Thorns and briers will come up on my people’s land; yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city.
Parallel translations
- KJV Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city:
- BSB and for the land of my people, overgrown with thorns and briers—even for every house of merriment in this city of revelry.
- NKJV On the land of my people will come up thorns and briers, Yes, on all the happy homes in the joyous city;
- NASB For the land of my people in which thorns and briars will come up; Indeed, for all the joyful houses and for the jubilant city.
- NLT For your land will be overgrown with thorns and briers. Your joyful homes and happy towns will be gone.
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
Thorns and briers will overrun the land, even the once-joyous houses and city. It matters because sin's judgment turns flourishing places into wasteland.
Overview
The prophet foresees the land overgrown with thorns, the former places of joy reduced to ruin. The reversal of fruitfulness into desolation depicts the consequence of judgment. Such imagery recalls the curse on creation and heightens longing for the restoration only God can bring.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Isa 22:2You that are full of shouting, a tumultuous city, a joyous town; your slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle.
- Hos 9:6For, behold, they have gone away from destruction. Egypt will gather them up. Memphis will bury them. Nettles will possess their pleasant things of silver. Thorns will be in their tents.
- Isa 7:23It will happen in that day that every place where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silver shekels, shall be for briers and thorns.
- Isa 34:13Thorns will come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses; and it will be a habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches.
- Isa 22:12–13In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth:
- Isa 5:6I will lay it a wasteland. It won’t be pruned nor hoed, but it will grow briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.”
- Jer 39:8The Chaldeans burned the king’s house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem.
- Ps 107:34and a fruitful land into a salt waste, for the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
- Isa 6:11Then I said, “Lord, how long?” He answered, “Until cities are waste without inhabitant, and houses without man, and the land becomes utterly waste,
- Rev 18:7–8However much she glorified herself, and grew wanton, so much give her of torment and mourning. For she says in her heart, ‘I sit a queen, and am no widow, and will in no way see mourning.’
- Hos 10:8The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed. The thorn and the thistle will come up on their altars. They will tell the mountains, “Cover us!” and the hills, “Fall on us!”
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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 32:13 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.