Will not your creditors suddenly arise and those who disturb you awaken? Then you will become their prey.
Parallel translations
- WEB Won’t your debtors rise up suddenly, and wake up those who make you tremble, and you will be their victim?
- KJV Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them?
- NKJV Will not your creditors rise up suddenly? Will they not awaken who oppress you? And you will become their booty.
- NASB “Will your creditors not rise up suddenly, And those who collect from you awaken? Indeed, you will become plunder for them.
- NLT Suddenly, your debtors will take action. They will turn on you and take all you have, while you stand trembling and helpless.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Suddenly the oppressor's own debtors will rise up, and the plunderer will become the plundered. It warns that those who exploit others will face sudden, fitting reversal.
Overview
The nations Babylon despoiled are pictured as creditors who will awake and turn the tables. The suddenness of their rising stresses that judgment can come swiftly and unexpectedly upon the proud. This principle of just reversal, where the violent fall to violence, reflects God's moral order and anticipates the final judgment in which all oppression is overturned.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Prov 29:1A man who remains stiff-necked after much reproof will suddenly be shattered beyond recovery.
- Jer 51:27–28“Raise a banner in the land! Blow the ram’s horn among the nations! Prepare the nations against her. Summon the kingdoms against her—Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a captain against her; bring up horses like swarming locusts.
- Jer 50:21–32Go up against the land of Merathaim, and against the residents of Pekod. Kill them and devote them to destruction. Do all that I have commanded you,” declares the LORD.
- Jer 8:17“For behold, I will send snakes among you, vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you,” declares the LORD.
- Jer 51:11Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! The LORD has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His plan is aimed at Babylon to destroy her, for it is the vengeance of the LORD—vengeance for His temple.
- Isa 46:11I summon a bird of prey from the east, a man for My purpose from a far-off land. Truly I have spoken, and truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, and I will surely do it.
- Isa 13:1–5This is the burden against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz received:
- Isa 41:25I have raised up one from the north, and he has come—one from the east who calls on My name. He will march over rulers as if they were mortar, like a potter who treads the clay.
- Isa 47:11But disaster will come upon you; you will not know how to charm it away. A calamity will befall you that you will be unable to ward off. Devastation will happen to you suddenly and unexpectedly.
- Isa 48:14–15Come together, all of you, and listen: Which of the idols has foretold these things? The LORD’s chosen ally will carry out His desire against Babylon, and His arm will be against the Chaldeans.
- Isa 45:1–3This is what the LORD says to Cyrus His anointed, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him, to disarm kings, to open the doors before him, so that the gates will not be shut:
- Isa 21:2–9A dire vision is declared to me: “The traitor still betrays, and the destroyer still destroys. Go up, O Elam! Lay siege, O Media! I will put an end to all her groaning.”
- Isa 13:16–18Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses will be looted, and their wives will be ravished.
- Eccl 10:8He who digs a pit may fall into it, and he who breaches a wall may be bitten by a snake.
- Dan 5:25–31Now this is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN.
- Nah 1:9–10Whatever you plot against the LORD, He will bring to an end. Affliction will not rise up a second time.
- Jer 51:57I will make her princes and wise men drunk, along with her governors, officials, and warriors. Then they will fall asleep forever and not wake up,” declares the King, whose name is the LORD of Hosts.
- 1 Th 5:3While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
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Original language
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