Kings in the Slimepits!

"And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations; that these made war with Bera king of Sodom and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar. All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea. Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled. And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Asteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim, and the Horites in their mount Seir, unto Elparan, which is by the wilderness. And they returned, and came to Enmishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that dwelt in Hazezontamar.

And there went out the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Admah, and the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar); and they joined battle with them in the vale of Siddim; with Chedorlaomer the king of Elam, and with Tidal king of nations, and Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar; four kings with five. And the vale of Siddim was full of slimepits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there; and they that remained fled to the mountain. And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way. And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed." (Genesis 14:1-12)

I just had to use the above title for this posting. I once lived in Houston, Texas, where a television news reporter by the name of Marvin Zindler had a byline of: "slime in the ice machine!" (He would report on the cleanliness, or lack of, in Houston area restaurants.) It is in that same intonation that he used, that I say "Kings in the Slimepits!" Mostly because it is odd that they fell into these slimepits…and after all…what ARE slimepits anyway? The Hebrew word for slimepits is only used in this one instance as "slimepits;" the rest of the time it is used for wells, or pits, especially water wells. We can't help but think that they are tarpits. Were there tarpits in Israel?

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia believes these to be naturally formed pits of "bitumen." Okay. So what is bitumen?

Webster's Dictionary says bitumen is: an asphalt of Asia Minor used in ancient times as a cement or mortar; any various mixtures of hydrocarbons (as tar) often together with their nonmetallic derivatives that occur naturally or are obtained as residues after heat-refining natural substances (such as petroleum).
So, tar pits, asphalt pits, bitumen pits, slimepits. Whatever they are, I feel certain that the kings of both Sodom and Gomorrah deserved to fall into them as this passage of scripture describes; at which point their allies all ran for the hills!

Aside from the fact that Lot, who was living in Sodom at the time, was taken captive by the overcoming kings (most of which are kings of Babylon cities), they also stole all of his belongings and kept them for themselves, taking Lot (and obviously his family and servants) along with them when they left Sodom with all their "trophies" in hand; so much for Lot's choice of land! But we'll get back to Lot later; in the meantime, I thought it might be interesting to see what some of these names of the kings and their cities mean. I won't go through all of them, that would be a bit too lengthy, but I will highlight the more interesting ones.

Shinar, Ellasar, and Elam all are Babylonian cities or areas; Ellasar means "God is chastener." [Coming from a city in pagan Babylon, I imagine that would be the impression they receive of God!] Tidal is simply called "king of the nations" indicating that there were many tribes under his rule who were nomadic in nature, not having named cities to dwell in apparently. These four Babylonian kings went to war with five other kings, and although outnumbered, they won (partly because two of the five kings were lost in the afore-mentioned slimepits!) Prior to attacking the five kings, however, they had gained much reknown by killing the Rephaims (ancient Canaanite giants) who lived in Ashteroth (a city dedicated to worshiping Astarte, one of the Babylonian goddesses we recently reviewed); the Zumims (who little is known about), and the Emims (whose name means "terrors.) And for good measure they also attacked and killed Horites, Amalekites, and Amorites (all Canaanite nations).

The five opposing kings whom these four victorious kings went up against next, could technically be considered "the real bad guys" although none of the nine kings were men of God in any form or fashion.

Bera (whose name means "son of evil") and Birsha (whose name means "with iniquity") definitely belonged together; these were the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, respectively. [An interesting side note, now that we've studied the word "slimepits," is that the word Sodom means "burning." I wonder if it became known as "burning" because of bitumen pits that had become ignited and were constantly burning in that area? Bitumen is allied to petroleum and natural gas.] Shinab was a Canaanite and his city of Admah is listed as one that will be destroyed along with Sodom and Gomorrah; as also was the city of Ellasar. These cities are now considered to be buried way down deep under the Dead Sea, which is said to "spit up" bitumen slicks (like an oil slick) during an earthquake. Obviously God considered them the "real bad guys" as well; and hopeless to change.

But one of these cities named Bela, later changed to Zoar (whose king was an ally of the Sodom and Gomorrah group) was not destroyed at the time of Sodom and Gomorrah, even though it is an ally of Sodom and Gomorrah, is in the same vicinity, and certainly could have been destroyed. The reason it escaped judgment is because of Lot's pleading with the Lord to remain in that town when he was removed from Sodom just before it was destroyed. (See Genesis 19:17-23).

We'll see what happened to Lot, the captive, in the next posting.