What Does Deuteronomy 29:23 Mean?
And the whole land is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor does it sprout, nor does any grass grow there, like the overturning of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overturned in his burning anger, and in his heat.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:THE KEY
The devastation is measured by the future it removes: nothing can be sown, bear, or rise.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks in an image of devastation that reaches beyond buildings: the land itself cannot receive seed or bring life forth. Sulfur, salt, and burning leave no green growth, and the overturning reaches the ground’s ability to produce. The anger is named with heat; the text does not soften the ruin.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that devastation stops at what is built: here it reaches soil, seed, and every blade of grass.
THE ROOT
הָפַךְ
haphakh
GROWS FROM
הפך
haphakh
Turn, turn over, overturn.
“overturned” in this verse is haphakh. The root’s sense of turning over reaches beyond the cities to what grows on the ground. Its related noun names an upheaval, making the barren landscape part of the overturning itself.
ALSO GROWS
haphakh: To turn or overturn.
הָפַךְ
This is the verb describing what the LORD does to the named places.
mahpekah: An overthrow or upheaval.
מַהְפֵּכָה
The related noun gives a name to the overturning that leaves the land unable to produce.
תִזָּרַע
tizzara
GROWS FROM
זרע
zara
Sow or scatter seed.
“sown” in this verse is tizzara. The same root names both the act of sowing and the seed itself. The land’s ruin is shown at its source: there is no sowing, no bearing, and no new growth.
ALSO GROWS
zara: To sow or scatter seed.
זָרַע
This verb names the act the land can no longer receive.
zera: Seed; offspring.
זֶרַע
The noun carries the root’s connection from planted seed to what can grow or continue.
שְׂרֵפָה
serephah
GROWS FROM
שרף
saraph
Burn or consume by fire.
The root can name both burning as an act and the burning itself. Here, that word joins sulfur and salt to make the land’s barrenness concrete.
ALSO GROWS
saraph: To burn or consume by fire.
שָׂרַף
The verb shows the action contained in the land’s burning.
serephah: A burning or conflagration.
שְׂרֵפָה
This noun is the form used in the verse to describe the land.
THE PATTERN
The text makes judgment visible through what can no longer grow and what ends in burning.
And he overturned those cities, and all the plain, and all who settled in those cities, and what sprouted from the ground.He turns rivers into a wilderness, and the outgoings of waters into a thirsting ground.But what bears thorns and thistles fails the test, and is near a curse; its end is the burning.THE THREAD
And he overturned those cities, and all the plain, and all who settled in those cities, and what sprouted from the ground.Both verses use הפך (haphakh, turn over) for the act of overturning. Genesis names the reach of that act: it falls on the plain and on what grew from the ground, matching this verse’s image of fertility erased.
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