Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 13:10

"And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the Plain of the Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before Jehovah destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of Jehovah, like the land of Egypt, as thou goest unto Zoar." — Genesis 13:10 (ASV)

The plain of Jordan. —This word, Ciccar, literally means the circuit, or, as it is translated in Matthew 3:5, “the region round about Jordan,” and, according to Mr. Conder (Tent Work, volume 2, page 14), is the proper name of the Jordan valley, and especially of the plain of Jericho.

It is now called the Gnor, or depression, and is one of the most remarkable districts in the world, being a deep crack or fissure, with chalk rocks on the western and sandstone on the eastern side, over which lies limestone, geologically of the age of our green-sand formation.

It is thus what is technically called by miners a fault, the formations on the two sides having been displaced by some tremendous convulsion of nature.

Most of the valley lies below the level of the Mediterranean; the Sea of Galilee, according to Mr. Conder’s observations, is about 682 feet below it, and the Dead Sea no less than 1,292 feet. Since the watershed to the south rises to a level of 200 feet above the Mediterranean, all egress for the waters is thereby cut off. There are numerous proofs that at some distant period the whole valley, about 150 miles in length, was a succession of large lakes.

But even in Abram’s days, the Jordan poured down a far larger volume of water than at present. Due to the loss of its forests, the climate of Palestine has become much drier than in the past, and regions once fertile are now barren. As the supply of water has become less than that lost by evaporation, the Dead Sea has gradually receded, leaving behind arid wastes covered with incrustations of salt.

As the garden of the Lord. —Mr. Palmer (Desert of the Exodus, page 465) describes the fertility of the Jordan valley as follows: “Although the immediate vicinity of the Dead Sea is barren enough, the Ghor, or deep depression at the northern and southern extremities, teems with life and vegetation; and even where the cliffs rise sheer from the water’s edge, streams of fresh water dash down the ravines and bring the verdure with them almost to the Salt Sea’s brink.”

The same writer (page 480) has also shown conclusively, with Mr. Grove, Dr. Tristram, and others, that Sodom and Gomorrah were at the northern end of the lake, and not, as was previously supposed, at the southern.

For the Ciccar is strictly the part of the Ghor near Jericho, and since the Dead Sea is forty-six miles in length, its southern extremity was far out of sight.

Moreover, Lot was standing some miles away to the north-west, on the high ground between Beth-el and Ai, from where “the northern end of the Dead Sea, and the barren tract which extends from the oasis of Jericho to it and the Jordan, are distinctly visible” (Dr. Tristram, Sunday at Home, 1872, page 215).

This “barren tract” was once the Ciccar, and the traces of ancient irrigation and aqueducts attest to its former fertility.

It was on this district, “well watered everywhere,” that Lot gazed so covetously. Its richness is indicated by a double comparison: first, it was like Jehovah’s garden in Eden, watered by its four rivers; and second, it was like Egypt, rendered fertile by artificial means.

As thou comest unto Zoar. —This makes no sense whatsoever. No person on the route to Egypt could possibly take Zoar in his way; and of the five cities of the plain, this was the least like Paradise.

The Syriac version has preserved the right reading, namely, Zoan. This city, however, was called Zor, or Zar, by the Egyptians (Records of the Past, volume 8, page 147). It was situated on the eastern side of the Tanaitic branch of the Nile, at the head of a fertile plain called “the field of Zoan” in Psalm 78:12.

Lot had recently traveled with Abram through this rich and well-watered region, and the luxuriant vegetation there made it not unworthy to be compared with Paradise.