Bible Strands
2 Samuel 22:9
Smoke rose from His nostrils, and consuming fire came from His mouth; glowing coals blazed forth.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — David addresses Israel while recounting how God intervened to rescue him from hostile forces, using cosmic imagery to describe divine wrath. The words — עָשָׁן (a.Shan) means smoke, and תֹּאכֵל (to.Khel) means it consumed, directly translating the physical description of fire and smoke issuing from God’s mouth and nostrils. The thread — The text links to Psalm 18:15, Exodus 15:7, Hebrews 12:29, and brackets the immediate context of 2 Samuel 22:8 and 22:10. Why it lands — The passage requires readers to acknowledge that God’s anger operates with destructive, uncontrolled force, demanding sober reverence instead of casual trust.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.
Cross-references
- Hebrews 12:29 “For our God is a consuming fire.”
- Psalms 18:15 The channels of the sea appeared, and the foundations of the world were exposed, at Your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.
- Exodus 15:7 You overthrew Your adversaries by Your great majesty. You unleashed Your burning wrath; it consumed them like stubble.
- Exodus 19:18 Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke, because the LORD had descended on it in fire. And the smoke rose like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently.
- Exodus 24:17 And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop in the eyes of the Israelites.
- Deuteronomy 32:22 For a fire has been kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol; it consumes the earth and its produce, and scorches the foundations of the mountains.
- 2 Samuel 22:13 From the brightness of His presence coals of fire blazed forth.
- 2 Samuel 22:16 The channels of the sea appeared, and the foundations of the world were exposed at the rebuke of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of His nostrils.
- Job 4:9 By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.
- Job 41:20 Smoke billows from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.