SEGOR (Heb. Ṣā'ar; Gr. Σηγώρ). - An ancient city of Palestine, south of the Dead Sea (Gen. 13:10; Deut. 34:3), first called Bala (Bela: Gen. 14:2-8).

It was the smallest of the Pentapolis ([v.] ibid. 19:20) and was saved from destruction through the intercession of Lot, who obtained permission to take refuge there, making his way from Sodom (v.) toward the mountain (ibid. 19:21-25). Jeremiah (48:34) and Isaiah (15:5) describe S. in relation to the other cities south of the Arnon, placing it near the Dead Sea and at the foot of the Mountain of Moab.

In Roman and Byzantine writers it is known by the name of Zoora and Zogora and located in the Gör eş-Şâfijjeh at the extreme tip of the Dead Sea. Conquered by Alexander Jannaeus, it was later ceded to the Nabataeans (Fl. Josephus, Antiq. Ind., XIII, 15, 4; XIV, 1, 4). The Romans placed a military garrison there; a Christian community with a bishop flourished there, as well as a Jewish colony. The mosaic map of Madaba depicts the fortified city amid palm groves in the vicinity of the Dead Sea; and higher up on the mountain, the church dedicated to the memory of the refuge of the righteous Lot. In the time of the Crusaders it was called Paumiers, because of the abundance of palm groves. Among the various identifications proposed for the Roman and Byzantine Zoora, the prevailing one today is Şejh 'Îsâ on the Şejl el-Qurâhî, where important remains of Christian buildings exist. In the Gör eş-Şâfijjeh, submerged by the waters of the Dead Sea, tombs of the 2nd millennium B.C. were noted; the ancient biblical city of S. must lie buried there.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: L. Heidet, s. v. in DB, V, coll. 1561-65; A. Mallon, Voyage d'exploration au sud-est de la Mer Morte, in Biblica, 5 (1924), pp. 431-41; F.-M. Abel, Géogr. de la Palestine, II, Paris 1938, p. 466; N. Gluck, An aerial reconnaissance in southern Transjordan, in Bull. of the Americ. schools of orient. research, 67 (1937), pp. 20-22.

Donato Baldi

@incollection{ec11_segor_ebr_sa_ar_gr_segor, author = {Baldi, Donato}, title = {Segor (Ebr. ṢĀ'Ar; Gr. ΣΉΓΩΡ)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XI}, pages = {244--245}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/segor-ebr-sa-ar-gr-segor} }

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