Difference between revisions of "The Vale Of Siddim"

The Vale Of Siddim <ref name="term_37298" />  

<p> [[Genesis]] 14:3; Genesis 14:8; Genesis 14:10. [[Gesenius]] from the [[Arabic]] explains "a plain ( emek ) cut up by stony channels, which render it difficult of transit." emek means "a broad flat tract between hills", a suitable battle field for the four kings against five. It had many bitumen pits. Onkelos, Aquila, and [[Rashi]] make [[Siddim]] plural of sadeh , "a plain." So Stanley "the valley of (cultivated) fields." Aben Ezra derives Siddim from sid , "lime," bitumen being used for lime ( Genesis 14:3). The words "which is the Salt Sea" imply that the Dead Sea in part now covers (probably at its Siddim end which is shallow and with shores incrusted with salt and bitumen) the vale of Siddim. The plain is in part enclosed between the southern end of the lake and the heights which terminate the Ghor and commence the wady Arabah. In the drains of the Sabkhah are Gesenius' impassable channels. The form of the plain agrees with the idea of an emek . The [[Imperial]] [[Bible]] [[Dictionary]] makes Siddim a Hamitic word occurring in [[Egyptian]] monuments, the Shet-ta-n or: land of Sheth," part of the [[Rephaim]] who possessed that part of Palestine. </p>

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