SIDDIM, LOW PLAIN OF

(Sidʹdim) [valley of the fields],

A valley linked in Scripture with the Salt (Dead) Sea. (Gen. 14:3) There, in Abraham’s day, the rebellious kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Zoar battled with Elamite King Chedorlaomer and his three Mesopotamian allies. Defeated, the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, only to have some of their troops fall into the “pits upon pits of bitumen” that filled the area.—Gen. 14:4, 8-10.

The Low Plain of Siddim is generally identified with the baylike section of the Dead Sea S of the Lisan Peninsula. Probably once a fertile valley, it was apparently later submerged, perhaps due to earthquake activity or because of topographical changes resulting from God’s destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah and the entire District. (Gen. 19:24, 25) From time to time, pieces of bituminous matter still rise to the surface of the shallow waters there.—See SALT SEA.