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One of the earliest cultures mentioned in the Bible to be tied to archeology is Edom. Edom is mentioned in Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions in the form of "Udumi" or "Udumu." Edomites are referred to as the descendants of Esau.3.152 When the King of Edom refused to allow the children of Israel to pass through his land on their way to Canaan, they detoured around his company because God ordered them to, rather than to wage war.3.153 Generations later King David and his general Joab defeated the Edomites in the "valley of salt," or near the Dead Sea.3.154
I recall my visit to the Dead Sea in 1991 (see Figure28). It is really desolate. In many ways can be compared to the the valleys west of Cedar City in southwestern Utah and southeastern Nevada. I recall stories about my Grandpa Hafen being sent as a 12 year old boy with a horse drawn wagon load of fruit from Santa Clara, Utah to sell to the miners in Pioche, Nevada - with his younger brother to keep him company. Having visited the valley where the Dead Sea is, and growing up in a desert, it is easy to imagine the battle between King David and the Edomites. It was fun to float in the Dead Sea, even though we could not walk on the water. I tried. The salt crystals, salt formations, and salt pillars are beautiful (see Figure 48). I brought home a chunk of this salt, which kids love to taste when they come over to the house to look at my rock collection. Salt plays an important role in our lives.
And like most things in life, if we have too much, salt can be harmful. It doesn't take much thinking to realize why the Dead Sea is named as it is. There is so much salt in the sediments nothing can grow there. This is also one of the reasons beaches exist. Salt water kills all vegetation within about 30 feet of the ocean. The abundance of salt is because the Dead Sea is in the bottom of a closed basin, and water flowing into the basin chemically leaches ions, which precipitate as salt as the water evaporates. This salt becomes layers on the bottom of the Dead Sea, and as the water level drops, it crystallizes as salt formations and pillars. Then over time, some of these salt layers become exposed and eroded to create fascinating structures, like the pillar known as Lot's wife (see Figure 49). Looking at the salt pillars in the Dead Sea it is also easy to imagine Lot not finding his wife not being with him as they escaped from Sodom and Gomorrah, and believing the Lord turned her into a pillar of salt.3.155
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paradoxes
