And the vale of Siddim was full of slimepits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there; and they that remained fled to the mountain.
And the vale of Siddim was full of slimepits, [Hebrew, be'ªrot (H875) be'ªrot (H875) cheemaar (H2564), wells, wells] - i:e., numerous wells or pits of bitumen, which, like those still at Hasbeya (called by the Arabs Biaret-Hummar), were probably sunk and worked by the ancient people as an important article of traffic, there being a large demand for it in the markets of Egypt, where it was much used in enbalming. 'That the existence of such bituminous pits in the vale of Siddim,' as Havernick has remarked, 'involves no contradiction of the statement made (Genesis 13:10, which Von Bohlen asserts it does), is sufficiently proved by similar asphaltic districts (cf. Michaelis, 50: 100:, sec. 14: seq.), and is also quite agreeable to the nature of the country.'
The kings of Sodom ... fled, and fell there. So many open pits within a small space must, in the hurry of a precipitous flight, have occasioned much embarrassment, and added to the perils of the battlefield. The words, "fell there," must apply to the soldiers of those kings generally, for the king of Sodom himself escaped.
They that remained fled to the mountain - i:e., either eastward to the ravines of the Moabite hills, or westward to the crags of Engedi, by which escape must have been very difficult, as they rise to a great height like a rugged wall, and the pass is steep as a stair.