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"but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die."
God warned Adam that he would surely die if he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Natural, literal death is clearly intended here. Hence, in Genesis 3:19, God says, "you are dust, and you shall return to dust." The curses causing difficulty in working the land and in childbirth also indicate that death is intended. Therefore, God kicked Adam out of the garden when he sinned, "lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" (Gen 3:22). Paul explains that "as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death passed to all men because all sinned." (Rom 5:12). Everyone in Adam is destined to perish and die.
In Revelation, it is revealed that believers will get to partake of the tree of life and live forevermore: "On this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruits, yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." (Rev 22:2). Paul explains that believers will be made unable to die: "The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven... Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s Kingdom; neither does the perishable inherit imperishable... For this perishable body must become imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality." (1 Cor 15:47, 50, 53).
It follows that some will not inherit the imperishable nor receive immortality. They will be subject to everlasting death and won't obtain to the final age: "But those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. For they can’t die any more, for they are like the angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection" (Lk 20:35-36).
Rethinking Hell, Rethinking Hell Live 040: What the Bible Really Says About What "Death" Means, YouTube.
Victor P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis, Chapters 1–17, NICOT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), pg. 172: "Here in 2:17 we have translated it as as surely as on the basis of its occasional use as an idiom meaning 'for certain,' as in 1 K. 2:37, 42, where Shimei is threatened with death 'on the day you go forth and cross the brook Kidron.' As the next few verses indicate, Shimei could not possibly have been executed 'on the day' he exited his house. The verse is underscoring the certainty of death, not its chronology."
Peter Grice, Warned of Sin's Wages: A Concise Explanation of Death in Genesis 2:17 and Romans 6:23, 2017: "In other words, 'you will certainly die' became true instantly, as a kind of death sentence or curse. In the Hebrew, this phrase is a language construct known as an infinitive absolute. It has no exact equivalent in English, and should be read not as a statement about when death will occur, but rather to emphasize the certainty of death being incurred."
Anthony Hoekema, Created in God's Image (Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 2009) ch 8: "We come now to the last part of the judgment on the man: God tells him he will return to the ground from which he was taken—'for dust you are and to dust you will return' (v. 19). Since man had been formed from the dust of the ground (2:7), it is obvious that these words describe physical death. Though some theologians taught that man would have died anyway, whether he had sinned or not, the fact that these words occur as part of God’s judgment on man because of the first sin indicates that physical death is one of the results of sin. God warned that death would be one of the results of Adam’s transgression in the so-called Probationary Command: 'But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when (or in the day that) you eat of it you will surely die' (Gen. 2:17)."
Michael Horton, A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way, (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 2011), 908: "However, in Scripture there is no assumption that the soul is immortal. Rather, like the body, it is a created substance with a beginning and an end. Immortality was the goal held out to Adam and Eve in the Tree of Life, and not merely for the soul but for the whole person. It is this immortality that was forfeited by Adam but has been promised to those who trust in Jesus Christ."
Athanasius, Four Discourses Against the Arians: "And thus since the truth declares that the Word is not by nature a creature, it is fitting now to say, in what sense He is 'beginning of ways.' For when the first way, which was through Adam, was lost, and in place of paradise we deviated unto death, and heard the words, 'Dust you are, and unto dust Genesis 3:19 shall you return,' therefore the Word of God, who loves man, puts on Him created flesh at the Father's will, that whereas the first man had made it dead through the transgression, He Himself might quicken it in the blood of His own body, and might open 'for us a way new and living,' as the Apostle says, 'through the veil, that is to say, His flesh Hebrews 10:20;' which he signifies elsewhere thus, 'Wherefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things are passed away, behold all things have become new 2 Corinthians 5:17'" (2.65).
"To provide against this also, He sends His own Son, and He becomes Son of Man, by taking created flesh; that, since all were under sentence of death, He, being other than them all, might Himself for all offer to death His own body; and that henceforth, as if all had died through Him, the word of that sentence might be accomplished (for 'all died 2 Corinthians 5:14 ' in Christ), and all through Him might thereupon become free from sin and from the curse which came upon it, and might truly abide for ever, risen from the dead and clothed in immortality and incorruption" (2.69).
Guy P. Waters, Romans 10:5 and the Covenant of Works? (2012), 22: "The disparity extends neither to the mode (i.e., imputation) of the work of Adam and Christ impacting those whom each represents nor to the “life/death” issues that were set before each federal head. The fact that Christ purchased eternal “life” for his own, and that he did so for those who were eternally “dead” in Adam means that Christ’s work was intended to remedy what Adam had wrought (death), and to accomplish what Adam had failed to do (life)."
"Every living thing was destroyed that was on the surface of the ground, including man, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ship."
"Then the LORD rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of the sky. He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground. But Lot’s wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt."
"Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. Fire came out from before the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD."
"The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households, all of Korah’s men, and all their goods. So they, and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol. The earth closed on them, and they perished from among the assembly. All Israel that were around them fled at their cry; for they said, 'Lest the earth swallow us up!' Fire came out from the LORD, and devoured the two hundred fifty men who offered the incense."
"Yahweh will not pardon him, but then Yahweh’s anger and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book will fall on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under the sky."
"For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish."
"You have rebuked the nations. You have destroyed the wicked. You have blotted out their name forever and ever. The enemy is overtaken by endless ruin. The very memory of the cities which you have overthrown has perished."
"On the wicked he will rain blazing coals; fire, sulfur, and scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup."
"The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky. He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground. But Lot’s wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt." (Gen 19:23-26).
"and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live in an ungodly way" (2 Pet 2:6).
Sodom and Gomorrah is a cited many times in the Old and New Testaments as representative of what God's judgment is like.
"Don’t fret because of evildoers, neither be envious against those who work unrighteousness. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither like the green herb."
"For yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more. Yes, though you look for his place, he isn’t there."
"The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, to kill those who are upright on the path. Their sword shall enter into their own heart. Their bows shall be broken."
"But the wicked shall perish. The enemies of Yahweh shall be like the beauty of the fields. They will vanish— vanish like smoke."
"For the LORD loves justice, and doesn’t forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land, and live in it forever."
"I have seen the wicked in great power, spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil. But he passed away, and behold, he was not. Yes, I sought him, but he could not be found."
"As for transgressors, they shall be destroyed together. The future of the wicked shall be cut off."
"then I discerned their end. Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms."
"though the wicked spring up as the grass, and all the evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever."
"who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes in that day to be glorified in his saints and to be admired among all those who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed" (2 Thess 1:9-10).
"The wicked will see it, and be grieved. He shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away. The desire of the wicked will perish."
"The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord will laugh at him, for he sees that his day is coming." (Ps 37:12-13).
The phrase gnashing of teeth indicates anger, annoyance, and being upset at the inability to stop something. Here it is used in conjunction with the wicked melting away and perishing. It does not suggest a perpetual process of suffering. Neither is gnashing of teeth ever said to last forever in the New Testament.
"When the whirlwind passes, the wicked is no more; but the righteous stand firm forever... The fear of Yahweh prolongs days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened... The way of Yahweh is a stronghold to the upright, but it is a destruction to the workers of iniquity. The righteous will never be removed, but the wicked will not dwell in the land. The mouth of the righteous produces wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut off."
"The nations were angry, and your wrath came, as did the time for the dead to be judged, and to give your bondservants the prophets, their reward, as well as to the saints and those who fear your name, to the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth" (Rev 11:18).
"Don’t fret yourself because of evildoers, neither be envious of the wicked; for there will be no reward to the evil man. The lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out."
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their hearts, yet so that man can’t find out the work that God has done from the beginning even to the end."
This verse does not teach the immortality of the soul. The Hebrew word "olam" is commonly translated as "darkness," "eternity," or "the future." This verse is about the insatiable longing for and awareness of something beyond this world that God has instilled in human hearts. Humans possess an inherent sense of something beyond the temporal world. Yet we are unable to fully understand God's workings or be ultimately satisfied in this world. This verse describes that existential reality.
"They are dead, they will not live; they are shades, they will not arise; to that end you have visited them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them... Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead."
The phrase "they are dead, they will not live" directly contrasts with the hope of resurrection for the righteous (v. 19). Here, "shades" (Hebrew: rephaim) refers to powerless, lifeless entities in Sheol. These beings lack the capacity to "arise," symbolizing not only physical death but also exclusion from any future resurrection to life. The wiping out of their "remembrance" underscores a comprehensive erasure of their presence, influence, and legacy. The wicked are not just killed but fully eliminated from the covenant community and God’s future plans.
In contrast to the fate of the wicked, Isaiah proclaims the resurrection of the righteous with joyful imagery. The phrase "your dead shall live" reflects God's faithfulness to His covenant people. The use of "dew" symbolizes renewal and vitality, a metaphor for God's life-giving power (cf. Hosea 14:5). The "earth giving birth" portrays the resurrection as a creative act, paralleling the original formation of humanity from dust (Genesis 2:7).
The juxtaposition of verses 14 and 19 strongly presents conditional immortality: the wicked face eternal destruction, while the faithful are resurrected to eternal life.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges: "There is no contradiction between this verse and Isaiah 26:19, nor is there any evidence of a merely nascent belief in the possibility of a resurrection; because the subjects in the two verses are different. The resurrection of Isaiah 26:19 is distinctly represented as miraculous, and is limited to members of the covenant people; over those who are unvisited by the life-giving “dew” of Jehovah, the sway of death is absolute."
J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction & Commentary (IVP: Downers Grove, 1993) 219, "In this regard, the terms of the present verse go beyond the figurative to the literal and declare a full resurrection, including the resurrection of the body."
"You will conceive chaff. You will give birth to stubble. Your breath is a fire that will devour you. The peoples will be like the burning of lime, like thorns that are cut down and burned in the fire... The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless ones. Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning?"
Isaiah provides the background for many of the New Testament’s teachings about hell. Chaff being burned represents complete devouring and destruction (Mat 3:12). Trees (Mat 7:19), weeds (Mat 13:40), and thorns and thistles (Heb 6:8) likewise are cut down and burned up. The obvious answer to Isaiah's rhetorical question, who among us can live, is that they will not be able to continue living in the midst of everlasting, devouring fire (Mat 18:8). The fire does not turn them into a juggernaut that can take on endless fire. While it may be possible to withstand fire for 5 or 10 minutes, this imagery conveys an utterly destructive power that will obliterate the wicked.
"For Yahweh is enraged against all the nations, and angry with all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them. He has given them over for slaughter. Their slain will also be cast out, and the stench of their dead bodies will come up. The mountains will melt in their blood. All of the army of the sky will be dissolved. The sky will be rolled up like a scroll, and all its armies will fade away, as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree. For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky. Behold, it will come down on Edom, and on the people of my curse, for judgment... For Yahweh has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. Its streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur, and its land will become burning pitch. It won’t be quenched night or day. Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation, it will lie waste. No one will pass through it forever and ever."
"For, behold, Yahweh will come with fire, and his chariots will be like the whirlwind; to render his anger with fierceness, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For Yahweh will execute judgment by fire and by his sword on all flesh; and those slain by Yahweh will be many."
Jesus is the one who will execute judgment by a "flaming fire" (2 Thes 1:7). The sword of judgment will fall on the lawless one, "whom the Lord will kill with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the manifestation of his coming" (2 Thes 2:8). Thus, many will be slain and face the penalty of "eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might" (2 Thes 1:8).
"'For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me,' says Yahweh, 'so your offspring and your name shall remain. It shall happen that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh will come to worship before me,' says Yahweh. 'They will go out, and look at the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me; for their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.'"
Jesus uses this imagery of the worm not dying and the fire not being quenched in conjunction with Gehenna, a valley of dead bodies that serves as a picture of the final end for unbelievers. Notice that the context in both is about dead bodies in the new heavens and new earth. The worms will devour. The fire will completely consume. The unrighteous will forever be remembered with contempt. Though "unquenchable fire" strikes modern as eternal torment, the Old Testament background demonstrates that it refers to a consuming fire that cannot be extinguished.
"'Therefore behold, the days come', says Yahweh, 'that it will no more be called ‘Topheth’ or ‘The valley of the son of Hinnom’, but ‘The valley of Slaughter’; for they will bury in Topheth until there is no place to bury. The dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth. No one will frighten them away.'"
This is the background for Jesus' teaching about Gehenna (what is commonly translated hell, the final end for the unsaved). Gehenna will be called "The Valley of Slaughter." God will slay His enemies there. The worms, birds, and other scavengers will devour the dead bodies while fire burns up and consumes them. This picture intensely portrays death, destruction, and annihilation, not eternal torment.
"'Behold, the days come,' says Yahweh, 'that the city will be built to Yahweh from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner. The measuring line will go out further straight onward to the hill Gareb, and will turn toward Goah. The whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook Kidron, to the corner of the horse gate toward the east, will be holy to Yahweh. It will not be plucked up or thrown down any more forever.'"
This refers to the Valley of Hinnom (Topheth), which was notorious for child sacrifices (Jer 7:31). The promise that this valley will become "holy to Yahweh" signifies God’s transformative power. What was once a site of death and destruction will become a place of holiness and eternal stability. This redemption underscores God's ultimate victory over sin, death, and defilement.
The imagery of the Valley of Hinnom serves as the backdrop for Jesus' teachings on hell (Gehenna), where the final destruction of the wicked is depicted. Jeremiah’s prophecy reflects a dual reality: the obliteration of evil and the sanctification of creation. The valley's transformation into a sacred site aligns with the biblical theme that God's judgment eradicates evil and purifies and restores the created order.
Berean Study Bible: "This phrase refers to the Valley of Hinnom, historically a place associated with idolatry and child sacrifice (2 Kings 23:10). In Hebrew, "Ge Hinnom" later became "Gehenna," a term used in the New Testament to describe hell. The transformation of this valley from a place of death to one of holiness signifies God's power to redeem and sanctify even the most defiled places. It is a profound reminder of God's ability to bring life from death and purity from defilement."
Ellicott's Commentary: "We have to think of this city as Jeremiah saw it during the horrors of the siege—the lower part, the “plain” or “valley” of the city, the valley of Hinnom (comp. Jeremiah 19:11), filled with corpses lying unburied in the streets (Lamentations 2:21; Lamentations 4:9), the “ashes” of burnt and shattered houses encumbering the streets with their débris, the fields or open spaces that stretched to the Kidron valley, and the “horse-gate” by the king’s palace (2Kings 11:16; 2Chronicles 23:15; Nehemiah 3:28)—all this now lay before him as a scene of unspeakable desolation; but in his vision of the restored city he sees it all cleansed from whatever was defiling, consecrated to Jehovah, and holy as the precincts of the Temple."
"Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."
"Many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, and some to disgrace and eternal contempt." [CSB]
"And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to reproach and everlasting contempt." [LSB]
"And the multitude of those sleeping in the dust of the ground do awake, some to life age-during, and some to reproaches -- to abhorrence age-during." [YTL]
Contempt is the same word as loathsome in Isaiah 66:24, the only other occurance of that word in the Old Testament. Both verses speak of the comtempt of believers for the wicked.
D. Barry, Conditional Immortality: Daniel 12:2: "It is obvious that the unsaved have the shame emotion. And it is the righteous that have the contempt emotion towards the wicked. Notice that only one of those emotions lasts forever."
Joseph Dear, Daniel 12:2 Does Not Teach Eternal Torment, 2017: "Even an atheist who does not believe that Hitler exists in any form would still say that he is looked upon with contempt... Although it is true that the unsaved who awake to disgrace and everlasting contempt will not always be awake, the disgrace and contempt outlives them."
"Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty."
"But with an overflowing flood, he will make a full end of her place, and will pursue his enemies into darkness. What do you plot against Yahweh? He will make a full end. Affliction won’t rise up the second time. For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly like dry stubble."
Contrary to the traditional belief that God will keep His enemies alive forever to keep sinning, God will instead make a full end to evil. He will pursue His enemies into the depths of Sheol. They will all be completely consumed like straw. God will have complete victory over sin and death and evil.
"'For behold, the day comes, burning like a furnace, when all the proud and all who work wickedness will be stubble. The day that comes will burn them up,' says Yahweh of Armies, 'so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out and leap like calves of the stall. You shall tread down the wicked; for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make,' says Yahweh of Armies."
"For it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, punishing those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus, who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes in that day to be glorified in his saints and to be admired among all those who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed." (2 Thes 1:6-10).
God's destruction of the wicked will be complete. There will be no part left untouched by the burning furnace and no part left unconsumed. They will be like "natural animals to be taken and destroyed" and "will in their destroying surely be destroyed" (2 Pet 2:12). Only the righteous will arise to healing and life. All those who work wickedness will rise to judgment and be burned up with unquenchable fire so that only ashes remain.
Mark Corbett, Malachi Supports Annihilationism and Refutes both Eternal Conscious Torment and Universalism.