Traditionalists assume that “unquenchable fire” means “unending conscious torment.” They do not acknowledge that this expression comes from the OT, where it has the frequent and regular sense of “destruction that cannot be resisted.” “Quench” means to “extinguish” or “put out” a fire. The psalmist, for instance, says he will quench his enemies’ fire (Ps 118:12), and Heb 11:34 mentions heroes of faith who were able to “quench the violence of fire.” But God’s fire of punishment cannot be quenched or put out, and so he warns cities and nations in many places (Isa 1:31; 34:10–11; Jer 4:4; 7:20; 17:27; 21:12; Ezek 20:47–48; Amos 5:5–6). Jesus warns the same in Mark 9:43, 48 when he speaks of the horrible place of punishment where “the fire is not quenched.” And what does fire do to its victims if it is not extinguished? It burns them up—exactly as John the Baptist announced concerning sinners’ doom in his word about Jesus’ eschatological wrath: “He will clear his threshing floor . . . burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matt 3:12).