“The peoples will be burned to lime, Like cut thorns which are burned in the fire.
Parallel translations
- WEB The peoples will be like the burning of lime, like thorns that are cut down and burned in the fire.
- KJV And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.
- BSB The peoples will be burned to ashes, like thorns cut down and set ablaze.
- NKJV And the people shall be like the burnings of lime; Like thorns cut up they shall be burned in the fire.
- NLT Your people will be burned up completely, like thornbushes cut down and tossed in a fire.
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 hostile nations will be burned away like lime and cut thorns, picturing God's certain judgment on his enemies.
Overview
Isaiah compares the doomed peoples to thorns thrown into the fire, a common image of swift and total judgment. The Assyrian threat will be reduced to ashes. While sobering, the verse assures God's people that evil powers cannot stand before him, pointing forward to the final judgment when all that opposes God is removed.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- 2 Sam 23:6–7But all the ungodly will be as thorns to be thrust away, because they can’t be taken with the hand,
- Isa 27:4Wrath 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.
- Amos 2:1Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of Moab, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime;
- Isa 37:36Yahweh’s angel went out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
- 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.
- 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.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 33:12 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.