ZOAR
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.
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Zoar
(Heb. , [fully , Gen 19:22-23; Gen 19:30], smallness; Sept. , , or ‘; Josephus , or ; Vulg. Segor), one of the cities of the Jordan and Dead-Sea valley, and apparently, from the way in which it is mentioned, the most distant from the western highlands of Palestine (Gen 13:10). Its original name was BELA, and it was still so called at the time of Abram’s first residence in Canaan (Gen 14:2; Gen 14:8). It was then 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)- and its king took part with the kings of those towns in the battle with the Assyrian host which ended in their defeat and the capture of Lot. The change is thus, explained in the narrative of Lot’s escape from Sodom. When urged by the angel to flee to the mountain, he pointed to Bela, and said, This city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one (). Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live. The angel consented and the incident proved a new baptism to the place, Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar, that is, little (Gen 5:22).
This incident further tends to fix its site, at least relatively to Sodom. It must have been nearer than the mountains, and yet outside the boundary of the plain or vale of Siddim, which was destroyed during the conflagration. It would seem from Gen 19:22-23; Gen 30:30 that it lay at the foot of the mountain into, which Lot subsequently went up, and where he dwelt. That mountain was most probably the western declivity of Moab, overlooking the Dead Sea. In. Deu 34:3 there is another slight indication of the position of Zoar. From the top of Pisgah Moses obtained his view of the Promised Land. The east, the north, and the west he viewed, and- lastly the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, into Zoar. This is not quite definite; but, considering the scope of the passage, it may be safely concluded that the general basin of the Dead Sea is meant, and that Zoar was near its southern end. Isaiah reckons Zoar among the cities of Moab, but does not describe its position. It would seem, however, from the way in which it is mentioned, that it must have been on the utmost border,(Isa 15:5). Jeremiah is the only other sacred writer who mentions it, and his words are less definite than those of Isaiah (Jer 48:34).
In early Christian times Josephus says that it retained its name () to his day (Ant. 1:11, 4), that it was at the farther end of the Asphaltic Lake, in Arabia by which he means the country lying southeast of the lake, whose capital was Petra (War, 4:8, 4; Ant. 14:1, 4). The notices of Eusebius are to the same tenor the Dead Sea extended from Jericho to Zoar (; Onomast. s.v. ). Phseno lay between Petra and Zoar (ibid. s.v. ). It still retained its name (), lay close to () the Dead Sea, was crowded with inhabitants, and contained a garrison of Roman soldiers; the palm and the balsam still flourished, and testified, to its ancient fertility (ibid. s.v. ). To these notices of Eusebius, Jerome adds little or nothing. Paula, in her journey, beholds Segor (which Jerome gives on several occasions the Hebrew form of the name, in opposition to Zoora, or Zoara, the Syrian form) from Caphar Barucha (possibly Beni Naim, near Hebron), at the same time with Enigedi, and the land where once stood the four cities; but the terms of the statement are too vague to allow of any inference as to its position (Epist. 108, 11). In his commentary on Isa 15:5, Jerome says that it was in the boundary of the Moabites dividing them from the land of the Philistines, and thus justifies his use of the word vectis to translate (A.V. his fugitives, marg. borders; Gesen. Fluchtlinge). The terra Philisthiim, unless the words are corrupt, can only mean the land of Palestine i.e. (according to the inaccurate usage of later times) of Israel as opposed to Moab. In his Quaestiones Hebraicae, on. Gen 19:30 (comp. 14:3), Jerome goes so far as to affirm the accuracy of the Jewish conjecture, that the later name of Zoar was Shallsha Bale primum et postea Salisa appellate. (comp. also his. co0ment on Isa 15:5). But this is probably grounded merely on an interpretation of shalishiyeh in Isa 15:5, as connected with bela, and as denoting the third destruction of the town by earthquakes. Zoar was included in the province of Palestina Tertia, which contained also Kerak and Areopolis. It was an episcopal see, in the patriarchate of Jerusalem and archbishopric of Petra; at the Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451) it was represented by its bishop, Musonius, and at the Synod of Constantinople (A.,D. 536) by John (Le Quien, Oriens Christi, 743-746).
Among the statements of mediaeval travelers there are two remarkable ones
(1.) Brocardus (cir. A.D. 1290) the author of the Descriptio Terrae Sanctae, the standard Handbook to Palestine of the Middle Ages, the work of an able and intelligent resident in the country, states, (c. 7) that he leagues (leucae) to the south of Jericho is the city Segor, situated beneath the mountain of Engaddi, between which mountain and the Dead Sea is the statue of salt. True, he confesses that all his efforts to visit the spot had been, frustrated by the Saracens; but the passage bears marks of the greatest; desire to obtain correct information, and he must have nearly approached the place, because he saw with his own eves the pyramids which covered the wells of bitumen, which he supposes to have been those of the vale of Siddim. This is in curious agreement with the connection between Engedi and Zoar implied in Jerome’s Itinerary of Paula.
(2.) The statement of Thietmar (A.D. 1217) is even more singular. It is contained in the 11th and 12th chapters of his Peregriaatio (ed. Laurent, Hamburg, 1857). After visiting Jericho and Gilgal, he arrives at the fords of Jordan (11, 20), where Israel crossed and where Christ was baptized, and where then, as now, the pilgrims bathed (22). Crossing this ford (33), he arrives at the field and the spot where the Lord overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. After a description of the lake come the following words: On the shore of this lake, about a mile (ad miliare) from the spot at which the Lord was baptized, is the statue of salt into which Lot’s wife was turned (47). Hence I came from the lake of Sodom and Gomorrah, and arrived at Segor, where Lot took refuge after the overthrow of Sodom; which is now called in the Syrian tongue Zora, but in Latin the City of Palms. In the mountain hard by this Lot sinned with his daughters (12, 1-3). After this I passed the vineyard of Benjamin (?) and of Engaddi… Next I came into the land of Moab and to the mountain in which was the cave where David hid, leaving on my left hand Sethim (Shittim), where the children of Israel tarried…. At last I came to the plains of Moab, which abound in cattle and grain…. A plain country, delightfully covered with herbage, but without either woods or single trees; hardly even a twig or shrub (4-15). After this I came to the torrent Jabbok (14, 1).
Zoar is very distinctly mentioned by the Crusading historians. Fulcher (Gesta Dei, p. 405, quoted by Raumer, p. 239) states that, having encircled (giitato) the southern part of the lake on the road from Hebron to Petra, we found there a large village which was said to be Segor, in a charming situation, and abounding with dates. Here we began to enter the mountains of Arabia. The palms are mentioned also by William of Tyre (22, 30) as being so abundant as to cause the place to be called Villa Palmarum, and Palmer (i.e. probably Paumier). Abulfeda (cir. A.D. 1320) does not specify its position more nearly than that it was adjacent to the lake and the Ghor, but he testifies to its then importance by calling the lake after it-Bahretzeghor (see, too, Ibn-Idris, in Reland, p. 272). The natural inference from the description of Fulcher is that Segor lay in the Wady Kerak, the ordinary road, then and now, from the south of the Dead Sea to the eastern highlands. The conjecture of Irby and Mangles (June 1, and see May 9), that the extensive ruins, which they found in the lower part of this Wady, were those of Zoar, is therefore probably accurate. The name Dra’a or Dera’ah, which they, Poole (Geogr. Journ. 26:63), and Burckhardt (July 15), give to the valley, may even without violence be accepted as a (Journey, 1, 307).
M. de Saulcy himself, however, places Zoar in the Wady Zuweirah, the pass leading from Hebron to the DeadSea. But the names Zuweirah and Zoar are not nearly so similar in the originals as they are in their Western forms, and there is the fatal obstacle to the proposal that it places Zoar on the west of the lake, away from what appears to have been the original cradle of Moab and Ammon. If we are to look for Zoar in this neighborhood, it would surely be better to place it at the Tellum-Zoghal, the latter part of which name is almost literally the same as the Hebrew Zoar. The proximity of this name and that of Usdulm, so like Sodom, and the presence of the salt mountain to this day splitting off in pillars which show a rude resemblance to the human form, are certainly remarkable facts. Other writers locate Zoar in the plain at the northern end of the Dead Sea. An insuperable objection to this is that in that case Lot must have crossed the Jordan in his flight; for Sodom was on the west side of the plain, and Zoar on the east. Mr. Birch (in the Quarterly Statement of the Palest. Explor. Fund, Jan. 1879, p. 15 sq.) is confident that the name and site are those of Tell es-Shagur, at the foot of Wady Hesban; but his arguments lack weight. Tristram’s attempt (Land of Moab, p. 343) to identify Zoar with Ziara on Mount Nebo is based upon an error as to the latter name, which is properly Siaghhah; the position on a mountain, moreover, is preposterous. For the different views held regarding the site of Zoar, see Robinson, Bibl. Res. 2, 517; Reland, Palaest. p. 1064; De Saulcy Travels, 1, 481; Tristram, Land of Israel, p. 360; Bibliotheca Sacra, 1868, p. 136 sq. SEE SODOM.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Zoar
small, a town on the east or south-east of the Dead Sea, to which Lot and his daughters fled from Sodom (Gen. 19:22, 23). It was originally called Bela (14:2, 8). It is referred to by the prophets Isaiah (15:5) and Jeremiah (48:34). Its ruins are still See n at the opening of the ravine of Kerak, the Kir-Moab referred to in 2 Kings 3, the modern Tell esh-Shaghur.
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Zoar
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.
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Zoar
ZOAR.See Plain [Cities of the], Lot.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Zoar
The city of Lot’s refuge. The very name signifies little. (Gen 19:22)
Fuente: The Poor Mans Concordance and Dictionary to the Sacred Scriptures
Zoar
zoar (, , coar; the Septuagint usually , Segor, , Zogora): 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 Wady 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-Lisan 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-Rameh), 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.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Zoar
Zoar 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).
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Zoar
[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.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Zoar
H6714 H6820
A city of the Moabites, near the Jordan
Gen 13:10
Territory of
Deu 34:3; Isa 15:5; Jer 48:34
King of, fought against Chedorlaomer
Gen 14:2; Gen 14:8
Not destroyed with Sodom and Gomorrah
Gen 19:20-23; Gen 19:30
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Zoar
Zoar (z’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.
Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible
Zoar
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).
Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary
ZOAR
a small city in the plain of Jordan
Gen 13:10; Gen 19:22; Deu 34:3; Isa 15:5; Jer 48:34