Does not my word burn like fire?” says the Lord. “Is it not like a mighty hammer that smashes a rock to pieces?
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?
- BSB “Is not My word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that smashes a rock?”
- 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?
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, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
- Jer 5:14Therefore Yahweh, the God of Armies says, “Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
- Luke 24:32They said to one another, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us, while he spoke to us along the way, and while he opened the Scriptures to us?”
- Jer 20:9If I say, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I can’t.
- 2 Cor 10:4–5for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the throwing down of strongholds,
- Rev 11:5If anyone desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies. If anyone desires to harm them, he must be killed in this way.
- John 6:63It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life.
- Acts 2:3Tongues like fire appeared and were distributed to them, and one sat on each of them.
- Acts 2:37Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
- 2 Cor 2:16to the one a stench from death to death; to the other a sweet aroma from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?
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.