Smoke Rising Forever

Abraham looked toward Sodom and "the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace" (Gen 19:28). Isaiah says of Edom, "the smoke thereof shall go up for ever," yet in the next verse the land is held by owl and raven (Isa 34:10-11): "for ever" names permanent ruin, not ongoing burning. Malachi says the wicked become "ashes under the soles of your feet" (Mal 4:3). What rises forever in Rev 14:11 is smoke, not pain, the Sodom sign of destruction done and beyond undoing. The smoke that once rose as prayer (Ps 141:2) now rises as answered judgment, while the coercive system has "no rest day nor night."