Bible Strands
Isaiah 13:12
I will make man scarcer than pure gold, and mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The speaker is Yahweh pronouncing judgment during a moment of impending cosmic disturbance and divine wrath. He addresses humanity collectively as the direct target of this coming scarcity.
The words — אֱנ֖וֹשׁ ('e.No.osh) = humankind and מִ/פָּ֑ז (mi./Paz) = more than/ pure gold anchor the verse’s comparative structure.
The thread — This motif of extreme scarcity and unvaluable wealth runs through the desperate social breakdown in Isaiah 4:1, the curse consuming earth’s inhabitants in Isaiah 24:6, and the declaration that wisdom cannot be purchased with the gold of Ophir in Job 28:16.
Why it lands — The text states that human life will become harder to find than the most precious metals. It requires the reader to acknowledge that divine judgment strips away all worldly security and reduces human value to nothing.
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
I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 4:1 In that day seven women will take hold of one man and say, “We will eat our own bread and provide our own clothes. Just let us be called by your name. Take away our disgrace!”
- Isaiah 24:6 Therefore a curse has consumed the earth, and its inhabitants must bear the guilt; the earth’s dwellers have been burned, and only a few survive.
- Job 28:16 It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire.
- Psalms 137:9 Blessed is he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.
- Isaiah 13:15 Whoever is caught will be stabbed, and whoever is captured will die by the sword.