📖 Biblical Definition
Sodom was the Canaanite city of the Jordan plain destroyed in Genesis 19 by fire and brimstone rained from heaven, alongside Gomorrah. Its sin was a multifold collapse — pride, idleness, fulness of bread, neglect of the poor, and the specific homosexual assault on Lot’s angel-guests at the gate (Ezekiel 16:49-50; Genesis 19:4-9). In Scripture the name becomes the fixed reference point for sexual depravity, civic pride, and divine judgment. Christ Himself names Sodom multiple times as a comparative measure for cities of greater gospel privilege: "It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee" (Matthew 11:24). Peter and Jude both invoke Sodom as warning to apostate communities (2 Peter 2:6; Jude 7).
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
SOD'OM, n.
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A city of ancient Palestine, in the plain of Jordan, destroyed by fire from heaven, along with Gomorrah, on account of the wickedness of its inhabitants. Its site is now covered by the Dead Sea.
📖 Key Scripture
Genesis 19:24 — "The Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven."
Ezekiel 16:49 — "Pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy."
Jude 1:7 — "Even as Sodom and Gomorrha... are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."
Matthew 11:24 — "It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern hermeneutics try to edit Sodom out of Sodom; Scripture refuses.
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Ezekiel 16:49 is often weaponized to argue Sodom's sin was just inhospitality. Read on: verse 50 says they were haughty, and committed abomination before me. Pride and prosperity were the soil; the abomination was the fruit. Genesis 19 is unambiguous. Jude 7 calls it going after strange flesh. Multiple passages stack the verdict; only motivated reading can blur it.
The point of remembering Sodom is not to enjoy its destruction; Christ wept for cities and Abraham bargained for souls. The point is to fear God enough to call sin sin while there is still time. Christ's warning to Capernaum is that her judgment will be worse than Sodom's — because she had more light and rejected more clearly. Pray for our Sodoms; do not become them.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew Sedom (H5467) — the burning city.
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H5467 — Sedom — Sodom; city of the plain
G4670 — Sodoma — Sodom (Greek form)
Usage
"Sodom is not a slur; it is a verdict already in the Scriptures."
"Privilege without repentance puts a city below Sodom on judgment day — Capernaum learned this."
"Pray for the cities; do not move into them as Lot did, expecting holiness to leak in."