Cities
Zoar (Bela)
Cities of the Plain
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Zoar, originally named Bela, is named in Genesis 14 as the fifth of the five cities of the plain alongside Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim. It is distinguished from the other four in Genesis 19 as the one city spared destruction: Lot asks to flee there rather than to the hills, and it is granted as a refuge, its name reinterpreted in the text as a play on the Hebrew word for smallness, since it was too small to be worth destroying alongside its neighbors.
Facts
Traditions
Sacred and Liturgical LanguagesHebrew, the language of the Genesis narrative naming the city. 1 History
Notable DevelopmentThe proposed site at Ghor es-Safi preserves a Byzantine-era sanctuary traditionally dedicated to Saint Lot, built over a cave associated in local Christian and Islamic memory with the Genesis narrative, and excavated as a monastic pilgrimage complex. 2 Disputed
Claimed LocationMost commonly identified with the site of Ghor es-Safi (Khirbet Shaykh Isa) at the southeastern end of the Dead Sea in modern Jordan, where Byzantine and early Islamic remains have been excavated; the exact identification is not settled among archaeologists. 2 Origins
FoundedOriginally named Bela; spared destruction in Genesis 19 when Lot asks to flee there rather than to the hills, granted as a refuge, its name reinterpreted in the text as a play on the Hebrew word for smallness. 1 Attributions
TraditionJudaism and Christianity: named in Genesis 14 and 19 as the city spared from the destruction of the plain, canonical in the Hebrew Bible and inherited by Christian scripture. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Gomorrah directly: "cities of the plain alongside Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim."
Lot, Figures Zoar's whole narrative is Lot's flight there from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; granted as a refuge at his request.
Lot, Figures Asked to take refuge in Zoar rather than flee to the hills, and it was spared on his account.
Attested in Region
Contained In
Scholarly consensus places biblical Zoar at Ghor es-Safi, southeastern Dead Sea, in modern Jordan.
Related To
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