Deuteronomy 29:23

גָּפְרִית וָמֶלַח שְׂרֵפָה כָל־אַרְצָהּ לֹא תִזָּרַע וְלֹא תַצְמִחַ וְלֹֽא־יַעֲלֶה בָהּ כָּל־עֵשֶׂב כְּֽמַהְפֵּכַת סְדֹם וַעֲמֹרָה אַדְמָה וּצְבוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר הָפַךְ יְהוָה בְּאַפּוֹ וּבַחֲמָתֽוֹ׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

גָּפְרִ֣ית וָמֶלַח֮ שְׂרֵפָ֣ה כָל־אַרְצָהּ֒ לֹ֤א תִזָּרַע֙ וְלֹ֣א תַצְמִ֔חַ וְלֹֽא־יַעֲלֶ֥ה בָ֖הּ כָּל־עֵ֑שֶׂב כְּֽמַהְפֵּכַ֞ת סְדֹ֤ם וַעֲמֹרָה֙ אַדְמָ֣ה וּצְבוֹיִ֔ם אֲשֶׁר֙ הָפַ֣ךְ יְהוָ֔ה בְּאַפּ֖וֹ וּבַחֲמָתֽוֹ׃

Greek (Septuagint)

θεῖον B καὶ ἅλα κατακεκαυμένον, πᾶσα ἡ γῆ αὐτῆς οὐ σπαρήσεται, οὐδὲ ἀνατελεῖ οὐδὲ μὴ όναβῇ ἐπ’ αὐτὴν πᾶν χλωρόν· ὥσπερ κατεστράφη Σόδομα καὶ Γόμορρα, Ἀδάμα καὶ Σεβωείμ, ἃς κατέστρεψεν κύριος ἐν θυμῷ καὶ ὀργῇ.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

sulphure, et salis ardore comburens, ita ut ultra non seratur, nec virens quippiam germinet, in exemplum subversionis Sodomæ et Gomorrhæ, Adamæ et Seboim, quas subvertit Dominus in ira et furore suo.

Spanish

que toda su tierra es azufre, sal y ardor, que no se siembra, no produce, ni crece en ella hierba alguna, como el derrocamiento de Sodoma, Gomorra, Adma y Zeboím, que Yehová derrocó en su ira y en su furor.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

( Azufre y sal, abrasada toda su tierra: no será sembrada, ni producirá, ni crecerá en ella hierba ninguna, como en la subversión de Sodoma y de Gomorra, de Adma y de Seboim, que Jehová subvirtió en su furor y en su ira:)

English

All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His fierce anger.

✦ What the text says

Summary

Deuteronomy 29:23 describes a devastated land — burning with sulfur and salt, unable to be sown or to produce any vegetation — comparing this desolation explicitly to the destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which Yehovah overthrew in anger and rage.

Key words

ga.fe.Rit ("sulfur", H1614) — feminine singular noun, paired with "salt" to depict the physical residue of catastrophic burning.
ti.za.Ra' ("it is sown", H2232) — niphal (passive) imperfect: the land is not sown, emphasizing that no human agricultural act can succeed there, ongoing/future in aspect.
tatz.Mi.ach ("it causes to grow", H6779) — hiphil (causative) imperfect: the land itself is denied the causative capacity to make anything sprout, not merely a passive absence of growth.
mah.pe.Khat ("overthrow of", H4114) — feminine singular construct noun, linking the land's condition directly to the specific event/category of "overthrow" associated with Sodom and the other cities.
ha.Fakh ("he overthrew", H2015) — qal perfect: a completed, decisive single action attributed to Yehovah, contrasting with the ongoing negated imperfects describing the land's current barren state.

What the text says

The verse opens with a construct chain describing the land's substance: ga.fe.Rit ("sulfur", H1614) va. ("and", H9002) me.Lach ("salt", H4417M), followed by se.re.Fah ("a burning waste", H8316), then khol- ("all", H3605) 'ar.Tza ("land", H0776G) with the third-person feminine suffix -h ("its", H9024), yielding "all its land [is] sulfur and salt, a burning waste." Three parallel negated imperfect verbs follow, each with lo' ("not", H3808): ti.za.Ra' (niphal, "it is sown"), tatz.Mi.ach (hiphil, "it causes to grow"), and ya.'a.Leh (qal, "it comes up"). The shift in verbal stems is notable — passive (niphal), causative (hiphil), and simple (qal) — moving from what is not done to the land, to what the land itself cannot cause, to what simply does not arise, covering the totality of agricultural failure from three grammatical angles.

The comparison clause uses ke. ("like", H9004) plus the construct noun mah.pe.Khat ("overthrow of", H4114), governing the four place names: se.Dom ("Sodom", H5467), 'a.mo.Rah ("Gomorrah", H6017), 'ad.Mah ("Admah", H0126), and tze.v.yim ("Zeboiim", H6636). The relative clause 'a.Sher ("which", H0834A) ha.Fakh ("he overthrew", H2015, qal perfect) Yah.weh ("Yehovah", H3068G) closes the verse, followed by two prepositional phrases: be. ("in", H9003) 'a.P-o ("his anger", H0639G+H9023) and u.va. ("and in", H9002+H9003) cha.ma.T-o ("his rage", H2534+H9023) — two near-synonymous nouns for anger, both marked as construct with the third-person masculine suffix.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew's threefold negated description (sulfur, salt, burning waste as separate elements) as θεῖον καὶ ἅλα κατακεκαυμένον ("sulfur and salt, burned"), compressing the syntax slightly. Where the Hebrew has two distinct nouns for anger, 'a.P ("anger", H0639G) and cha.ma.T ("rage", H2534), the LXX uses θυμῷ καὶ ὀργῇ, and the Vulgate uses "ira et furore," both preserving the double-term structure of the Hebrew's construct pair.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.