Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.
Parallel translations
- WEB Wrath is not in me, but if I should find briers and thorns, I would do battle! I would march on them and I would burn them together.
- BSB I am not angry. If only thorns and briers confronted Me, I would march and trample them, I would burn them to the ground.
- NKJV Fury is not in Me. Who would set briers and thorns Against Me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.
- NASB “I have no wrath. Should someone give Me briars and thorns in battle, Then I would step on them, I would burn them completely.
- NLT My anger will be gone. If I find briers and thorns growing, I will attack them; I will burn them up—
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
God holds no wrath toward His people, though He will fiercely destroy the briers and thorns of opposition.
Overview
Toward His vineyard God has set aside anger, yet He stands ready to burn the thorns and briers that threaten it. His protective love for His people includes judgment on what opposes them. This balance of grace toward His own and judgment on evil finds its center in the cross, where wrath and mercy meet.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Isa 10:17And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day;
- Heb 6:8But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.
- Matt 3:12Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
- Ps 85:3Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger.
- 2 Sam 23:6But the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands:
- Isa 26:20–21Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.
- Ezek 16:63That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord GOD.
- 2 Pet 2:9The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
- Isa 54:6–10For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.
- Isa 12:1And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.
- Mal 4:3And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.
- Ps 103:9He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
- Nah 1:3–7The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
- Isa 9:18For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 27:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.