Bible Strands
Isaiah 10:17
And 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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Isaiah delivers this oracle against the Assyrian empire immediately after declaring that the Lord will kindle a consuming fire beneath Assyria’s military pomp. The message addresses the exiled people of Israel and the Assyrian nation, marking the moment when divine judgment shifts from warning to execution.
The words — The text employs קְדוֹשׁוֹ (qedoSho), meaning “its Holy One,” and בָּעֲרָה (ba'arah), meaning “it will burn,” to identify the agent and action of judgment. These terms explicitly tie the destruction to God’s direct intervention rather than incidental warfare.
The thread — The imagery of divine fire consuming thorns and briers recurs in Isaiah 27:4, where God promises to trample and burn those who oppose Him. The motif of fire executing sudden judgment also appears in Numbers 16:35, where fire consumes rebels who challenge God’s appointed authority.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that Assyria’s military strength will be reduced to combustible material before God’s presence. It requires the reader to accept that divine holiness operates as an active force of destruction against opposition, leaving no room for human negotiation or delay.
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
And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day;
Cross-references
- Isaiah 27:4 I am not angry. If only thorns and briers confronted Me, I would march and trample them, I would burn them to the ground.
- Numbers 11:1 Soon the people began to complain about their hardship in the hearing of the LORD, and when He heard them, His anger was kindled, and fire from the LORD blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp.
- Numbers 16:35 And fire came forth from the LORD and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.
- Isaiah 37:23 Whom have you taunted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!
- Jeremiah 4:4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and people of Jerusalem. Otherwise, My wrath will break out like fire and burn with no one to extinguish it, because of your evil deeds.”
- Jeremiah 7:20 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the produce of the land, and it will burn and not be extinguished.
- Nahum 1:10 For they will be entangled as with thorns and consumed like the drink of a drunkard—like stubble that is fully dry.
- Revelation 22:5 There will be no more night in the city, and they will have no need for the light of a lamp or of the sun. For the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever.
- Psalms 18:8 Smoke rose from His nostrils, and consuming fire came from His mouth; glowing coals blazed forth.
- Psalms 21:9 You will place them in a fiery furnace at the time of Your appearing. In His wrath the LORD will engulf them, and the fire will consume them.