There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.
Parallel translations
- WEB Smoke went out of his nostrils. Consuming fire came out of his mouth. Coals were kindled by it.
- BSB Smoke rose from His nostrils, and consuming fire came from His mouth; glowing coals blazed forth.
- NKJV Smoke went up from His nostrils, And devouring fire from His mouth; Coals were kindled by it.
- NASB Smoke went up out of His nostrils, And fire from His mouth was devouring; Coals burned from it.
- NLT Smoke poured from his nostrils; fierce flames leaped from his mouth. Glowing coals blazed forth from him.
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
Smoke and consuming fire pour from God as he comes in judgment. It matters because it depicts the burning holiness and power of God acting against evil.
Overview
The theophany intensifies with smoke from God's nostrils and devouring fire from his mouth kindling coals. This dramatic imagery portrays the fierce holiness of God roused against the wicked. It reminds readers that the God who saves is also a consuming fire, whose judgment falls on sin but whose deliverance shelters his people in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Ps 21:9Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the LORD shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.
- Ps 11:6Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.
- Nah 1:5–6The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.
- Lev 10:2And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.
- Dan 7:10A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.
- Num 16:35And there came out a fire from the LORD, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense.
- Amos 4:11I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
- Ps 144:5–6Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.
- Gen 19:28And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.
- Ps 74:1O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
- Rev 11:5And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.
- Num 11:1And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.
- Ps 104:32He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.
- Ps 50:3Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.
- Deut 29:23–24And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:
- Deut 29:20The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 18:8 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
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