8. the desert--or "plain," Hebrew, Arabah
(De 3:17; 4:49;
Jos 3:16),
which is the name still given to the valley of the Jordan and the plain
south of the Dead Sea, and extending to the Elanitic gulf of the Red
Sea.
the sea--the Dead Sea. "The sea" noted as covering with its waters
the guilty cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah. In its bituminous
waters no vegetable or animal life is said to be found. But now death is
to give place to life in Judea, and throughout the world, as symbolized
by the healing of these death-pervaded waters covering the doomed
cities. Compare as to "the sea" in general, regarded as a symbol of the
troubled powers of nature, disordered by the fall, henceforth to rage no
more,
Re 21:1.
JFB.
Picture Study Bible