Question
I am looking for help with the biblical language of “unquenchable fire.” It seems to indicate an eternal burning that I’ve always associated with eternal torment in hell or the lake of fire.
Response
Let’s begin with the texts that actually use that phrase.
Isaiah 33:14 – “Who among us can coexist with destructive fire? Who among us can coexist with unquenchable fire? The sinners in Zion are afraid.”
Jeremiah 4:4 – “Change your hearts before the LORD, or my anger will burn like an unquenchable fire because of all your sins.”
Jeremiah 17:20 – “Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD: my anger and my wrath will pour out upon this place, upon human being and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruits of the earth ; it will burn and not be quenched.
Jeremiah 17:27 – “But if you do not obey me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying any load as you come through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in the gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortresses.”
Matthew 3:12 and Luke 3:17 – “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Mark 9: 43, 45 – And if thy hand serve as a snare to thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having thy two hands to go away into hell, into the fire unquenchable;… And if thy foot serve as a snare to thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life lame, than having thy two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire unquenchable…
Classic Evangelical Interpretation
I was raised on the classic Evangelical interpretation of these texts. At face value, they can easily be read through the lense of divine anger, fiery destruction, and extended to where “unquenchable” even means “eternal.”
In that model, we ought to read the Old Testament texts as God’s violent wrath poured out through the Babylonian armies that he sent to punish Jerusalem for her sins.
And then we would have said the unquenchable flames described by John the Baptist and Jesus Christ refer to the eternal conscious torment of the unrepentant, who have been condemned at the final judgement.
A More Christlike Reading
For those who’ve become dissatisfied with that interpretation for emotional, moral, theological, or textual reasons, I might offer the following as a starting point (and refer you to my book, Her Gates Will Never Be Shut for a more thorough treatment):
But we would not read that text as God directly “wrathing” them (doing violent harm) or even literally commissioning Babylon to do so. Rather, God “gives them over” to the horrid consequences of their own defiance. He consents to the choices they make that led to the Babylonian conquest. And he accompanies this with a call to repentance and reconciliation that will bring about their New Covenant restoration in the awaited Messiah.
Here it is:
