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 whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein. The total want of verdure, with the appearance of utter desolation in many parts of Palestine, is one of the most striking features in its present state (see the notes at Leviticus 26:32-35).
Like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim. х kªmahpeekat (H4114), overthrow, and haapak (H2015), overthrew, are expressions used only in reference to the destruction of the cities of the plain, and borrowed by the later sacred writers from Genesis 19:25; Genesis 19:29: cf. Isaiah 1:7; Isaiah 13:19; Amos 4:11; Jeremiah 49:18; Jeremiah 50:40.]
Sodom and Gomorrah alone are mentioned in the narrative of the catastrophe; but Admah and Zeboim were situated in the same plain (Genesis 14:2), and were involved in the sulphurous torrent which was rained down upon the whole plain (Genesis 10:9-25). Though comparatively small and insignificant places, they are specified here in order to show the extreme desolation to which, in her little towns as well as large cities, the land of Israel would be doomed.