Zoar
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(small) (Gen. 14:2)—a small city originally called Bela. The source follows interpreters who placed it at the southeastern end of the Dead Sea in the valley of Kerak, where Lot and his daughters withdrew after Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. It still existed in Isaiah’s time (Isa. 15:5) and is mentioned by Jeremiah (Jer. 48:34). Travelers found ruins there that the source tentatively connected with the ancient city, though other interpreters placed it north of the Dead Sea. Its precise site, like Sodom’s, could not be fixed.
The king of Zoar joined four others in rebellion against Chedorlaomer and was defeated. Zoar was afterward spared at Lot’s request when he fled there with his family from divine judgment. Josephus counted it an Arabian city near the end of the Dead Sea.