📖 Biblical Definition
The Dead Sea is the salt lake at the lowest point on the earth’s surface (about 1,400 feet below sea level), lying in the Jordan Rift Valley between modern Israel, Jordan, and the West Bank. Scripture calls it the Salt Sea (Genesis 14:3; Numbers 34:3, 12; Joshua 15:5), the Sea of the Plain, and the East Sea. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah lay along its southern shore before their destruction (Genesis 19). Its mineral concentration is so high that nothing lives in it — fitting symbol of judgment. Yet Ezekiel 47:8-10 prophesies a stream from the temple sweetening its waters and filling them with fish — eschatological reversal: where death reigned, life will swarm.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Salt lake at earth's lowest point.
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The salt-saturated lake at the lowest land elevation on earth, fed by the Jordan; biblical 'Salt Sea' or 'Sea of the Plain'; bordering Judea, Moab, and Edom; site of Sodom and Gomorrah's overthrow; in Ezekiel 47 the river from the temple makes its waters fresh and teeming with fish.
📖 Key Scripture
Genesis 14:3 — "All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea."
Numbers 34:12 — "The border shall... go down to Jordan, and the goings out of it shall be at the salt sea."
Ezekiel 47:8-9 — "These waters issue out... into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Reduced to a tourist curiosity, missing both the destruction it remembers and the healing Ezekiel promises.
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The Dead Sea is monument and prophecy. The destruction of Sodom is buried beneath it; Ezekiel sees the river from the temple healing it. End-time renewal will reach even what is most dead. Read both layers.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew yam ha-melach — Salt Sea.
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['Hebrew', 'H3220', 'yam', 'sea']
['Hebrew', 'H4417', 'melach', 'salt']
Usage
"The Dead Sea remembers Sodom."
"Ezekiel's river will heal even the Dead Sea."