The plain of Jordan. — This word, Ciccar, literally means the circuit, or, as it is translated in St. Matthew 3:5, “the region round about Jordan,” and, according to Mr. Conder (Tent Work, ii., p. 14), is the proper name of the Jordan valley, and especially of the plain of Jericho. It is now called the Gnor, or depression, and is one of the most remarkable districts in the world, being a deep crack or fissure, with chalk rocks upon the western and sandstone on the eastern side, over which lies limestone, geologically of the age of our green-sand formation. It is thus what is technically called by miners a fault, the formations on the two sides having been displaced by some tremendous convulsion of nature. Most of the valley lies below the level of the Mediterranean, the Sea of Galilee being, by Mr. Conder’s observations, about 682 feet below it, and the Dead Sea no less than 1,292 feet. As the watershed to the south rises to a level of 200 feet above the Mediterranean, al) egress for the waters is thereby cut off, and there are numerous proofs that at some distant period the whole valley, about 150 miles in length, was a succession of large lakes. But even in Abram’s days the Jordan poured down a far larger volume of water than at present; for by the loss of its forests the climate of Palestine has become much more dry than of old, and regions once fertile are now barren. And as the supply of water has become less than that lost by evaporation, the Dead Sea has gradually receded, and left around it arid wastes covered over with incrustations of salt.
As the garden of the Lord. — Mr. Palmer (Desert of the Exodus. p. 465) describes the fertility of the Jordan valley as follows: — “Although the immediate vicinity of the Dead Sea is barren enough, the Ghor, or deep depression at the northern and southern extremities, teems with life and vegetation; and even where the cliffs rise sheer up from the water’s edge, streams of fresh water dash down the ravines, and bring the verdure with them almost to the Salt Sea’s brink.” The same writer (p. 480) has also shown conclusively, with Mr. Grove, Dr. Tristram, and others, that Sodom and Gomorrha were at the northern end of the lake, and not, as was previously supposed, at the southern. For the Ciccar is strictly the part of the Ghor near Jericho, and as the Dead Sea is forty-six miles in length, its southern extremity was far away out of sight. Moreover, Lot was standing some miles away to the north-west, on the high ground between Beth-el and Ai, whence “the northern end of the Dead Sea, and the barren tract which extends from the oasis of Jericho to it and the Jordan, are distinctly visible” (Dr. Tristram, Sunday at Home, 1872, p. 215). This “barren tract” was once the Ciccar, and the traces of ancient irrigation and aqueducts attest its former fertility. It was upon this district, “well watered everywhere,” that Lot gazed so covetously, and its richness is indicated by a double comparison: for, first, it was like Jehovah’s garden in Eden, watered by its four rivers; and next, it was like Egypt, rendered fertile by artificial means.
As thou comest unto Zoar. — This makes no sense whatsoever. No person on the route to Egypt could possibly take Zoar in his way; and of the five cities of the plain this was the least like Paradise. The Syriac has preserved the right reading, namely, Zoan. This city, however, was called Zor, or Zar, by the Egyptians (Records of the Past, viii. 147), and was situated on the eastern side of the Tanaitic branch of the Nile, at the head of a fertile plain, called “the field of Zoan” in Psalms 78:12. Through this rich and well-watered region Lot had lately travelled in Abram’s company, and the luxuriant vegetation there made it not unworthy to be compared with Paradise.