Genesis 14:3 describes them as the bitumen pits near the Dead Sea where the War of the Kings was fought.
Emek = "a valley".
Siddim comes from Sed (שד) = "a field", and is therefore not to be confused with Sedom (Sodom) which has a samech (ס) not a seen (ש). Having said which, it is an odd coincidence that the principal town of the five that inhabit the shores of the Bitumen Sea, the nothing-but-potash sea which suggests a volcanic eruption must have caused it, millennia ago, it is an odd coincidence that there should be Sidim for the bitumen and Sedom for the town; and Samech generally indicates a foreign word absorbed into Yehudit.
The theory is that the Dead Sea came into being when the Cities of the Plain went down under the volcanicised earth, following their destruction. Does this link it to the Atlantis myths?
How do we know it is a seen (ש) and not a sheen (ש), given that the original Tanach was written down from oral legends?
Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press
No comments:
Post a Comment