Gomorrah

“ There might an earl have his fill of fighting, whoso was not yet sated with war. The Northmen smote the people of the south. In the shock of shields the men of Sodom and Gomorrah, dispensers of gold, lost many a well-loved comrade. And they fled away from the place of battle and saved their lives. Behind them, slain with spears and smitten with the swordedge, their well-loved comrades, sons of princes, fell in death. ”

“ It is at a sudden bend in the hills that you come unawares upon the astonishing vision, but before you reach that point the landscape clothes itself in sack-cloth and throws ashes on its head as if it realised that the green pastures were to end in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and it must drape itself seemly. In winter especially there is a look of Sodom and Gomorrah about the place—a charred, lifeless look that is weird and depressing. On the one hand the slender stems of ash and hazel, rising grey from the grey hill-slope, seem as though some storm of fire had swept them. ”

“ THE DEAD SEA. SODOM AND GOMORRAH.
How strongly associated in the minds of men, are the ideas of guilt and ruin, unspeakable and awful, with the names of Sodom and Gomorrah. The very words themselves seem deeply and indelibly imbued with a mysterious and dreadful meaning.
[1] Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by Harper and Brothers, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. ”

“ There are many who are strangers, nay, enemies, to the power of religion, and yet seem very zealous for the show and shadow and form of it. This sinful nation, this seed of evil-doers, these rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah, brought, not to the altars of false gods (they are not here charged with that) , but to the altar of the God of Israel, sacrifices, a multitude of them, as many as the law required and rather more—not only peace-offerings, which they themselves had their share of, but burnt-offerings, which were wholly consumed to the honour of God ”

“ O thou that dwellest - All Idumea is full of mountains and rocks, and these rocks and mountains full of caves, where, in time of great heats, and in time of war, the people take shelter.
Verse 18
As in the overthrow of Sodom - The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring cities was so terrible, that, when God denounces judgments against incorrigible sinners, he tells them they shall be like Sodom and Gomorrah.
No man shall abide there - It shall be so desolate as not to be habitable. Travellers may lodge on the ground for a night; but it cannot become a permanent dwelling. ”

“ It is well worthy of our study. We find in it—
I. A Startling Description. ”Rulers of Sodom, . . . people of Gomorrah.” What an astonishing declaration is this, that Sodom, Gomorrah, and Jerusalem are synonymous terms! It reminds us—1. That man may be morally alike to those from whom they think themselves the furthest removed. Many a Protestant who hates the very name of Rome is himself a little Pope: he never doubts his own infallibility, and is ready to anathematise all who dare to dissent from him. Many a man who has never stood in the felon’s dock is a thief at heart. ”

“ And there were five other cities in the territory of Ham, the son of Noah; the first called Sodom, then Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Balah, which was also called Zoar. And the names of their kings are these: Bera, king of Sodom; Birsha, king of Gomorrah; Shinab, king of Admah; Shemeber, king of Zeboiim; Bela, king of Zoar, which is also called Kephalac. [65] These served Chedorlaomer, the king of the Assyrians, for twelve years, and in the thirteenth year they revolted from Chedorlaomer; and thus it came to pass at that time that the four Assyrian kings waged war upon the five kings. ”

“ All the unbelief of the world will not stay the fulfilment of the decrees of the Almighty. The unbelief of the in-habitants of the antediluvian world in the days of Noah did not stay the deluge. The unbelief of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomarrah [Gomorrah] did not avert the destruction of these cities. The unbelief of the Jews did not avert the destruction of Jerusalem. We look for a literal fulfilment of the decrees of God. We know as a people that he has set his hand to establish his Church. He has set his hand to warn all nations. ”

“ Part of this district still bears, among the Bedawîn, the title ’Amrîyeh, which represents the Hebrew Amorah or Gomorrah. A few scattered ruins exist on the plateau, and the Arabs have a tradition that these are remains of vineyards, which once existed, according to them, throughout this scorched and desolate solitude.
The hills west of the plateau are well worthy of notice. ”

“ It was then full of a multitude of inhabitants, sustaining one hundred and twenty thousand men, and abounding in wickedness, as is usually the case among a vast concourse of people. God, moved by their sinfulness, commanded the prophet Jonah to go from Judæa, and denounce destruction upon the city, as Sodom and Gomorrah had of old been consumed by fire from heaven. ”

“ There is now a general consent that Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim were situated north of the Dead Sea, in the Kikkar or Plain of the Jordan. There are old maps which represent these cities as situated at the bottom of the Dead Sea waters, and yet enveloped in flames! Popular ignorance imagines that the bitumen which rises to the surface of the waters is a relic of the agency which effected the destruction. And until recently even the best scholars supposed the cities to lie beneath the shallow part of the sea, south of the Lisan peninsula. ”

“ Therefore shall wild beasts dwell [there] with jackals, and ostriches shall dwell in it; and it shall no more be inhabited for ever, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. Jer 50:40. As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their inhabitants, saith Jahveh, no man shall dwell there, nor shall a son of man sojourn in it."
Further description of the execution of God's wrath. Archers shall come and besiege Babylon round about, so that no one shall escape. ”

“ It would seem as if Anathoth were less corrupt than the capital, the moral state of which so shocked Jeremiah. And yet he does not really go beyond the great city-prophet Isaiah who calls the men of Jerusalem “a people of Gomorrah” (i. 10) . With all reverence, an historical student has to deduct something from both these statements. It is true that commercial prosperity had put a severe strain on the old morality, and that contact with other 324 peoples, as well as the course of political history, had appeared to lower the position of the God of Israel in relation to other gods. ”

“ In fact, the English monks might naturally be expected to be more dissolute than the inhabitants of Sodom, as they were richer. They were in possession of the best lands in the kingdom. The territory of Sodom and Gomorrah, on the contrary, produced neither grain, fruit, nor pulse; and being moreover deficient even in water fit to drink, could be neither more nor less than a frightful desert, inhabited by miserable wretches too much occupied in satisfying their absolute necessities to have much time to devote to pleasures. ”

“ Lastly, It is taken notice of, that the sun was risen when Lot entered into Zoar. For when a good man comes into a place, he brings light along with him, or should do.
24. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; 25. And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
Then, when Lot was got safe into Zoar, then this ruin came; for good men are taken away from the evil to come. ”

“ It was as if he should have married Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, who probably was at that time a noted harlot. The land of Israel was like Gomer the daughter of Diblaim. Gomer signifies corruption; Diblaim signifies two cakes, or lumps of figs; this denotes that Israel was near to ruin, and that their luxury and sensuality were the cause of it. They were as the evil figs that could not be eaten, they were so evil. It intimates sin to be the daughter of plenty and destruction the daughter of the abuse of plenty. ”

“ The resistance of the inhabitants, though aided by the valor of the Gomeres, was of no avail. The battering artillery of the Christians demolished their walls; combustibles thrown into their town set it on fire in various places; and they were at length compelled to capitulate. They were permitted to depart with their effects, and the Gomeres with their arms. Hamet el Zegri and his African band rode proudly through the Christian camp, nor could the Spanish cavaliers refrain from regarding with admiration that haughty warrior and his devoted and dauntless followers. ”

“ GOMER, the biblical name of a race appearing in the table of nations (Gen. x. 2) , as the “eldest son” of Japheth and the “father” of Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah; and in Ezek. xxxviii. 6 as a companion of “the house of Togarmah in the uttermost parts of the north,” and an ally of Gog; both Gomer and Togarmah being credited with “hordes,” [1] E.V., i.e. “bands” or “armies.” The “sons” of Gomer are probably tribes of north-east Asia Minor and Armenia, and Gomer is identified with the Cimmerians. ”

“ Libya takes in a portion of the African race. Gomer stands for the Germans in part, for those who descended from Gomer. From this word Gomer is Gomeron, Gemren, and the country Germia, hence, Germany and Germans. Togarmah includes the people of Independent Tartary. The Dragon includes China. The Beast, the Jesuits and their followers, which will take in France, Spain, Italy, and South America; and at first divide even England, especially Ireland, and the United States. Anti-Christ will be chiefly sustained by the Jews, who will have been settled in Palestine. ”

“ Then the dear ministers of
peace spoke fairly to Loth, in these words:
"If thou hast a son, or dear relative, or any friend
among these people besides these maidens whom we see2500
here, lead out of this city those who are dear to thee, with
great haste, and save thine own life, lest thou perish
with these law-breakers. For the Lord has commanded
us, because of the people's sins, to give over Sodoma and2505
Gomorra to black flame and fire, and to slay these people,
[striking] the race in their cities with deadly horrors,
and so wreak His wrath [upon them] . ”

“ The capital city, named Gowro, on the banks of the Ganges, is three leagues in length. It contains 1,200,000 families, and is well fortified. The streets are long, wide, and straight, with rows of trees to shelter the people from the sun, and are sometimes so thronged with passengers that many are trodden to death.
About fifty years before the discovery of India by the Portuguese, an Arabian merchant who dwelt in Gowro became very rich and powerful, and having defeated the king of Orixa in a great battle grew so much in favour with the king of Bengal that he was made captain of his guards. ”

“ In his account of this action, Gomara says that, previous to the arrival of the main body under Cortez, Francisco de Morla appeared in the field upon a grey dappled horse, and that it was one of the holy apostles, St. Peter or St. Jago, disguised under his person. I say that all our works and victories are guided by the hand of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that in this battle there were so many enemies to every one of us, that they could have buried us under the dust they could have held in their hands, but that the great mercy of God aided us throughout. ”

“ Dark as midnight grew the brow of Don Fernando Gomer- salez;— Stiffly 017sate he in his saddle, grimly looked around the ring, Laid his lance within the rest, and shook his gauntlet at the King. "O, thou foul and faithless traitor! wouldst thou play me false again? Welcome death and welcome torture, rather than the captive's chain! But I give thee warning, caitiff! Look thou sharply to thine eye— Unavenged, at least in harness, Gomersalez shall not die!" ”

“ We daren’t build a fire and we put out no sentries. If Gombi were laying round, sentries were no use against him in that black dark and he was the only thing we feared. We lay spread about, the boys pretty close together and Tellemark and I apart from them and side by side. ”

“ In accordance with the vow so solemnly made to his men that he would die in the conflict, and thus offer up himself as a propitiatory sacrifice for his country's weal to appease the wrath of Govind, he clothed himself in a white garment, as one who had devoted himself to death, and calling upon all around to follow him, he unflinchingly led on his rapidly thinning ranks, with the assurance of the Gooroo's eternal reward to those who should fall in defence of their country ”

“ Which speaketh of the Island of Gomera.
The fighting of the men of the island of Gomera is done with small rods like arrows, sharp and burnt in the fire. They go about naked without any clothes, and have little shame at it; for they make a mockery of clothes, saying that they are but sacks in which men put themselves. ”

“ The Gomal falls into the Indus, between Dera Ismael Khan and Paharpore, and although Elphinstone calls it a river only during the rainy season, Klaproth (Foe-koue-ki, p. 23) describes its upper course as far more considerable, and adds: 'Un peu à l'est de Sirmágha, le Gomal traverse la chaîne de montagnes de Solimán, passe devant Raghzi, et fertilise le pays habité par les tribus de Dauletkhail et de Gandehpour. ”

“ Certain it is that in the middle of the 7th century B.C., Asia Minor was ravaged by northern nomads (Herod, iv. 12) , one body of whom is called in Assyrian sources Gimirrai and is represented as coming through the Caucasus. They were probably Iranian speakers, to judge by the few proper names preserved. The name has also been identified with the biblical Gomer, son of Japheth (Gen. x. 2, 3) . To the north of the Euxine their main body was merged in the invading Scyths. ”