Deuteronomy 29:23
And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:
Study Note
Study Note
The vision of Canaan as 'brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim' invokes the Genesis 19 catastrophe as the supreme biblical image of irrevocable divine judgment on covenantal and moral failure. The land itself becomes the witness to covenant rupture — a physical inscription of divine verdict that asks foreigners and future generations what happened here (vv. 24-28). Salt prevents growth and preserves only destruction — the salted land is a permanentised anti-creation, the inverse of the Promised Land's flowing milk and honey. Jeremiah 17:6 applies the same dry-saltland image to individuals who trust in man rather than God, while the New Testament's Sodom references (Matthew 10:15; Jude 7) use the four-city destruction as the paradigm of eschatological judgment on persistent rejection of God's messengers.
Other Translations
and that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and a burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Jehovah overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:
(<FI> with<Fi> brimstone and salt is the whole land burnt, it is not sown, nor doth it shoot up, nor doth there go up on it any herb, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which Jehovah overturned in His anger, and in His fury,) --
And that all the land is a salt and smoking waste, not planted or giving fruit or clothed with grass, but wasted like Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, on which the Lord sent destruction in the heat of his wrath:
Cross References
And Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and slew the people that was …
It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.
And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall …
And let that man be as the cities which the Lord overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the …
For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit …
But the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt.
I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out …
But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them …
It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath …
Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned?