7:4 judgment by fire. See note 1:4; Is. 66:15–16.

great deep . . . land. The “great deep” could be the Mediterranean Sea, although the same phrase is also used of the chaotic subterranean waters (Gen. 7:11 note), and of the Red Sea at Israel’s crossing (Is. 51:10). The prospect of a fire that will devour sea and land echoes the covenant judgment warning in Deut. 32:22. The language exceeds what happened in the Old Testament, but foreshadows the Last Judgment (cf. 2 Pet. 3:10; Rev. 21:1), of which all previous judgments are but types.