Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 29:23
All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His fierce anger.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses addresses the Israelites on the plains of Moab, framing the verse as a prophetic description of future covenant curse. The text specifies that the land will suffer irreversible desolation as a direct result of divine judgment.
The words — The Hebrew terms גָּפְרִית (ga.fe.Rit) and שְׂרֵפָה (se.re.Fah) literally denote sulfur and a burning waste. These descriptors establish the soil as chemically barren and scorched, rendering it completely unsown and unproductive.
The thread — The motif of scorched, salted earth directly parallels the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19:24. The same pattern of irreversible agricultural ruin appears in Jeremiah 17:6 and Zephaniah 2:9.
Why it lands — The verse demands acknowledgment that covenant rebellion produces total ecological collapse with no natural recovery. It requires the reader to accept that divine anger operates beyond human agricultural or environmental limits.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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:
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 17:6 He will be like a shrub in the desert; he will not see when prosperity comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.
- Zephaniah 2:9 Therefore, as surely as I live,” declares the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, “surely Moab will be like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah—a place of weeds and salt pits, a perpetual wasteland. The remnant of My people will plunder them; the remainder of My nation will dispossess them.”
- Genesis 19:24 Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens.
- Genesis 14:2 went to war against Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar).
- Isaiah 34:9 Edom’s streams will be turned to tar, and her soil to sulfur; her land will become a blazing pitch.
- Jeremiah 20:16 May that man be like the cities that the LORD overthrew without compassion. May he hear an outcry in the morning and a battle cry at noon,
- Judges 9:45 And all that day Abimelech fought against the city until he had captured it and killed its people. Then he demolished the city and sowed it with salt.
- Ezekiel 47:11 But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt.
- Hosea 11:8 How could I give you up, O Ephraim? How could I surrender you, O Israel? How could I make you like Admah? How could I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within Me; My compassion is stirred!
- Amos 4:11 “Some of you I overthrew as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.