You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble. Your breath is a fire that will consume you.
Parallel translations
- WEB You will conceive chaff. You will give birth to stubble. Your breath is a fire that will devour you.
- KJV Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you.
- NKJV You shall conceive chaff, You shall bring forth stubble; Your breath, as fire, shall devour you.
- NASB “You have conceived chaff, you will give birth to stubble; My breath will consume you like a fire.
- NLT You Assyrians produce nothing but dry grass and stubble. Your own breath will turn to fire and consume you.
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
The proud enemy's schemes are worthless, and his own hostility will become the fire that destroys him.
Overview
Addressing Assyria, God says its plans amount to nothing but chaff and stubble, and its violent breath will consume itself. The image warns that those who set themselves against God ultimately bring about their own ruin. It echoes the biblical principle that the wicked are caught in their own devices and that God's judgment is just.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Ps 7:14Behold, the wicked man travails with evil; he conceives trouble and births falsehood.
- Isa 59:4No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case honestly. They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
- Jas 1:15Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
- Acts 5:4Did it not belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? How could you conceive such a deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God!”
- Isa 10:7–14But this is not his intention; this is not his plan. For it is in his heart to destroy and cut off many nations.
- Isa 17:13The nations rage like the rush of many waters. He rebukes them, and they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweeds before a gale.
- Ps 83:5–18For with one mind they plot together, they form an alliance against You—
- Job 15:35They conceive trouble and give birth to evil; their womb is pregnant with deceit.”
- Isa 8:9–10Huddle together, O peoples, and be shattered; pay attention, all you distant lands; prepare for battle, and be shattered; prepare for battle, and be shattered!
- Isa 29:5–8But your many foes will be like fine dust, the multitude of the ruthless like blowing chaff. Then suddenly, in an instant,
- Isa 26:18We were with child; we writhed in pain; but we gave birth to wind. We have given no salvation to the earth, nor brought any life into the world.
- Isa 31:8–9“Then Assyria will fall, but not by the sword of man; a sword will devour them, but not one made by mortals. They will flee before the sword, and their young men will be put to forced labor.
- Isa 5:24Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes the straw, and as dry grass shrivels in the flame, so their roots will decay and their blossoms will blow away like dust; for they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of Hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
- Ps 2:1Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
- Isa 37:23–29Whom have you taunted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!
- Isa 30:30–33And the LORD will cause His majestic voice to be heard and His mighty arm to be revealed, striking in angry wrath with a flame of consuming fire, and with cloudburst, storm, and hailstones.
- Isa 1:31The strong man will become tinder and his work will be a spark; both will burn together, with no one to quench the flames.
- Nah 1:5–10The mountains quake before Him, and the hills melt away; the earth trembles at His presence—the world and all its dwellers.
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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 33:11 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
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