The Dead Sea #65

The Dead Sea is the landlocked salt lake at the southern end of the Jordan Valley, bordered today by Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan. The Bible never calls it the “Dead Sea”; that name comes from later centuries. Scripture speaks instead of the Salt Sea, the Sea of the Arabah, and the Eastern Sea. It is the lowest exposed land surface on earth, more than 1,400 feet (about 430 meters) below sea level, and its water is so salty that nothing larger than microbes can live in it.

Biblical Significance

The lake forms part of the southern boundary of Israel in the description of the promised land (Numbers 34:3), and it is where the Jordan River ends. When the priests carried the ark into the Jordan, the water flowing down toward “the sea of the plain, even the salt sea” stopped so that Israel could cross near Jericho (Joshua 3:16). The book of Genesis mentions “the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea” as the site of a battle among kings in the days of Abraham (Genesis 14:3). The neighboring plain, once “well watered,” was the region Lot chose before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 13:10-11; 19:24-28). Where exactly those cities lay is debated, and the traditional view places them near the southern end of the lake, while some scholars argue for a northern location.

The western shore also gave shelter to David when he fled from Saul, who pursued him into the wilderness of En Gedi, an oasis with springs and rock caves (1 Samuel 23:29; 24:1-3). The wilderness hills above the lake are the setting of many other Old Testament flights and refuges.

The prophet Ezekiel sees a river of fresh water flowing from the temple down toward the Arabah and into the sea, and he says that its waters “shall be healed,” so that fish live there and fishermen stand along its shore from En Gedi to En Eglaim (Ezekiel 47:8-10). The image of life entering the most barren place on earth is one of the most striking pictures of renewal in the prophets.

Today

The Dead Sea is roughly 30 miles long, and its salinity is about ten times that of the ocean, which lets swimmers float easily. It is shrinking, as the Jordan’s flow is largely diverted for agriculture and water use and evaporation continues; the surface has dropped by several feet a year in recent decades, leaving sinkholes along the shore.

The Dead Sea region is also where some of the most important biblical archaeology of the twentieth century took place. In 1947 shepherds found the first of the Dead Sea Scrolls in caves near Qumran on the northwest shore, and further discoveries followed in the caves and ruins of the region. The ancient fortress of Masada on the western shore, and the oasis reserve of En Gedi, are still major sites for visitors and researchers.