Sodom

The most infamous of the Cities of the Plain, destroyed by God with fire and brimstone for grievous wickedness. Along with Gomorrah, Sodom became Scripture’s archetypal example of divine judgment on sin, particularly sexual immorality and violent inhospitality, while righteous Lot alone escaped the catastrophic destruction.

Sodom was located in the fertile Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea, described as “well watered everywhere like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt” (Genesis 13:10)—an attractive prospect that led Lot to choose it when separating from Abraham. However, “the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the LORD” (Genesis 13:13). Later, when God revealed His intention to investigate Sodom’s outcry, He told Abraham: “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave” (Genesis 18:20).

Abraham interceded for Sodom, bargaining with God down to sparing the city if just ten righteous people could be found (Genesis 18:23-32). Two angels visited Sodom to assess its wickedness and found Lot sitting in the city gate. Lot insisted they stay at his house rather than the town square—revealing his awareness of the city’s danger. That night, “the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house” and demanded Lot bring out his guests “that we may know them” (Genesis 19:4-5)—a euphemism for sexual assault. The mob’s depravity was total, as Lot’s desperate (and appalling) offer of his virgin daughters instead was rejected.

The angels struck the mob blind and warned Lot to flee with his family. At dawn, “the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground” (Genesis 19:24-25). Lot’s wife, disobeying the command not to look back, became a pillar of salt—a permanent monument to the danger of longing for what God has judged. Lot and his daughters alone survived, taking refuge in a cave.

Throughout Scripture, Sodom epitomizes both sexual sin and social injustice. The prophet Ezekiel identifies Sodom’s sin as: “She and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me” (Ezekiel 16:49-50). Jesus invoked Sodom to warn unrepentant cities that “it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you” (Matthew 11:24). Peter notes that God made Sodom “an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly” while rescuing “righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked” (2 Peter 2:6-7).