City of Zoar

An etiology explains the city’s subsequent name of Zoar, ‘small’ according to Gen. 14.6, it former name was ‘Bela’ and its later name matches Suhru in the El Amarna letters. This due perhaps during Abraham’s time, King Bela ruled Zoar. Zoar is typically located near the southern tip of the Dead Sea in or near the Valley of Siddim. It was still so-called Bela at the time of Abraham's first residence in Canaan

Deuteronomy 34:1–3 mentions Zoar as the southernmost visible site from where Moses stood on Mt Nebo. By definition Zoar means a place of refuge; a sanctuary. Zoar was one of the ‘five cities of the Plain’ southeast of the Dead Sea to which prophet of Lut with his wife and two daughters fled to from Sodom and Gomorrah. The other cities are Admah, and Zeboiin.

Zoar escaped the fate of the other cities of the valley and provided a temporary refuge for Lut and his daughter. According to Genesis (19:20–23) Zoar was one of the 5 cities slated for destruction by God; but Zoar was spared at Lot's plea as his place of refuge.

The Talmud refers to ‘Zoar the city of palms’. In the Roman and Byzantine periods a town called Zoara flourished south of the Dead Sea.

During the Byzantine period (fourth–sixth centuries A.D.), Zoar (Zoora) became the center of a thriving Christian community. Local Christians built an impressive monastery to commemorate the cave where they believed Lot and his daughters had found refuge during the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Zoar continues to be attested in records until the Middle Ages.
City of Zoar

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