Rain of Fire and Brimstone
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(Gen. 19:24)—the judgment by which Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown. Brimstone is sulfur, a combustible mineral that burns with pungent, choking fumes. Scripture uses fire and sulfur both in the historical narrative of the cities of the plain and as prophetic imagery for devastating judgment (Isa. 34:9; Rev. 14:10; 19:20). The expression communicates dreadful destruction and exclusion from evil; it should not be expanded into an unsupported chemical reconstruction of the event.