fire and brimstone
n.Threats of punishment or damnation, especially in stern moralising or preaching.
n.The rhetoric of divine punishment and damnation — vivid warnings of hellfire; often used attributively, as in a fire-and-brimstone sermon or preacher.
“The old preacher was famous for his fire-and-brimstone sermons.”
“She expected a fire-and-brimstone lecture from her father, but he simply looked disappointed.”
“The campaign traded its early fire-and-brimstone rhetoric for a calmer tone once the strategists realised that threats were costing it moderate voters.”
The phrase is biblical. In Genesis 19:24 the Lord rains fire and brimstone on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, destroying them as a judgment; "brimstone" is the old English word for sulphur, whose burning stench made it a natural image of punishment. Revelation 21:8 reuses the pairing, warning that the wicked will have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone.
Through these passages the two words became fixed together as shorthand for divine wrath and damnation. Preachers who dwelt on hellfire and judgment came to be described as delivering fire-and-brimstone sermons, and the phrase now names that whole style of stern, threatening moralising.
Original etymology written by Shinotoshi Nakamura.
End-times and final-judgment imagery, from the Gospels to Revelation.
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