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Many people fill a bottle with some of the muddy water and take it home to use as “holy water,” orin order to baptize their children with water from the same river in which Christ was baptized. TheJordan is very muddy, because it flows very swiftly and washes the mud from the banks and bottom. It empties its yellow water into the Dead Sea, but the Dead Sea, strange to say, is as blue as the Mediterranean.

The Dead Sea is in the bottom of a very deep valley, so low that no water can run out of it, as water cannot run uphill. You might think the Dead Sea would fill up and overflow, but it does not, forthe air is so hot and dry that the water in the Dead Sea evaporates as fast as it runs into it.But the river is always bringing in salt, and as salt does not evaporate, the Dead Sea, like Great SaltLake, is getting saltier all the time. It is saltier than Great Salt Lake, it is ten times saltier than the ocean, and of course no one Could drown in it. People don’t bathe in the Dead Sea, however, because the water is so salty that if it splashes into one’s eyes or touches any scratches or broken skin it stings like iodine put on a cut. There is so much salt around the Dead Sea that nothingwill grow there, and even salt-water fish cannot live in the water. We think that the two most wicked cities in the World, Sodom and Gomorrah, were by the Dead Sea. The Bible says they were so wicked that the Lord destroyed them. There is nothing now left of them but desert, with a crust of saltover all. You remember, the Lord told Lot to take his family and flee from Sodom before he destroyed it, and ordered him and his family not to look back. Lot’s wife disobeyed and she was turned to apillar of salt. And a guide will point out a mound of salt that he says is Lot’s wife!

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很多人还用瓶子装上一些约旦河浑浊的河水，带回家，当做“圣水”使用，或者准备用耶稣受洗的那条河的河水给自己的孩子施洗。约旦河水非常浑浊，这是因为约旦河流速太快，把两岸和河底的泥沙冲走了。约旦河浑浊的水流进死海，但说来也怪，死海和地中海一样蓝。

死海位于一个很深的山谷底部，由于地势很低所以没有水能流出死海，因为水是不会朝上坡流的。你也许会认为，死海总有一天会装满水，然后漫出来，但是不会，因为这儿的空气炎热干燥，死海里的水蒸发的速度和水流进的速度一样快。但是，含有盐分的河水不断流入，而盐是不会蒸发的，所以，死海，就像大盐湖一样，一直以来不断在变得越来越咸，比海水要咸十倍，所以理所当然没有人会淹死在死海里。不过，人们不在死海里游泳，因为水太咸了，如果溅到眼睛里、或者触到擦伤或破损的皮肤，会产生刺痛，就像在伤口处擦了碘酒的感觉。由于死海里盐分过高，那里什么生物也不能生长，甚至连海鱼都不能在水里存活。我们认为，世界上两个最邪恶的城，所多玛和蛾摩拉都位于死海边。《圣经》说，这两座城市太邪恶了，所以上帝将它们毁灭了。现在这两座城市什么也没有留下，只有沙漠，上面还覆盖着一层盐。你记得吗，上帝在毁灭所多玛之前，告诉罗德带着自己的家人逃离所多玛，还要求他和他的家人不可以回头看。罗德的妻子不听从上帝的命令，回头看了一眼，立刻被变成了一根盐柱。旅游者到了那里，导游会指着一堆盐说，“这就是罗德的妻子。”