Genesis 14:10-12

"Now the vale of Siddim was full of slime pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and they fell there, and they that remained fled to the mountain. And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way. And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed."

"Slime pits ..." The words thus rendered actually mean "pits of bitumen,"[7] or "tar pits" as rendered in Good News Bible.

"They fell there ..." is not an assertion that the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah perished, because the king of Sodom appears alive in Genesis 14:17. The obvious meaning, therefore, is that they were disastrously defeated there. In all languages, some expressions have multiple meanings; and, of course, some translators and commentators, itching to discover (or create) contradictions, in the Bible deliberately choose a meaning here which is incorrect. As a matter of fact, this passage does not even say that the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah "fell," but that they fled. The RSV renders this place correctly, thus: "And as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them (the bitumen pits), and the rest fled to the mountain." Willis' comment is especially helpful: "In Hebrew it is impossible to tell whether the subject of `fell' is the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, or some of their soldiers."[8]

There is no description of the battle in which Sodom and Gomorrah fell and no mention of casualties on either side. It may be supposed that they were somewhat extensive, due to the difficult terrain where the conflict occurred. Even victorious armies sometimes sustain enormous casualties in achieving a given victory. We mention this, because the weakened state of the marauders could have been a factor in Abram's defeat of them.

The big thing related in the chapter thus far, of course, is the capture of Lot, and the plundering of his entire estate, including, evidently, the members of Lot's family.