Genesis 19:24

19:24 Then the Lord rained down ¹  sulfur and fire ²  on Sodom and Gomorrah. It was sent down from the sky by the Lord. ³ 

Deuteronomy 29:23

29:23 The whole land will be covered with brimstone, salt, and burning debris; it will not be planted nor will it sprout or produce grass. It will resemble the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his intense anger. ⁴ 

Job 18:15

18:15 Fire resides in his tent; ⁵ 

over his residence burning sulfur is scattered.

Isaiah 13:19

13:19 Babylon, the most admired ⁶  of kingdoms,

the Chaldeans’ source of honor and pride, ⁷ 

will be destroyed by God

just as Sodom and Gomorrah were. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 20:16

20:16 May that man be like the cities ⁹ 

that the Lord destroyed without showing any mercy.

May he hear a cry of distress in the morning

and a battle cry at noon.

Jeremiah 49:18

49:18 Edom will be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah

and the towns that were around them.

No one will live there.

No human being will settle in it,”

says the Lord.

Jeremiah 50:40

50:40 I will destroy Babylonia just like I did

Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns.

No one will live there. ¹⁰ 

No human being will settle in it,”

says the Lord. ¹¹ 

Lamentations 4:6

ו (Vav)

4:6 The punishment ¹²  of my people ¹³ 

exceeded that of ¹⁴  of Sodom,

which was overthrown in a moment

with no one to help her. ¹⁵ 

Amos 4:11

4:11 “I overthrew some of you the way God ¹⁶  overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. ¹⁷ 

You were like a burning stick ¹⁸  snatched from the flames.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

Zephaniah 2:9

2:9 Therefore, as surely as I live,” says the Lord who commands armies, the God of Israel,

“be certain that Moab will become like Sodom

and the Ammonites like Gomorrah.

They will be overrun by weeds, ¹⁹ 

filled with salt pits, ²⁰ 

and permanently desolate.

Those of my people who are left ²¹  will plunder their belongings; ²² 

those who are left in Judah ²³  will take possession of their land.”

Zephaniah 2:2

2:2 before God’s decree becomes reality ²⁴  and the day of opportunity disappears like windblown chaff, ²⁵ 

before the Lord’s raging anger ²⁶  overtakes ²⁷  you –

before the day of the Lord’s angry judgment overtakes you!

Zephaniah 2:6

2:6 The seacoast ²⁸  will be used as pasture lands ²⁹  by the shepherds

and as pens for their flocks.

Revelation 18:9

18:9 Then ³⁰  the kings of the earth who committed immoral acts with her and lived in sensual luxury ³¹  with her will weep and wail for her when they see the smoke from the fire that burns her up. ³² 

[19:24]  ¹ tn The disjunctive clause signals the beginning of the next scene and highlights God’s action.

[19:24]  ² tn Or “burning sulfur” (the traditional “fire and brimstone”).

[19:24]  ³ tn Heb “from the Lord from the heavens.” The words “It was sent down” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[29:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “the anger and the wrath.” This construction is a hendiadys intended to intensify the emotion.

[18:15]  ⁵ tn This line is difficult as well. The verb, again a third feminine form, says “it dwells in his tent.” But the next part (מִבְּלִי לוֹ, mibbÿli lo) means something like “things of what are not his.” The best that can be made of the MT is “There shall live in his tent they that are not his” (referring to persons and animals; see J. E. Hartley, Job [NICOT], 279). G. R. Driver and G. B. Gray (Job [ICC], 2:161) refer “that which is naught of his” to weeds and wild animals. M. Dahood suggested a reading מַבֶּל (mabbel) and a connection to Akkadian nablu, “fire” (cf. Ugaritic nbl). The interchange of m and n is not a problem, and the parallelism with the next line makes good sense (“Some Northwest Semitic words in Job,” Bib 38 [1957]: 312ff.). Others suggest an emendation to get “night-hag” or vampire. This suggestion, as well as Driver’s “mixed herbs,” are linked to the idea of exorcism. But if a change is to be made, Dahood’s is the most compelling.

[13:19]  ⁶ tn Or “most beautiful” (NCV, TEV).

[13:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “the beauty of the pride of the Chaldeans.”

[13:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “and Babylon…will be like the overthrow by God of Sodom and Gomorrah.” On מַהְפֵּכַת (mahpekhat, “overthrow”) see the note on the word “destruction” in 1:7.

[20:16]  ⁹ sn The cities alluded to are Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the Jordan plain which had become proverbial for their wickedness and for the destruction that the Lord brought on them because of it. See Isa 1:9-10; 13:19; Jer 23:14; 49:18.

[50:40]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “‘Like [when] God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns,’ oracle of the Lord, ‘no man will live there.’” The Lord is speaking so the first person has been substituted for “God.” The sentence has again been broken up to better conform with contemporary English style.

[50:40]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[4:6]  ¹² tn The noun עֲוֹן (’avon) has a basic two-fold range of meanings: (1) basic meaning: “iniquity, sin” and (2) metonymical cause for effect meaning: “punishment for iniquity.”

[4:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “the daughter of my people.”

[4:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the sin of.” The noun חַטָּאת (khatta’t) often means “sin, rebellion,” but here it probably functions in a metonymical (cause for effect) sense: “punishment for sin” (e.g., Zech 14:19). The context focuses on the severity of the punishment of Jerusalem rather than the depths of its degradation and depravity that led to the judgment.

[4:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “without a hand turned.” The preposition ב (bet) after the verb חוּל (khul) in Hos 11:6 is adversative “the sword will turn against [Assyria’s] cities.” Other contexts with חוּל (khul) plus ב (bet) are not comparable (ב [bet] often being locative). However, it is not certain that hands must be adversarial as the sword clearly is in Hos 11:6. The present translation pictures the suddenness of Sodom’s overthrow as an easier fate than the protracted military campaign and subsequent exile and poverty of Judah’s survivor’s.

[4:11]  ¹⁶ tn Several English versions substitute the first person pronoun (“I”) here for stylistic reasons (e.g., NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[4:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “like God’s overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah.” The divine name may be used in an idiomatic superlative sense here, in which case one might translate, “like the great [or “disastrous”] overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah.”

[4:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “like that which is burning.”

[2:9]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew text reads מִמְשַׁק חָרוּל (mimshaq kharul, “[?] of weeds”). The meaning of the first word is unknown. The present translation (“They will be overrun by weeds”) is speculative, based on the general sense of the context. For a defense of “overrun” on linguistic grounds, see R. D. Patterson, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah (WEC), 347. Cf. NEB “a pile of weeds”; NIV “a place of weeds”; NRSV “a land possessed by nettles.”

[2:9]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew text reads וּמִכְרֵה־מֶלַח (umikhreh-melakh, “and a [?] of salt”). The meaning of the first word is unclear, though “pit” (NASB, NIV, NRSV; NKJV “saltpit”), “mine,” and “heap” (cf. NEB “a rotting heap of saltwort”) are all options. The words “filled with” are supplied for clarification.

[2:9]  ²¹ tn Or “The remnant of my people.”

[2:9]  ²² tn Heb “them.” The actual object of the plundering, “their belongings,” has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:9]  ²³ tn Heb “[the] nation.” For clarity the “nation” has been specified as “Judah” in the translation.

[2:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “before the giving birth of a decree.” For various alternative readings, see J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 187-88.

[2:2]  ²⁵ tn The second half of the line reads literally, “like chaff it passes by a day.” The translation above assumes the “day” is the brief time God is giving the nation to repent. The comparison of this quickly passing opportunity to chaff is consistent with the straw imagery of v. 1.

[2:2]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the fury of the anger of the Lord.” The synonyms are combined to emphasize the extreme degree of the Lord’s anger.

[2:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “comes upon.” This phrase occurs twice in this verse.

[2:6]  ²⁸ tn The NIV here supplies the phrase “where the Kerethites dwell” (“Kerethites” is translated in v. 5 as “the people who came from Crete”) as an interpretive gloss, but this phrase is not in the MT. The NAB likewise reads “the coastland of the Cretans,” supplying “Cretans” here.

[2:6]  ²⁹ tn The Hebrew phrase here is נְוֹת כְּרֹת (nÿvot kÿrot). The first word is probably a plural form of נָוָה (navah, “pasture”). The meaning of the second word is unclear. It may be a synonym of the preceding word (cf. NRSV “pastures, meadows for shepherds”); there is a word כַּר (kar, “pasture”) in biblical Hebrew, but elsewhere it forms its plural with a masculine ending. Some have suggested the meaning “wells” or “caves” used as shelters (cf. NEB “shepherds’ huts”); in this case, one might translate, “The seacoast will be used for pasturelands; for shepherds’ wells/caves.”

[18:9]  ³⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[18:9]  ³¹ tn On the term ἐστρηνίασεν (estrhniasen) BDAG 949 s.v. στρηνιάω states, “live in luxury, live sensually Rv 18:7. W. πορνεύειν vs. 9.”

[18:9]  ³² tn Grk “from the burning of her.” For the translation “the smoke from the fire that burns her up,” see L&N 14.63.