23 mentions only four; and Eusebius says Bela or Zoar was in his day garrisoned by Romans. It is the point to which Moab’s fugitives shall flee (Isa 15:5; Jer 48:34).

Lot’s view from the mountain E. of Bethel between Bethel and Ai (Gen 13:3; Gen 13:10; Gen 12:8) is not to be pressed as though he could see all the plain of Jordan as far as to the S. of the Dead Sea; he saw only the northern end, but that sample assured him of the well watered character of the whole. From Pisgah or Nebo (Deu 34:3) Moses saw from "the plain of the valley of Jericho" southward as far as "unto Zoar"; not that Zoar was near Jericho, for Jehovah showed him "all the land of Judah and the South." It was probably on the S.E. side of the Dead Sea, as Lot’s descendants, Ammon and Moab, occupied that region as their original seat. Tristram’s statement that the ground of Zi’ara falls in terraces for 3,000 ft. to the Jordan valley is at variance with Lot’s words, "I cannot escape to the mountain: behold this city (evidently not a place so hard to get up to as 3,000 ft. elevation) is near to flee unto, and it is a little one"; its inhabitants are so few that their sins are comparatively little, and so it may be spared. (Rashi.)

Subsequently Lot fearing Zoar was not far enough from Sodom, nor high enough to be out of danger, fled to the mountains to which the angel originally urged his flight (Gen 19:17-23; Gen 19:30). God’s assurance "I will not overthrow this city ... for the which thou hast spoken" ought to have sufficed to assure Lot; his want of faith issued in the awful incest of the mountain cave; compare the spiritual lesson, Jer 3:23. Abulfeda spells it Zoghar. Fulcher, the crusading historian (Gesta Dei, 405), found Segor at the point of entrance to the mountains of Arabia, S. of the lake; probably in the wady Kerak, the road from the S. of the Dead Sea to the eastern highlands. Irby and Mangles found extensive ruins in the lower part of this wady, which they name Dera’ah, perhaps corrupted from Zoar.

Zoar (zô’ar), smallness. Gen 19:22-23; Gen 19:30. One of the cities of Canaan. Its earlier name was Bela. Gen 14:2; Gen 14:8. In the general destruction of the cities of the plain, Zoar was spared to afford shelter to Lot. It was one of the landmarks which Moses saw from Pisgah, Deu 34:3, and it appears to have been known in the time of Isaiah, Isa 15:5, and Jeremiah. Jer 48:34. It was situated in the same district with the four cities of the "plain" of the Jordan, and near to Sodom. Gen 19:15; Gen 19:23; Gen 19:27. See Sodom.

[Zo’ar]

One of the five cities of the plain in the land of Canaan, and which alone survived when they fell under the judgement of God. It was formerly called BELA. Lot fled to it when Sodom was destroyed, but feared to remain there. Gen 13:10; Gen 14:2; Gen 14:8; Gen 19:22-30; Deu 34:3; Isa 15:5; Jer 48:34. Identified by some with ruins at Tell esh Shaghur, 31° 50’ N, 35° 40’ E.

ZOAR.—See Plain [Cities of the], Lot.

zō´ar (צער, צוער, cō‛ar; the Septuagint usually Σηγώρ, Sēgṓr, Ζόγορα, Zógora): The name of the city to which Lot escaped from Sodom (Gen 19:20-23, Gen 19:30), previously mentioned in Gen 13:10; Gen 14:2, Gen 14:8, where its former name is said to have been Bela. In Gen 19:22, its name is said to have been given because of its littleness, which also seems to have accounted for its being spared. The location of Zoar has much to do with that of the cities of the Plain or Valley of Siddim, with which it is always connected. In Deu 34:3, Moses is said to have viewed “the Plain of the valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, unto Zoar,” while in Isa 15:5 and Jer 48:4 (where the Septuagint reads unto “Zoar,” instead of “her little ones”) it is said to be a city of Moab. The traditional location of the place is at the south end of the Dead Sea. Josephus says (BJ, IV, viii, 4) that the Dead Sea extended “as far as Zoar of Arabia,” while in Ant., I, xi, 4, he states that the place was still called Zoar. Eusebius (Onomasticon, 261) locates the Dead Sea between Jericho and Zoar, and speaks of the remnants of the ancient fertility as still visible. Ptolemy (Jer 48:17, Jer 48:5) regards it as belonging to Arabia Petrea. The Arabian geographers mention it under the name Zughar, Sughar, situated 1 degrees South of Jericho, in a hot and unhealthful valley at the end of the Dead Sea, and speak of it as an important station on the trade route between Akkabah and Jericho. The Crusaders mention “Segor” as situated in the midst of palm trees. The place has not been definitely identified by modern explorers, but from Gen 19:19-30 we infer that it was in the plain and not in the mountain. If we fix upon the south end of the Dead Sea as the Vale of Siddim, a very natural place for Zoar and one which agrees with all the traditions would be at the base of the mountains of Moab, East of Wâdy Ghurundel, where there is still a well-watered oasis several miles long and 2 or 3 wide, which is probably but a remnant of a fertile plain once extending out over a considerable portion of the shallow south end of the Dead Sea when, as shown elsewhere (see DEAD SEA), the water level was considerably lower than now.

Robinson would locate it on the northeast corner of el-Lisân on the borders of the river Kerak, but this was done entirely on theoretical grounds which would be met as well in the place just indicated, and which is generally fixed upon by the writers who regard the Vale of Siddim as at the south end of the Dead Sea. Conder, who vigorously maintains that the Vale of Siddim is at the north end of the Dead Sea, looks favorably upon theory of W.H. Birch that the place is represented by the present Tell Shaghur, a white rocky mound at the foot of the Moab Mountains, a mile East of Beth-haram (Tell er-Râmeh), 7 miles Northeast of the mouth of the Jordan, a locality remarkable for its stone monuments and well-supplied springs, but he acknowledges that the name is more like the Christian Segor than the original Zoar.