Wax

Wax in Scripture refers to the product of bees' combs melted down, and it appears primarily in poetic and metaphorical contexts. The image of wax melting before fire is used three times in the Psalms to convey dissolution or terror before God: "They are like wax; they melt away before God" (Psalm 68:2); "the mountains melted like wax at the presence of the LORD" (Psalm 97:5); and in Psalm 22:14, the suffering Servant says "my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels" — a vivid description of extreme anguish. Micah 1:4 similarly pictures the mountains melting like wax before the fire at God's coming in judgment. The consistent use of wax as an image of instantaneous, irreversible dissolution under heat makes it a powerful figure for both human frailty before God's holiness and for the destructive force of divine judgment on natural obstacles.