What brought about the destruction of סדום SDOM

[Jim Stinehart]

Isaac Fried:

1. You wrote: “Concerning the living conditions in SDOM, apparently LOT lived among its inhabitants in peace and tranquillity, free of any molestation --- he, his wife, his daughters and his sons-in-law. So the question remains as to who cried there to God so piteously, and why.”

(a) That is correct that Lot had been living in Sodom “free of any molestation”, with his two oldest daughters having married men of Sodom. There’s no way that a-l-l the men of Sodom were ravening male homosexual gang rapists. In fact, sex has nothing to do with the problems at Sodom.

(b) You raise the fascinating question: “who cried there to God so piteously, and why”?

The answer is: Biridiya! That is to say, Biridiya directly, and by extension, pharaoh Akhenaten, who were horrified by the fact that the Harod River Valley/the district of Sodom had now in Year 13 openly broken with Egypt altogether, with Sodom being in full-fledged revolt against any Egyptian presence in the Jezreel Valley at all. The “cry” that YHWH has heard is that Hurrian princeling Biridiya has this to say as to what is going on at the city of Shunem/Salem in the district of Sodom:

“Say to the king [pharaoh Akhenaten], my lord and my Sun: Message of Biridiya [the Hurrian princeling ruler of Megiddo, west of the Harod River Valley/district of Sodom], the loyal servant of the king. …In fact, only I am cultivating…in Shunama, and only I am furnishing corvee workers. But consider the mayors that are near me. They do not act as I do. They do not cultivate in Shunama, and they do not furnish corvee workers. Only I…(by myself) furnish corvee workers.” Amarna Letter EA 365.

Although pharaoh Akhenaten has ordered the men of the district of Sodom to provide free corvee labor to cultivate the fields there that Akhenaten had recently confiscated at firesale prices, note that a-l-l the men of Sodom refuse to do that.

That in turn soon leads, later in Year 13, to Labaya [Biblical “Hamor”] taking over Shunem/Salem in Sodom and deporting anyone who was loyal to Biridiya or pharaoh Akhenaten, as Labaya/Hamor is creating a completely independent state in central Canaan:

“And thus the two sons of Labayu keep saying to me, ‘Wage war against the king [pharaoh Akhenaten], your lord, as our father did, when he attacked Shunama…and deported the evil ones, lifting up the loyal. …[H]e [took over and for his own account] cultivated the fields of the king, your lord.’” Amarna Letter EA 250: 40-47.

There were no local supporters of Akhenaten’s outrageous policies regarding Shunem/Salem in Sodom, with the possible exception of Lot, who was a middleman and hence
was suspect, and all the foreigners like Biridiya had been kicked out of Sodom.

(c) Lot’s two mysterious guests function on at least two different levels. On the one hand, they are pharaoh Akhenaten’s representatives who have been sent to check to see how bad things have gotten in Shunem/Salem in Sodom; or at least the townspeople suspect that that is who Lot’s two guests are. On the other hand, in the Bible they are YHWH’s angels, in that they are going to rescue Lot right before the destruction of Sodom. The townspeople could not possibly suspect, however, that Lot’s two mysterious guests are angels.

A-l-l the people of Sodom -- the townspeople, the people from the rural parts of the district of Sodom, men and women, old and young, including even Lot’s own sons-in-law -- are united in being totally opposed to pharaoh Akhehaten’s outrageous actions in Year 13: first having confiscated the fields of Sodom for his own private estate at firesale prices, and then having imperiously demanded that the men of Sodom till those fields for free with corvee labor, as required service for Egypt. That’s why a-l-l the people of the district of Sodom surround Lot’s fortified house and are so super-hostile to Lot’s two guests, whom they strongly suspect of being representatives of hated, evil pharaoh Akhenaten:

“But before they lay down, the men of the city [of Salem/Shunem,], [indeed] even the men of [the entire district of] Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter.” Genesis 19: 4.

With Abraham’s former confederate Tagi [Biblical “Aner”] as the Hurrian princeling ruler of Gomorrah/Tel ‘Amr [near Megiddo] being in cahoots with Labaya/Hamor, now we can interpret Genesis 18: 20-21 as follows:

“20 And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; 21 I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me [from Biridiya]; and if not, I will know.”

The reason why the first Hebrews in southern Canaan felt they had to openly oppose this revolt against Egyptian presence in the Jezreel Valley is because in Year 13 the first Hebrews were desperately trying to get pharaoh Akhenaten to remove evil Yapaxu as the new ruler of the Ayalon Valley, since Yapaxu was threatening to drive the first Hebrews out of that lovely valley.

2. You wrote: “Of course, before destroying the place Abraham sent emissaries to warn LOT to leave town.”

Well, according to the Bible, it was YHWH, not Abraham, who “sent emissaries to warn LOT to leave town.”

Please note that once Sodom is destroyed, Abraham never pays any attention to Lot whatsoever! Abraham does not ask YHWH or anyone else if Lot is still alive. Abraham does not send any of his guys to look for or help out Lot and his daughters, who are now reduced to living in a cave in the Hill of Morieh. Abraham in fact has no concern whatsoever about Lot’s fate at this point. Rather, before the dust has literally settled, Abraham i-m-m-e-d-i-a-t-e-l-y sets out north to go to GRR/GLL/GLYL/Gariree/Galilee to perfect Abraham’s claim to all of Canaan. At Bethel in chapter 13 of Genesis, Abraham had provisionally restricted himself to the southern one-third of Canaan, until such time as YHWH would see fit to remove Lot from the scene. The m-i-n-u-t-e that Lot is divinely removed from the scene via the conflagration at Sodom, Abraham is Johnny-on-the-spot and hustles up north to Galilee to perfect his claim to all of Canaan (where the ruler in Year 13 was, both Biblically and non-biblically, “Abimelek”, who is always concerned about contested access to valuable water wells).

YHWH has looked out for Lot, saving him from Sodom’s destruction. But Abraham for his part has other things on his mind now: perfecting his divinely-backed claim to all of Canaan. Note that Abraham has effectively broken with Lot, even as YHWH has saved Lot’s life. If pharaoh Akhenaten is mad at Abraham’s nephew Lot for being in the middle of that horribly messy business of Akhenaten’s private estate fields at Shunem/Salem in Sodom, then Abraham can rightfully say: “I have washed my hands of my nephew Lot for all purposes. Indeed, I don’t even know if Lot is dead or alive, nor do I care to know.”

The text is actually quite clear as to what is going on here. Abraham is no longer looking out for Lot!

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

[Isaac Fried]

By the way, the name חרוד XAROD is, methinks, a variant of חרוץ XAROC, 'rush, hurry, surge', as in 2Sam. 5:25.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

[Yigal Levin]

Okay, folks. This discussion has moved way beyond anything that has to do with our list purpose. All discussion of any aspect of Genesis 14 is closed until after January 1st.

Todah Rabbah

Yigal Levin,
Co-moderator, B-Hebrew

[kwrandolph]

All discussion of any aspect of Genesis 14 is closed until after January 1st.

Todah Rabbah

Yigal Levin,
Co-moderator, B-Hebrew

Oh Rats!!! The lawyer didn’t wait until AFTER January 1st. Could you reinstate the ban for another three months? Is there anything linguistically special or unique about that section of Genesis, that’s not repeated elsewhere in Tanakh? I can’t think of any, can you?

No, I didn’t even look at the latest essay, let alone read it.

Karl W. Randolph.

[Em3ry]

The sodomites refused to take in Hagar who was fleeing (to Lot) from what she thought was female genital mutilation.