that all of its land is sulfur, salt, and burning, that it is not sown, doesn’t produce, nor does any grass grow in it, like the overthrow of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 23. Of salt. This salt was of a bituminous or sulphureous nature, which would burn like oil, and was sometimes used in lamps. Herod. ii. 62. Plin. ii. 104. It dried up the moisture of the earth, and rendered it barren. For which reason, it was scattered upon such places as were no longer to be cultivated, or inhabited. Abimelech sowed some on the ruins of Sichem. Judith 9:45. It seems that Palestine now feels the effects of this curse; as, for the most part, it is uncultivated, and a desert, though once so flourishing. Calmet.