Zoar in Biblical History

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Schaff's Bible Dictionary

Definitions in Biblical History
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What is Zoar?
ZO'AR
(smallness),one of the "cities of the plain," Gen 13:10; originally called "Bela." Gen 14:2, 1 Kgs 15:8. This "little city" was spared from the destruction which overtook Sodom and the other cities, and made a refuge for Lot. Gen 19:20-30. Zoar was included in the view Moses had from Pisgah. Deut 34:3. The prophets Isaiah, Isa 15:5, and Jeremiah, Jer 48:34, reckon Zoar among the cities of Moab. Situation. - The situation of Zoar, like that of the other cities of the plain, has been much discussed. The great majority of scholars, from Ptolemy, Josephus, Eusebius, and Jerome to the present time, have located it near the southeastern shore of the Dead Sea. The shore of the bay, which extends from the Dead Sea into the Lisan Peninsula, has been regarded as a probable site for Zoar. For the general discussion as to the relative merits of the sites at the northern and at the southern ends of the Dead Sea, see Siddim and Sodom. Tristram was confident that he had discovered the site of Zoar at Ziara, some 3 miles north-west of Nebo and 11 miles west of the northern end of the Dead Sea. Among the points he urges for this special identification are the strong resemblance of the names and the fact that this place would be in plain view of Moses from Nebo. Deut 34:3. He cites also several arguments for putting all the cities at the upper end of the Dead Sea. This seems to be among the mountains, and too far from the other to be a likely position for Zoar. Merrill suggests, as the site for Zoar, Tell Ektauu, in the Shittim plain, north-east of the Dead Sea, near to the mountains of Moab, although it cannot be reckoned as one of the foot-hills. There are ruins here of great age, and the name Ektauu, which has no meaning in Arabic, appears to be the Hebrew word Katan, which means "little," or "the little one." The site would be in the direction Lot would naturally take in hastening to the neighboring city, and its distance from other mounds in the Shittim plain (which Dr. Merrill would identify with the plain in which stood Sodom and Gomorrah) corresponds well with the time allowed the fugitive - namely, from dawn to sunrise. Conder, who would place the lost cities at the north "end" of the Dead Sea, suggests Tell esh-Shaghai as the site of Zoar. It is at the foot of the eastern mountains, immediately north of the Dead Sea, and about 6 miles south of Nimrin.

Bibliography Information
Schaff, Philip, Dr. "Biblical Definition for 'zoar' in Schaffs Bible Dictionary".
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