"18And Lot said to them, "Oh, no, my lords. 19Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die. 20Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there—is it not a little one?—and my life will be saved!" 21He said to him, "Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. 22Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there." Therefore the name of the city was called(R) Zoar.[a] 23The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24Then(S) the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven. 25And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became(T) a pillar of salt." Genesis 19: 18-26)
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Balak also Segor, now Zoara - (Ghor
al-Safy)
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 Bala (Gen 14:2) 'which is Segor [Zo'ar]', today called Zoara, the only one of the five cities of the land of Sodoma which was saved by Lot's prayers. It is on the shore of the Dead Sea and a garrison of Roman soldiers is posted there, but it is also inhabited by its own citizens, and in its vicinity the balsam and the palm-tree grow, a token of its ancient fertility. No one should be troubled by the fact that the same city is called both Segor and Zoara, for it is the same word, meaning 'small' or 'minor', but Segor is the Hebrew name, and Zoara the Syriac. (Eusebius, Onomasticon 42:1-5; Jerome 43:9-16) Zogora in the Book of Jeremiah (Jer 48:34), a city of Moab: today it is called Zoara or Segor, one of the five cities of Sodoma. (Eusebius, Onomasticon 94,1-2; Jerome 95:1-2) Soora (Gen 19:30-38), a city in the vicinity of Sodoma, which is called also Segor and Zoara, of which we spoke above. (Eusebius, Onomasticon 150:19-20; Jerome 151:18-19) |
Zoar (Google Earth
Community)
zo'-ar (tso`ar; the Septuagint usually Segor, Zogora): The name of
the city to which Lot escaped from Sodom (Ge 19:20-23,30),
previously mentioned in Ge 13:10; 14:2,8, where its former name is
said to have been Bela. In 19:22, its name is said to have been
given because of its littleness, which also seems to have accounted
for its being spared. The location of Zoar has much to do with that
of the cities of the Plain or Valley of Siddim, with which it is
always connected. In De 34:3, Moses is said to have viewed "the
Plain of the valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, unto Zoar,"
while in Isa 15:5 and Jer 48:4 (where the Septuagint reads unto "Zoar,"
instead of "her little ones") it is said to be a city of Moab. The
traditional location of the place is at the south end of the Dead
Sea. Josephus says (BJ, IV, viii, 4) that the Dead Sea extended "as
far as Zoar of Arabia," while in Ant, I, xi, 4, he states that the
place was still called Zoar. Eusebius (Onomasticon, 261) locates the
Dead Sea between Jericho and Zoar, and speaks of the remnants of the
ancient fertility as still visible. Ptolemy (v. 17,5) regards it as
belonging to Arabia Petrea. The Arabian geographers mention it under
the name Zughar, Sughar, situated 1 degrees South of Jericho, in a
hot and unhealthful valley at the end of the Dead Sea, and speak of
it as an important station on the trade route between Akkabah and
Jericho. The Crusaders mention "Segor" as situated in the midst of
palm trees. The place has not been definitely identified by modern
explorers, but from Ge 19:19-30 we infer that it was in the plain
and not in the mountain. If we fix upon the south end of the Dead
Sea as the Vale of Siddim, a very natural place for Zoar and one
which agrees with all the traditions would be at the base of the
mountains of Moab, East of Wady Ghurundel, where there is still a
well-watered oasis several miles long and 2 or 3 wide, which is
probably but a remnant of a fertile plain once extending out over a
considerable portion of the shallow south end of the Dead Sea when,
as shown elsewhere (see DEAD SEA), the water level was considerably
lower than now.
Robinson would locate it on the northeast corner of el-Lisan on the
borders of the river Kerak, but this was done entirely on
theoretical grounds which would be met as well in the place just
indicated, and which is generally fixed upon by the writers who
regard the Vale of Siddim as at the south end of the Dead Sea.
Conder, who vigorously maintains that the Vale of Siddim is at the
north end of the Dead Sea, looks favorably upon theory of W.H. Birch
that the place is represented by the present Tell Shaghur, a white
rocky mound at the foot of the Moab Mountains, a mile East of Beth-haram
(Tell er-Rameh), 7 miles Northeast of the mouth of the Jordan, a
locality remarkable for its stone monuments and well-supplied
springs, but he acknowledges that the name is more like the
Christian Segor than the original Zoar.
George Frederick Wright
"Our Lady of Ghor al-Safy". ÚÐÑÇÁ ÛæÑ ÇáÕÇÝí
This icon was collected by late Said Kildani in 1968, in the ruined home farm (al-Mrah) in Ghor al-Safy, after the Israeli invasion of Ghor al-Safi in 1968. A date, 15-7-1947, is fixed on the back of the icon with a note in Arabic calling the icon "our Lady of Ghor al-Safi" ÚÐÑÇÁ ÛæÑ ÇáÕÇÝí . On that occasion in 1968 I was with my father when he collected the icon. I am keeping it as a relic of our family faith and a memory of those days.
Ghaleb Almaet, Lewis, Hanna -Ghor al-Safy 2006.
Salem - Hanneh
Lewis - Hanna - Ghor al-Safy 1957
Said-Sr.Fabronia-Sr.Renee----Hanneh-Lewis-Hanna-Salem-----
Fr.Ibrahim Dirawi-Fr.Raouf Najjar-Fr.Graig-Fr.Gennaro-Ghor al-Safy1957
(Back of
the photo)
Endrea Kildani, Khalil (Bek) Madanat, Said Kildani, (Khawaja) Yacoub Shobaki & guards with their weapons. The photo was taken around 1940 in Ghor al- Safy
