03/06/2026
The names S***m and Gomorrah are infamous for God’s judgment upon the wickedness of the people who lived in those cities. S***m is seen as the epitome of wickedness and an expression of God’s wrath (Deuteronomy 29:23; Jeremiah 23:14).
In Genesis 18, the LORD (Yahweh) appears to Abraham and announces his intention that S***m is to be destroyed because its sin is “very grave” (Genesis 18:20). The men of S***m were previously described as “wicked, great sinners against the LORD” (Genesis 13:13).
The latter term “wicked” is also used to describe the people at the time of the flood (Genesis 6:5, 8:21) and indicates that the people of S***m’s sins deserved the same catastrophic response from God. But what was the wickedness of S***m?
The main issue that Genesis 19 focuses on is the fact that all the men of S***m want to “know” (yādaʿ) the angelical visitors: in other words, to have sexual relations with them (Genesis 19:4–5; cf. Genesis 4:1, 17, 25).
It is no wonder that the sin of S***m was described as “very grave” as the men of S***m had “unnatural desires” (Jude 7) wanting to commit a shameless act (cf. Romans 1:26–27).
S***m was also guilty of many other sins than homosexuality. The prophets compared the social injustices committed by God’s chosen people Israel/Judah to the people of S***m: gluttony, prosperous ease, not aiding the poor, haughtiness, injustice (Isaiah 1:17, 3:9), adultery, lying, and an unwillingness to repent (Jeremiah 23:14).
The prophet Ezekiel also points out that the guilt of S***m was: “pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me” (Ezekiel 16:49–50).
Although some argue that Ezekiel does not mention homosexual behaviour as one of the sins of S***m, this overlooks the fact that the Hebrew word abomination (tôʿēbâ) refers to sexual immorality, specifically homosexual in*******se proscribed in Leviticus 18:22; 20:13 (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:9).
In the end, God justly judged S***m and Gomorrah not only because of its wicked behaviour, but because ten righteous people could not be found there (Genesis 18:23–32).