Like tangled thorns, And like those who are drunken with their drink, They are consumed Like stubble completely dried up.
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.
- BSB For they will be entangled as with thorns and consumed like the drink of a drunkard—like stubble that is fully dry.
- NKJV For while tangled like thorns, And while drunken like drunkards, They shall be devoured like stubble fully dried.
- 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 worse than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, even your visitation, has come; now is the time of their confusion.
- Mal 4:1“For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
- Nah 3:11You also will be drunken. You will be hidden. You also will seek a stronghold because of the enemy.
- Isa 5:24Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as the dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust; because they have rejected the law of Yahweh of Armies, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
- 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,
- Jer 51:57I will make her princes, her wise men, her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men drunk. They will sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up,” says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies.
- 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.
- Ps 68:2As smoke is driven away, so drive them away. As wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
- 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.
- Isa 10:17–19The 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.
- 1 Th 5:2–3For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night.
- Jer 51:39When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunk, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up,” says Yahweh.
- 2 Sam 13:28Absalom commanded his servants, saying, “Mark now, when Amnon’s heart is merry with wine; and when I tell you, ‘Strike Amnon,’ then kill him. Don’t be afraid. Haven’t I commanded you? Be courageous, and be valiant!”
- 1 Sam 25:36Abigail came to Nabal; and behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. Therefore she told him nothing, until the morning light.
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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.