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Saturday, July 10 2010
Gomorrah was the name of an ancient city in Judea that is always mentioned in the Holy Bible with Sodom. The English name Gomorrah is derived from the New Testament Greek name for the city, pronounced gom-or-rah-haw which itself was derived from the more ancient Old Testament Hebrew name for the city, pronounced am-oh-raw which meant a heap, from agricultural usage meaning a heap of grain or a heap of manure. Since other Scriptures describe Sodom and Gomorrah as morally unclean, it's obvious that the name for the city did not refer to a heap of grain; Gomorrah meant a heap of manure.
The location of Gomorrah is thought by many to have been on a plain that is today submerged by the southern half of the Dead Sea. Hence also that the Greek name for the city came to mean submerged.
"And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly"
Gomorrah was a very ancient city. It existed, along with Sodom, very early in recorded Bible History, in the tenth chapter of Genesis.
"10:19 And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha." (Genesis 10:19 KJV)
Gomorrah became a "manure pile" because of how the people there behaved, not how it looked. The city itself was in an area that "was well watered everywhere like the garden of The Lord":
"13:10 And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar." (Genesis 13:10 KJV)
Gomorrah was politically and militarily allied with the cities around it:
"14:1 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; 14:2 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. 14:3 All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea." (Genesis 14:1-3 KJV)
The LORD (see the Fact Finder question below) destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because "their sin is very grievous":
"18:20 And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous" (Genesis 18:20 KJV)"19:24 Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; 19:25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground." (Genesis 19:24-25 KJV)
Gomorrah, along with Sodom, thereafter became an analogy for perversion and corruption - and of the coming lake of fire in which the unrepentant will be submerged (see Planet On Fire!):
"2:6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly" (2 Peter 2:6 KJV)
Fact Finder: Who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah? Why?
See The Day That Christ Incinerated Sodom
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This Day In History, July 10
1460: During the Wars of the Roses, Richard of York defeated King Henry VI at the battle of Northampton.
1520: The Spanish explorer Hernan Cortes (also known as Hernando Cortez) was forced from Tenochtitlan, Mexico by Aztec leader Cuauhtemoc.
1553: Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen of England. Her father-in-law, Lord Northumberland persuaded Edward VI to name Lady Jane as his successor. Her reign lasted only 9 days before Queen Mary, Edward's older sister, successfully claimed the throne. Lady Jane was imprisoned for treason and then beheaded in February 1554.
1609: The Catholic states in Germany set up a league under the leadership of Maximillian of Bavaria.
1925: The famous "Scopes Monkey Trial" began in Dayton, Tennessee, after high school biology teacher John T. Scopes, 24, was charged with teaching evolution to his students. Clarence Darrow worked for the defense and William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution.
1940: During the Second World War, the "Battle of Britain" air war began when German bombers attacked the docks in south Wales.
1943: U.S., British, and Canadian forces invaded Sicily in "Operation Husky."
1953: The Israeli freighter Haifa took aboard its first consignment of iron in Bremen. As part of the reparations agreed to be paid to Israel for Nazi war crimes, along with hard currency payments, shipments of goods would continue without interruption for 12 years.
1960: 7 year old Roger Woodward became the first human to fall accidentally over Niagara Falls and survive.
1962: Telstar, the first television telecommunications satellite, was launched. It made possible the first relaying of TV programs across the Atlantic Ocean.
1992: Manuel Noriega was sentenced to 40 years in prison by a Miami court for alleged drug dealing in Panama. The Panamanian President was captured and taken to Florida during the U.S. invasion of Panama. President Noriega has always claimed to be a prisoner of war, as well as being diplomatically immune from the civil laws of a foreign country.
