Discovery BoxGenesis 14:10-12 
Context14:10 Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits. 1 When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell into them, 2 but some survivors 3 fled to the hills. 4 14:11 The four victorious kings 5 took all the possessions and food of Sodom and Gomorrah and left. 14:12 They also took Abram’s nephew 6 Lot and his possessions when 7 they left, for Lot 8 was living in Sodom. 9
1 tn Heb “Now the Valley of Siddim [was] pits, pits of tar.” This parenthetical disjunctive clause emphasizes the abundance of tar pits in the area through repetition of the noun “pits.”
sn The word for “tar” (or “bitumen”) occurs earlier in the story of the building of the tower in Babylon (see Gen 11:3).
2 tn Or “they were defeated there.” After a verb of motion the Hebrew particle שָׁם (sham) with the directional heh (שָׁמָּה, shammah) can mean “into it, therein” (BDB 1027 s.v. שָׁם).
3 tn Heb “the rest.”
4 sn The reference to the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah must mean the kings along with their armies. Most of them were defeated in the valley, but some of them escaped to the hills.
5 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the four victorious kings, see v. 9) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
6 tn Heb “Lot the son of his brother.”
7 tn Heb “and.”
8 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Lot) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 tn This disjunctive clause is circumstantial/causal, explaining that Lot was captured because he was living in Sodom at the time.
