Fire and brimstone

Fire and brimstone (Biblical Hebrew: גָּפְרִית וָאֵשׁ gofrīt wāʾēš; Ancient Greek: πῦρ καὶ θεῖον) is an idiomatic expression referring to God's wrath found in both the Old and New Testaments.

Used as an adjective, fire-and-brimstone often refers to a style of Christian preaching that uses vivid descriptions of judgment and eternal damnation to encourage repentance especially popular during historical periods of Great Awakening.

[4] The Septuagint translates the Hebrew term as theîon (θεῖον), a word which shares the root of the verb thumiáō (θυμιάω), which means "to burn, to smoke".

This unambiguously refers to sulfur, as Pliny the Elder writes that the substance was widely used as a fumigant, medicine, and bleaching agent.

[5] Compounding this, the Targum Jonathan translates the Hebrew gofrīt as kīvrētāʾ (Aramaic: כִּבְרֵיתָא),[6] a term used several times in the Talmud for a substance which was used to bleach clothing.

Yea, for the king it is prepared, Deep and large; The pile thereof is fire and much wood; The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.

Fire and brimstone frequently appear as agents of divine wrath throughout the Christian Book of Revelation culminating in chapters 19–21, wherein Satan and the ungodly are cast into a lake of fire burning with brimstone (Greek: λίμνην τοῦ πυρὸς τῆς καιομένης ἐν θείῳ, limnēn tou pyros tēs kaiomenēs en thei).

The story of prophet Lot finds mention in several Qur'anic passages, especially Chapter 26 (Ash-Shu'ara):160-175 which reads: "The people of Lut rejected the apostles.

It is related how for the impiety of its inhabitants, it was burnt by lightning; in consequence of which there are still the remainders of that divine fire; and the traces (or shadows) of the five cities are still to be seen,..." (The Jewish War, book IV, end of ch.

In it he quotes from Psalm 11:6 "Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest, this shall be the portion of their cup."