Bible Strands
Isaiah 22:18
roll you into a ball, and sling you into a wide land. There you will die, and there your glorious chariots will remain—a disgrace to the house of your master.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet delivers a divine oracle to Shebna, the royal steward, during a time of Judah's political vulnerability. The speech occurs immediately after God declares He will violently shake and seize the official.
The words — The text employs כַּדּ֕וּר (ka.Dur), literally "a ball," to depict forced compression and helplessness. This builds on the root צָנ֤וֹף (tza.Nof), meaning "to wind up," which conveys being tightly bound and carried away against one's will.
The thread — The theme of divine shaking and scattering appears in Isaiah 17:13, where rebuked nations flee like chaff driven by the wind. The pattern of sudden removal from office and national disgrace recurs in Amos 7:17, which predicts exile and family ruin for those opposing God's authority.
Why it lands — The passage demands acknowledgment that military prestige and political office are subject to divine judgment. It requires readers to abandon reliance on human alliances and accept accountability for leadership failures.
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
He will surely violently turn and toss thee like a ball into a large country: there shalt thou die, and there the chariots of thy glory shall be the shame of thy lord’s house.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 17:13 The nations rage like the rush of many waters. He rebukes them, and they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweeds before a gale.
- Amos 7:17 Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be divided by a measuring line, and you yourself will die on pagan soil. And Israel will surely go into exile, away from their homeland.’”