Brimstone

Brimstone in scripture is a substance Yahweh rains down in judgment. It first falls on Sodom and Gomorrah, leaves its mark on the soil of the surrounding land, becomes a figure for the portion poured out on the wicked, and finally — in the prophets and the Apocalypse — names the burning that consumes Yahweh's enemies and the lake reserved for the second death.

Sodom and the Pattern of Overthrow

The pattern is set at Sodom. "Then [the Speech of] Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Yahweh out of heaven" (Gen 19:24). Jesus recalls the same scene as a warning sign: "but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all" (Lu 17:29).

The aftermath is itself a witness. Moses places the curse-formula of the covenant in this very vocabulary, foretelling that a later generation will look on the land and see "[and that] the whole land of it is brimstone, and salt, [and] a burning, [that] it is not sown, nor bears, nor any grass grows in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which [the Speech of] Yahweh overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath" (Deut 29:23). The overthrow is not only an act in the past; it is a permanent token, a soil that will not bear, held up as the measure of what covenant-breaking invites.

Brimstone as the Portion of the Wicked

From Sodom the imagery moves into the personal sphere. Bildad says of the man whose tent is rooted out: "There will stay in his tent that which is none of his: Brimstone will be scattered on his habitation" (Job 18:15). What once fell on a city now falls, in figure, on the dwelling of any wicked person.

The Psalmist generalizes the same picture into the cup-portion the wicked are given to drink: "On the wicked he will rain snares; Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup" (Ps 11:6). The Sodom-rain becomes the standing image of what Yahweh metes out — not a single historical event but a portion handed to a class.

The Stream of Brimstone Kindled by Yahweh

The prophets carry the figure forward into the language of fire-pyre and storm. Against the Assyrian king, Isaiah writes: "For a Topheth is prepared of old; yes, for the king it is made ready; he has made it deep and large; its pile is fire and much wood; the [Speech] of Yahweh, like a stream of brimstone, kindles it" (Isa 30:33). Yahweh's own voice is the kindling — a stream of brimstone setting alight a prepared pyre.

Ezekiel describes the same kind of judgment over Gog and his hordes: "And with pestilence and with blood I will enter into judgment with him; and I will rain on him, and on his hordes, and on the many peoples who are with him, an overflowing shower, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone" (Eze 38:22). The Sodom-verb "rain" returns; what fell on two cities now falls on a coalition of peoples.

The Plague-Cavalry and the Lake

Revelation gathers brimstone into its apocalyptic visions. The sixth trumpet looses a plague-cavalry whose mounts and riders carry the substance: "And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and those who sat on them, having breastplates [as] of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone: and the heads of the horses are as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceeds fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three plagues was the third part of men killed, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone, which proceeded out of their mouths" (Rev 9:17-18).

Brimstone then names the fate of those who worship the beast: "he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed undiluted in the cup of his anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb" (Rev 14:10). The cup of Ps 11:6 returns — this time pressed to the mouths of beast-worshipers.

The beast and false prophet themselves go into the same burning: "both of them were cast alive into the lake of fire that burns with brimstone" (Rev 19:20). And the final verdict on the unrepentant catches up everything the umbrella has been gathering. "But for the fearful, and unbelieving, and those who have become disgusting, and murderers, and whores, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part [will be] in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone; which is the second death" (Rev 21:8). What rained on Sodom out of heaven, what scattered on the wicked man's habitation, what kindled the Topheth and showered Gog, ends as a lake — the portion, in figure and finally in fact, of those whose part it is.