Genesis 14:10

14:10 Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits. ¹  When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell into them, ²  but some survivors ³  fled to the hills. ⁴ 

Genesis 26:18

26:18 Isaac reopened ⁵  the wells that had been dug ⁶  back in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up ⁷  after Abraham died. Isaac ⁸  gave these wells ⁹  the same names his father had given them. ¹⁰ 

¹ tn Heb “Now the Valley of Siddim [was] pits, pits of tar.” This parenthetical disjunctive clause emphasizes the abundance of tar pits in the area through repetition of the noun “pits.”

² tn Or “they were defeated there.” After a verb of motion the Hebrew particle שָׁם (sham) with the directional heh (שָׁמָּה, shammah) can mean “into it, therein” (BDB 1027 s.v. שָׁם).

³ tn Heb “the rest.”

⁴ sn The reference to the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah must mean the kings along with their armies. Most of them were defeated in the valley, but some of them escaped to the hills.

⁵ tn Heb “he returned and dug,” meaning “he dug again” or “he reopened.”

⁶ tn Heb “that they dug.” Since the subject is indefinite, the verb is translated as passive.

⁷ tn Heb “and the Philistines had stopped them up.” This clause explains why Isaac had to reopen them.

⁸ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Isaac) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁹ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the wells) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁰ tn Heb “called names to them according to the names that his father called them.”