GOMORRAH gə môr’ ə (עֲמֹרָ֖ה, LXX, Γόμορρα, G1202; meaning unknown). A city located in the Valley of Siddim, prob. at the S of the Dead Sea.

Together with Sodom, the cities became infamous because of the way in which they were destroyed. Sodom and Gomorrah became bywords for the judgment of God. Isaiah referred to its sin and its consequent destruction twice in his first ch. (v. 9f.), and once later (13:19). Jeremiah resurrected the horror of its destruction (Jer 23:14; 49:18; 50:40). Both Amos (4:11) and Zephaniah (2:9) pronounced divine threats in terms of the two famous cities of the plain. In the NT, Jesus, Paul, Peter, and Jude alluded to these ancient examples of God’s retributive wrath (Matt 10:15; Rom 9:29; 2 Pet 2:6; and Jude 7).

Gomorrah is first mentioned as the S or E extent of the Canaanite territory (Gen 10:19) Later, Lot, Abram’s nephew, chose to live in Sodom. It was then that four eastern kings under the leadership of Chedorlaomer attacked the five cities of the plain (Gen 14). Genesis 18 and 19 record the meeting of Abram with the angels and their warning to Lot of the imminent destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot escaped and “the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire” (19:24).

The location of Gomorrah is unknown. There are theories that it was at either the N or S end of the Dead Sea. Both arguments have strengths; both have weaknesses, but the most accepted view is that Gomorrah and the other cities are sunken beneath the shallow waters of the Dead Sea S of the Lisan peninsula.

Bibliography W. F. Albright, BASOR, 14 (1924), 5-7; AASOR VI (1924-1925), 58-62; F. G. Clapp, “The Site of Sodom and Gomorrah,” AJA (1936), 323-344; J. P. Harland, “Sodom and Gomorrah, The Location and Destruction of the Cities of the Plain,” BA, V (1941), 17-32; VI (1943), 41-54.