Does the phrase “the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever” mean the fires of hell will never go out?

The word translated as “forever” in the Bible does not always mean “without end.” In fact, the Bible uses this term 56 times in connection with things that have already ended. (Sometimes you will need to look up the word “ever” in a concordance to find them.) For instance, in Exodus 21:1–6, the Hebrew servant was to serve his master “forever,” but it was obviously only as long as he lived. Hannah took her son Samuel to God’s house to abide “forever” (1 Samuel 1:22), but she plainly limited that time to “as long as he lives” (verse 28).

The term is clearly defined in Psalm 48:14: “For this is God, our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to death.” The desolation of Edom was to ascend “forever” (Isaiah 34:10), yet we know that it does not still burn but, as the Bible says, lies in “waste.”

According to these definitions of the term “forever,” the wicked will suffer as long as they continue to live in the fire. Then, as the Bible states, “The wicked … shall be destroyed forever” (Psalm 92:7). This means that when the work of the fire is completed, it will go out. The Bible says these fires will “burn them up” and will leave them “neither root nor branch” and will leave “ashes under the soles of your feet” (Malachi 4:1–3).

And so the punishment of the wicked will be forever complete. It is not an everlasting state of torment, which would portray God as an evil sadist. Our loving Lord will blot sin out of existence because He knows it would eventually destroy our world and everyone in it.

Key Bible Texts

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: (Revelation 14:10 KJV)