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Bible Dictionaries
Brimstone
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or BRIMSTONE , or sulphur, is one of the chemical elements. It is found in volcanic regions both uncombined as a deposit and also as a constituent of the gases (sulphur di-oxide and sulphuretted hydrogen) which are exhaled from the earth or dissolved in the water of hot springs. Such sulphur springs are abundant in the Jordan Valley and on the shores of the Dead Sea. The account of the destruction of the Cities of the Plain ( Genesis 19:24; Genesis 19:28 , Luke 17:29 ) states that the Lord rained upon them ‘brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven,’ and the most generally accepted view is that the disaster was due to an eruption of petroleum, caused by an earthquake. This is more probable on geological grounds than a volcanic eruption. In either case the ‘brimstone’ would not be solid sulphur, but the choking gases mentiooed above, which would accompany the rain of fire (see Driver, in loc .; Tristram, Land of Israel , 353 f.; Dawson, Egypt and Syria , 129f.). This passage suggests the imagery of a number of others in which ‘fire and brimstone’ are agencies of destruction ( Psalms 11:6 , Ezekiel 38:22 , Revelation 9:17-18; Revelation 14:10; Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:10; Revelation 21:8 ). In the last three of these the peculiar feature of the ‘lake’ may be a reminiscence of a volcanic crater filled with molten lava and exhaling sulphurous fumes (cf. the’ great mountain burning with fire,’ Revelation 9:6 ). In Deuteronomy 29:23 there is a warning that if Israel is disobedient, their whole land will be ‘brimstone and salt,’ like the desolate region round the Dead Sea. In Isaiah 34:9 a similar threat is uttered against Edom. In Isaiah 30:33 the ‘breath of the Lord’ kindling Tophet, is like a stream of brimstone.
James Patrick.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Brimstone'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/b/brimstone.html. 1909.
