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.
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.
- KJV 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.
- 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.
- 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 10:17The light of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame; and it will burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day.
- Heb 6:8but if it bears thorns and thistles, it is rejected and near being cursed, whose end is to be burned.
- Matt 3:12His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.”
- Ps 85:3You have taken away all your wrath. You have turned from the fierceness of your anger.
- 2 Sam 23:6But all the ungodly will be as thorns to be thrust away, because they can’t be taken with the hand,
- Isa 26:20–21Come, my people, enter into your rooms, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation is past.
- Ezek 16:63that you may remember, and be confounded, and never open your mouth any more, because of your shame, when I have forgiven you all that you have done,” says the Lord Yahweh.’”
- 2 Pet 2:9the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment;
- Isa 54:6–10For Yahweh has called you as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even a wife of youth, when she is cast off,” says your God.
- Isa 12:1In that day you will say, “I will give thanks to you, Yahweh; for though you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you comfort me.
- Mal 4:3You shall tread down the wicked; for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make,” says Yahweh of Armies.
- Ps 103:9He will not always accuse; neither will he stay angry forever.
- Nah 1:3–7Yahweh is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Yahweh has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
- Isa 9:18For wickedness burns like a fire. It devours the briers and thorns; yes, it kindles in the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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.