And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. (Isaiah 34:9)
The imagery of v. 9 is based on the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (see on Gen. 19:24). The region occupied by these cities probably lay at the southern end of the Dead Sea (see on Gen. 14:3). Even today liquid petroleum and bitumen are found here. When Christ returns, the entire earth will be destroyed in a great conflagration (2 Peter 3:10, 12; Rev. 20:10, 14).