For they will be entangled as with thorns and consumed like the drink of a drunkard—like stubble that is fully dry.
Parallel translations
- WEB For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly like dry stubble.
- KJV For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.
- NKJV For while tangled like thorns, And while drunken like drunkards, They shall be devoured like stubble fully dried.
- NASB Like tangled thorns, And like those who are drunken with their drink, They are consumed Like stubble completely dried up.
- NLT His enemies, tangled like thornbushes and staggering like drunks, will be burned up like dry stubble in a field.
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
Nineveh's defenders, tangled like thorns and drunk, will be consumed like dry stubble. Their seeming strength is no protection against God's fire.
Overview
The imagery of thorns, drunkenness, and stubble pictures the Assyrians as helpless and easily destroyed despite their fierce reputation. Drunkenness suggests both literal revelry and spiritual stupor before the coming judgment. The certainty of their swift consumption reminds readers that human pride and pleasure offer no defense in the day of the Lord.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Mic 7:4The best of them is like a brier; the most upright is sharper than a hedge of thorns. The day for your watchmen has come, the day of your visitation. Now is the time of their confusion.
- Mal 4:1“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”
- Nah 3:11You too will become drunk; you will go into hiding and seek refuge from the enemy.
- 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.
- 2 Sam 23:6–7But the worthless are all like thorns raked aside, for they can never be gathered by hand.
- Jer 51:57I will make her princes and wise men drunk, along with her governors, officials, and warriors. Then they will fall asleep forever and not wake up,” declares the King, whose name is the LORD of Hosts.
- Isa 9:18For wickedness burns like a fire that consumes the thorns and briers and kindles the forest thickets which roll upward in billows of smoke.
- Ps 68:2As smoke is blown away, You will drive them out; as wax melts before the fire, the wicked will perish in the presence of God.
- Isa 27:4I am not angry. If only thorns and briers confronted Me, I would march and trample them, I would burn them to the ground.
- Isa 10:17–19And the Light of Israel will become a fire, and its Holy One a flame. In a single day it will burn and devour Assyria’s thorns and thistles.
- 1 Th 5:2–3For you are fully aware that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
- Jer 51:39While they are flushed with heat, I will serve them a feast, and I will make them drunk so that they may revel; then they will fall asleep forever and never wake up, declares the LORD.
- 2 Sam 13:28Now Absalom had ordered his young men, “Watch Amnon until his heart is merry with wine, and when I order you to strike Amnon down, you are to kill him. Do not be afraid. Have I not commanded you? Be courageous and valiant!”
- 1 Sam 25:36When Abigail returned to Nabal, there he was in the house, holding a feast fit for a king, in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing until morning light.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The certain judgment on Nineveh and the comfort that 'the LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble' point to Christ, who is both the refuge of his people and the judge of their enemies.
How Nahum 1:10 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.