“Is not My word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that smashes a rock?”
Parallel translations
- WEB “Isn’t my word like fire?” says Yahweh; “and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
- KJV Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
- NKJV “Is not My word like a fire?” says the Lord, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
- NASB “Is My word not like fire?” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?
- NLT Does not my word burn like fire?” says the Lord. “Is it not like a mighty hammer that smashes a rock to pieces?
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 likens His word to fire and to a hammer that shatters rock. His word is powerful to consume, purify, and break the hardest resistance.
Overview
The LORD describes His own word as fire and a rock-breaking hammer, contrasting its potency with the lifeless lies of false prophets. God's word accomplishes His purposes, judging, refining, and overcoming hardened hearts. The same living and powerful word (Heb 4:12) is ultimately embodied in Christ, the Word made flesh.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Heb 4:12For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
- Jer 5:14Therefore this is what the LORD God of Hosts says: “Because you have spoken this word, I will make My words a fire in your mouth and this people the wood it consumes.
- Luke 24:32They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us as He spoke with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
- Jer 20:9If I say, “I will not mention Him or speak any more in His name,” His message becomes a fire burning in my heart, shut up in my bones, and I become weary of holding it in, and I cannot prevail.
- 2 Cor 10:4–5The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world. Instead, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
- Rev 11:5If anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone who wants to harm them must be killed.
- John 6:63The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.
- Acts 2:3They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.
- Acts 2:37When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
- 2 Cor 2:16To the one, we are an odor of death and demise; to the other, a fragrance that brings life. And who is qualified for such a task?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 23:29 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.