Gomorrah

Biblical Text

Gomorrah first appears in Genesis 10:19, where it is listed with Sodom, Admah, and Zeboim in describing the borders of the Canaanites. Genesis 13:10 describes the plain of the Jordan that Lot chose as a well-watered land "before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah." In Genesis 14, Birsha king of Gomorrah, together with the king of Sodom and others, fights against four kings in the vale of Siddim and is defeated. Genesis 18:20 states that the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin very grievous, and Genesis 19:24–25 records that the LORD rained upon the two cities brimstone and fire out of heaven and overthrew them along with all the plain. The next morning, when Abraham looked toward that land, "the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace" (Genesis 19:28).

Background

The Hebrew name is ʿAmorah, which the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) rendered as Gomorrha. The meaning of the name is uncertain. Genesis 14:3 identifies the vale of Siddim with "the salt sea," that is, the Dead Sea. For this reason Gomorrah is understood to have been a city in the vicinity of the Dead Sea. Some have proposed linking Sodom and Gomorrah with Bronze Age sites on the southeastern side of the Dead Sea or with sites in the region to the north, but scholars have reached no consensus on the location.

Significance Throughout Scripture

Gomorrah has no independent narrative of its own and almost always appears paired with Sodom. In the Old Testament the two names became an idiomatic expression for utter destruction and judgment. Deuteronomy 29:23 warns that a disobedient land will be covered with brimstone and salt like Sodom and Gomorrah. Isaiah 1:9–10 addresses the leaders and people of corrupt Jerusalem as "rulers of Sodom" and "people of Gomorrah." The downfall of foreign nations such as Babylon, Edom, and Moab is likewise compared to the destruction of Gomorrah (Isaiah 13:19; Jeremiah 50:40; Zephaniah 2:9). The same expression also appears in Amos 4:11.

The New Testament carries this tradition forward. Jesus says that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for a city that rejects the gospel (Matthew 10:15). Romans 9:29, quoting Isaiah 1:9, says that because God left a remnant, his people did not become like Sodom and Gomorrah. 2 Peter 2:6 and Jude 1:7 present the destruction of the two cities as an example of the judgment that will come upon the ungodly.

Interpretation and Issues

• The sin of the two cities: The events of Genesis 19 take place in Sodom, and the text does not separately describe any specific sin of Gomorrah. Many churches, citing Genesis 19 and the expressions "fornication" and "going after strange flesh" in Jude 1:7, understand the sin as centering on sexual immorality. Other interpreters, noting that Ezekiel 16:49 names pride and the failure to help the poor amid abundance as the sin of Sodom, also emphasize injustice, violence, and the refusal of hospitality. This discussion frequently arises in the debate over homosexuality and the church.
• Historicity: Traditionally the account has been read as an actual historical event. Some scholars regard it as a story explaining the desolate landscape of the Dead Sea region.
• Distinguishing the text from associated stories: Abraham's intercession (Genesis 18:23–33) and Lot's wife becoming a pillar of salt (Genesis 19:26) belong to the Sodom narrative. Scripture contains no episode told solely about Gomorrah.

In the Korean Church

"Sodom and Gomorrah" is widely used in preaching as an expression warning against a society filled with sin and of judgment to come. In Korean society at large, it also serves as an idiom for a place of moral corruption.