It is quite likely that the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah twelve hundred years earlier lived on among the Moabites and Ammonites. For the latter nations lived on the rim of the Dead Sea, and so could see the effects of God's judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah (near the Dead Sea).1
9 Therefore, as I live,” declares the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Moab shall become like Sodom, and the Ammonites like Gomorrah, a land possessed by nettles and salt pits, and a waste forever. The remnant of my people shall plunder them, and the survivors of my nation shall possess them.”