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, 1832.According to Genesis, Sodom (, Greek Σόδομα) and Gomorrah (, Greek Γόμορρα) were two cities destroyed by God.

For the sins of their inhabitants Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim (biblical) were destroyed by "sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven" (). Since then, their names are synonymous with impenitent sin, and their fall with a proverbial manifestation of God's wrath ().

Sodom and Gomorrah have been used as metaphors for sinfulness and sexual deviation. The story has therefore given rise to words in several languages, including English language: the word "sodomy", meaning acts (stigmatized as "unnatural vice") such as homosexual sex and zoophilia, and the word "sodomite", meaning one who practices such acts. However, the name Sodom is derived from a Hebrew word meaning "burnt", and Gomorrah from a word meaning "buried", which refer to their destruction.

The Biblical text Sodom was one of a group of five towns, the Pentapolis (): Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Bela -- also called Zoar (). The Pentapolis region is also collectively referred to as "the Cities of the Plain" () since they were all sited on the plain of the Jordan River, in an area that constituted the southern limit of the lands of the Canaanites (). Lot (biblical), a nephew of Abram (Abraham) chose to live in Sodom, because of the proximity of good grazing for his flocks ().

In , God informs Abraham that he plans to destroy the city of Sodom because of its gross immorality. Abraham pleads with God not to destroy Sodom, and God agrees that he would not destroy the city if there were 50 righteous people in it, then 45, then 30, then 20, or even ten righteous people. The Lord's two angels only found one righteous person living in Sodom, Abraham's nephew Lot (Bible). Consequently, God destroyed the city.

In the Tanach version, Bereishit19:4-5, the final episode in the story of Sodom is described as the angels visit Lot to warn him to flee:

Lot refused to give the visiting angels to the inhabitants of Sodom. He offered them his two daughters instead, but the people refused. The men were struck with blindness, allowing Lot and his family, who were then instructed to leave the city, to escape. As they made their escape the angels commanded that Lot and his family not look back under any circumstance. However as Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with fire and brimstone by God, Lot's wife was unable to keep her concentration and turned back to look at the city, and she was instantly transformed into a pillar of salt. No reason is given for the inclusion of Gomorrah in the destruction.

Jewish views Classical Jewish texts do not stress the homosexual aspect of the attitude of the inhabitants of Sodom as much as their cruelty and lack of hospitality to the "stranger." (See Jewish Encyclopedia on the importance of hospitality.) Though homosexual acts were included among the 613 Mitzvah or Commandments as an abomination, a single homosexual act being punishable by death, the people of Sodom were seen as guilty of many other no less significant sins. Rabbinic writings affirm that the Sodomites also committed economic crimes, blasphemy and bloodshed. One of the worst was to give money or even gold ingots to beggars, but to inscribe their names on them, and then subsequently refuse to sell them food. The unfortunate stranger would end up starving and after his death, the people who gave him the money would reclaim it.

A rabbinic tradition, described in the Mishnah, postulates that the sin of Sodom was related to property: Sodomites believed that "what is mine is mine, and what is yours is yours" (Abot), which is interpreted as a lack of compassion. Another rabbinic tradition is that these two wealthy cities treated visitors in a sadistic fashion. One major crime done to strangers was almost identical to that of Procrustes in Greek mythology. This would be the story of the "bed" that guests to Sodom were forced to sleep in: if they were too short they were stretched to fit it, and if they were too tall, they were cut up.

In another incident, Eliezer, Abraham's servant, went to visit Lot in Sodom and got in a dispute with a Sodomite over a beggar, and was hit in the forehead with a stone, making him bleed. The Sodomite demanded Eliezer pay him for the service of bloodletting, and a Sodomite judge sided with the Sodomite. Eliezer then struck the judge in the forehead with a stone and asked the judge to pay the Sodomite.

The Talmud and the book of Jasher also recount two incidents of a young girl (one involved a daughter of Lot, named Paltith) who gave some bread to a poor man who had entered the city. When the townspeople discovered their acts of kindness, they burned Paltith and smeared the other girl's body with honey and hung her from the city wall until she was eaten by bees. (Sanhedrin (tractate) 109a) It is this gruesome event (and her scream, in particular), the Talmud concludes, that are alluded to in the verse that heralds the city’s destruction: "So Hashem said, 'Because the outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah has become great, and because their sin has been very grave, I will descend and see...'" ().

The view of Josephus Flavius Josephus, a Ancient Rome-Judaism historian, wrote:

and Josephus recounts that when angels came to Sodom to find good men they were instead greeted by rapists:

Christian views There are two prevailing views of the sin of Sodom in Christian thought. One is that the destruction of Sodom was due to inhospitality, as illustrated by the gifts of God to Abraham for his gracious action, contrasted with consequences of the behavior of the city's inhabitants. First we see hospitality and the way we should act, then inhospitality in that the people of Sodom seek to mistreat the newcomers. The Biblical text itself seems to suggest that the sin is based in part on inhospitality to some (if not a major) extent (although traditionally, the reason promulgated for the punishment has been focused on sexual immorality and not assault):

, a drunken Lot embraces his daughter while Sodom burns in the distance.

This idea is paralleled in the Gospels when Jesus compares an inhospitable reception to Sodom:

This view of the Biblical story reflects that of other ancient civilizations, such as Greece and Rome, where hospitality was of singular importance and strangers were under the protection of the gods. Also in these civilizations, men were held in a much higher regard than women, in Greece women being seen as little more than property, therefore, to demand not only a guest but a male guest be violated against his will would be seen as more of a crime than to allow women to be used to save the guest.

The other prevailing explanation among Christians, informed by certain interpretations of other Biblical texts (see The Bible and homosexuality) and believed to be further suggested by the following, is that the sins of Sodom involved sexual immorality:

Interpretations of this passage vary. It may be that "going after strange flesh" is a euphemism for homosexuality, or, it may refer to sex with strangers, sex outside of wedlock, or possibly something akin to bestiality, as the men of Sodom were seeking copulation with angels rather than humans.

Islamic view Main article: Islamic view of Lot

In Islamic tradition, the nephew of Abraham or Islamic view of Abraham is known as Lut (Arabic language: لوط ) and is considered a Prophets of Islam.

As in other traditions, Islam teaches that Lut had originally lived in Ur and was a nephew of Abraham. His story is often used as a reference by traditional Islamic scholars to show homosexuality to be against God's law or Haraam. He was commanded by God to go to the land of Sodom and Gomorrah to preach to the people on monotheism and to bring their sinful behavior to an end. Their sins included indecent practices such as public orgies, aggressiveness in their public places of assembly, blocking free passage of the roads, the killing and robbing of travellers, and dishonesty in the markets. In the Qur'an as in the Bible, Lut's messages are ignored, and Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed. However, this does not mean that his wife used to practice homosexuality but worshipped what her people used to worship (that is, she was a polytheism).

The two major differences between the Biblical and Qur'anic stories are that in the Qur'an Lot's wife is left in the city to be destroyed along with its inhabitants, as she remained a polythiest; and that the Qur'an does not contain any passages concerning Lot's drunken incest with his daughters.

Historicity The historical existence of Sodom and Gomorrah is still in dispute by archaeologists. The Bible indicates they were located near the Dead Sea (, , ).

Strabo states that locals living near Moasada (probably Masada) say that "there were once thirteen inhabited cities in that region of which Sodom was the metropolis".Strabo XVI 2:44 In 1850, Ferdinand de Saulcy described Jabal Usdum, a limestone and salt hill at the southwestern tip of the Dead Sea, and Kharbet Usdum ruins nearby as the site of biblical Sodom..

Archibald Sayce translated an Akkadian poem describing cities that were destroyed in a rain of fire, written from the view of a person who escaped the destruction, however the names of the cities are not given.. However, Sayce later mentions that the story more closely resembles the doom of Sennacherib's host.

The name “Sodom” is probably related to the Arabic sadama meaning 'fasten,' 'fortify,' 'strengthen' and Gomorrah is based on the root gh m r which means 'be deep,' 'copious (water)'.

In 1976 Giovanni Pettinato claimed that a cuneiform script tablet that had been found in the newly discovered library at Ebla contained the names of all five of the Cities of the Plain (Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Bela), listed in the same order as in Genesis. Although not all of the names have been verified, the names si-da-mu and ì-ma-ar and TM.75.G.2233 are almost universally accepted as representing Sodom and Gomorrah. However, Alfonso Archi states that, judging from the surrounding city names in the cuneiform list, si-da-mu lies in northern Syria and not near the Dead Sea, and ì-ma-ar is a variant of ì-mar, known to represent Emar, an ancient city located near Ebla. William Shea points out in 1983 that on the 'Eblaite Geographical Atlas' , ad-mu-ut and sa-dam are good readings by Pettinato and correspond to Admah and Sodom, and they are contained in a list of cities that traces a route along the shores of, or quite possibly within the Dead Sea, whose position may have since shifted along its fault.

The cities may have been destroyed as the result of a natural cataclysm. Geologists have confirmed that no volcanic activity occurred within the last 4000 years, but it is possible that the towns were destroyed by an earthquake in the region, especially if the towns lie along a major fault, the Jordan Rift Valley, the northernmost extension of the Great Rift Valley of the Red Sea and East Africa. , 1832.According to Genesis, Sodom (, Greek Σόδομα) and Gomorrah (, Greek Γόμορρα) were two cities destroyed by God.

For the sins of their inhabitants Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim (biblical) were destroyed by "sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven" (). Since then, their names are synonymous with impenitent sin, and their fall with a proverbial manifestation of God's wrath ().

Sodom and Gomorrah have been used as metaphors for sinfulness and sexual deviation. The story has therefore given rise to words in several languages, including English language: the word "sodomy", meaning acts (stigmatized as "unnatural vice") such as homosexual sex and zoophilia, and the word "sodomite", meaning one who practices such acts. However, the name Sodom is derived from a Hebrew word meaning "burnt", and Gomorrah from a word meaning "buried", which refer to their destruction.

The Biblical text Sodom was one of a group of five towns, the Pentapolis (): Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Bela -- also called Zoar (). The Pentapolis region is also collectively referred to as "the Cities of the Plain" () since they were all sited on the plain of the Jordan River, in an area that constituted the southern limit of the lands of the Canaanites (). Lot (biblical), a nephew of Abram (Abraham) chose to live in Sodom, because of the proximity of good grazing for his flocks ().

In , God informs Abraham that he plans to destroy the city of Sodom because of its gross immorality. Abraham pleads with God not to destroy Sodom, and God agrees that he would not destroy the city if there were 50 righteous people in it, then 45, then 30, then 20, or even ten righteous people. The Lord's two angels only found one righteous person living in Sodom, Abraham's nephew Lot (Bible). Consequently, God destroyed the city.

In the Tanach version, Bereishit19:4-5, the final episode in the story of Sodom is described as the angels visit Lot to warn him to flee:

Lot refused to give the visiting angels to the inhabitants of Sodom. He offered them his two daughters instead, but the people refused. The men were struck with blindness, allowing Lot and his family, who were then instructed to leave the city, to escape. As they made their escape the angels commanded that Lot and his family not look back under any circumstance. However as Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with fire and brimstone by God, Lot's wife was unable to keep her concentration and turned back to look at the city, and she was instantly transformed into a pillar of salt. No reason is given for the inclusion of Gomorrah in the destruction.

Jewish views Classical Jewish texts do not stress the homosexual aspect of the attitude of the inhabitants of Sodom as much as their cruelty and lack of hospitality to the "stranger." (See Jewish Encyclopedia on the importance of hospitality.) Though homosexual acts were included among the 613 Mitzvah or Commandments as an abomination, a single homosexual act being punishable by death, the people of Sodom were seen as guilty of many other no less significant sins. Rabbinic writings affirm that the Sodomites also committed economic crimes, blasphemy and bloodshed. One of the worst was to give money or even gold ingots to beggars, but to inscribe their names on them, and then subsequently refuse to sell them food. The unfortunate stranger would end up starving and after his death, the people who gave him the money would reclaim it.

A rabbinic tradition, described in the Mishnah, postulates that the sin of Sodom was related to property: Sodomites believed that "what is mine is mine, and what is yours is yours" (Abot), which is interpreted as a lack of compassion. Another rabbinic tradition is that these two wealthy cities treated visitors in a sadistic fashion. One major crime done to strangers was almost identical to that of Procrustes in Greek mythology. This would be the story of the "bed" that guests to Sodom were forced to sleep in: if they were too short they were stretched to fit it, and if they were too tall, they were cut up.

In another incident, Eliezer, Abraham's servant, went to visit Lot in Sodom and got in a dispute with a Sodomite over a beggar, and was hit in the forehead with a stone, making him bleed. The Sodomite demanded Eliezer pay him for the service of bloodletting, and a Sodomite judge sided with the Sodomite. Eliezer then struck the judge in the forehead with a stone and asked the judge to pay the Sodomite.

The Talmud and the book of Jasher also recount two incidents of a young girl (one involved a daughter of Lot, named Paltith) who gave some bread to a poor man who had entered the city. When the townspeople discovered their acts of kindness, they burned Paltith and smeared the other girl's body with honey and hung her from the city wall until she was eaten by bees. (Sanhedrin (tractate) 109a) It is this gruesome event (and her scream, in particular), the Talmud concludes, that are alluded to in the verse that heralds the city’s destruction: "So Hashem said, 'Because the outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah has become great, and because their sin has been very grave, I will descend and see...'" ().

The view of Josephus Flavius Josephus, a Ancient Rome-Judaism historian, wrote:

and Josephus recounts that when angels came to Sodom to find good men they were instead greeted by rapists:

Christian views There are two prevailing views of the sin of Sodom in Christian thought. One is that the destruction of Sodom was due to inhospitality, as illustrated by the gifts of God to Abraham for his gracious action, contrasted with consequences of the behavior of the city's inhabitants. First we see hospitality and the way we should act, then inhospitality in that the people of Sodom seek to mistreat the newcomers. The Biblical text itself seems to suggest that the sin is based in part on inhospitality to some (if not a major) extent (although traditionally, the reason promulgated for the punishment has been focused on sexual immorality and not assault):

, a drunken Lot embraces his daughter while Sodom burns in the distance.

This idea is paralleled in the Gospels when Jesus compares an inhospitable reception to Sodom:

This view of the Biblical story reflects that of other ancient civilizations, such as Greece and Rome, where hospitality was of singular importance and strangers were under the protection of the gods. Also in these civilizations, men were held in a much higher regard than women, in Greece women being seen as little more than property, therefore, to demand not only a guest but a male guest be violated against his will would be seen as more of a crime than to allow women to be used to save the guest.

The other prevailing explanation among Christians, informed by certain interpretations of other Biblical texts (see The Bible and homosexuality) and believed to be further suggested by the following, is that the sins of Sodom involved sexual immorality:

Interpretations of this passage vary. It may be that "going after strange flesh" is a euphemism for homosexuality, or, it may refer to sex with strangers, sex outside of wedlock, or possibly something akin to bestiality, as the men of Sodom were seeking copulation with angels rather than humans.

Islamic view Main article: Islamic view of Lot

In Islamic tradition, the nephew of Abraham or Islamic view of Abraham is known as Lut (Arabic language: لوط ) and is considered a Prophets of Islam.

As in other traditions, Islam teaches that Lut had originally lived in Ur and was a nephew of Abraham. His story is often used as a reference by traditional Islamic scholars to show homosexuality to be against God's law or Haraam. He was commanded by God to go to the land of Sodom and Gomorrah to preach to the people on monotheism and to bring their sinful behavior to an end. Their sins included indecent practices such as public orgies, aggressiveness in their public places of assembly, blocking free passage of the roads, the killing and robbing of travellers, and dishonesty in the markets. In the Qur'an as in the Bible, Lut's messages are ignored, and Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed. However, this does not mean that his wife used to practice homosexuality but worshipped what her people used to worship (that is, she was a polytheism).

The two major differences between the Biblical and Qur'anic stories are that in the Qur'an Lot's wife is left in the city to be destroyed along with its inhabitants, as she remained a polythiest; and that the Qur'an does not contain any passages concerning Lot's drunken incest with his daughters.

Historicity The historical existence of Sodom and Gomorrah is still in dispute by archaeologists. The Bible indicates they were located near the Dead Sea (, , ).

Strabo states that locals living near Moasada (probably Masada) say that "there were once thirteen inhabited cities in that region of which Sodom was the metropolis".Strabo XVI 2:44 In 1850, Ferdinand de Saulcy described Jabal Usdum, a limestone and salt hill at the southwestern tip of the Dead Sea, and Kharbet Usdum ruins nearby as the site of biblical Sodom..

Archibald Sayce translated an Akkadian poem describing cities that were destroyed in a rain of fire, written from the view of a person who escaped the destruction, however the names of the cities are not given.. However, Sayce later mentions that the story more closely resembles the doom of Sennacherib's host.

The name “Sodom” is probably related to the Arabic sadama meaning 'fasten,' 'fortify,' 'strengthen' and Gomorrah is based on the root gh m r which means 'be deep,' 'copious (water)'.

In 1976 Giovanni Pettinato claimed that a cuneiform script tablet that had been found in the newly discovered library at Ebla contained the names of all five of the Cities of the Plain (Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Bela), listed in the same order as in Genesis. Although not all of the names have been verified, the names si-da-mu and ì-ma-ar and TM.75.G.2233 are almost universally accepted as representing Sodom and Gomorrah. However, Alfonso Archi states that, judging from the surrounding city names in the cuneiform list, si-da-mu lies in northern Syria and not near the Dead Sea, and ì-ma-ar is a variant of ì-mar, known to represent Emar, an ancient city located near Ebla. William Shea points out in 1983 that on the 'Eblaite Geographical Atlas' , ad-mu-ut and sa-dam are good readings by Pettinato and correspond to Admah and Sodom, and they are contained in a list of cities that traces a route along the shores of, or quite possibly within the Dead Sea, whose position may have since shifted along its fault.

The cities may have been destroyed as the result of a natural cataclysm. Geologists have confirmed that no volcanic activity occurred within the last 4000 years, but it is possible that the towns were destroyed by an earthquake in the region, especially if the towns lie along a major fault, the Jordan Rift Valley, the northernmost extension of the Great Rift Valley of the Red Sea and East Africa.