Bible Strands
Isaiah 34:9
Edom’s streams will be turned to tar, and her soil to sulfur; her land will become a blazing pitch.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophetic oracle addresses Edom immediately after announcing Yahweh’s day of vengeance for Zion, declaring irreversible judgment upon the nation.
The words — נְחָלֶיהָ (ne.cha.Lei./ha) = its torrents; לְגָפְרִית (le./ga.fe.Rit) = into sulfur.
The thread — Deuteronomy 29:23 describes soil as a burning waste of sulfur and salt. Psalm 11:6 depicts Yahweh raining fiery coals and sulfur on the wicked. Genesis 19:28 records smoke rising from the land.
Why it lands — The text presents divine judgment as a permanent physical transformation of the land, demanding recognition of Yahweh’s sovereign retribution and the irreversible consequence of opposing His purposes.
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 the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.
Cross-references
- 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.
- Psalms 11:6 On the wicked He will rain down fiery coals and sulfur; a scorching wind will be their portion.
- Genesis 19:28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and he saw the smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace.
- Job 18:15 Fire resides in his tent; burning sulfur rains down on his dwelling.
- Luke 17:29 But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
- Jude 1:7 In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire.
- Revelation 19:20 But the beast was captured along with the false prophet, who on its behalf had performed signs deceiving those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. Both the beast and the false prophet were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
- Revelation 21:8 But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”