Bible Strands
Isaiah 29:5
But your many foes will be like fine dust, the multitude of the ruthless like blowing chaff. Then suddenly, in an instant,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet addresses Jerusalem, contrasting the city's coming humiliation with the sudden reversal of its oppressing nations. The declaration interrupts a prophecy of divine visitation to restore justice.
The words — כְּאָבַק דַּק (ke-'a.Vak dak) translates literally as "like fine dust," and כְּמֹץ עֹבֵר (khe-Motz 'o.Ver) means "like chaff that passes away." These terms describe the hostile forces as insubstantial and destined for swift dispersion.
The thread — The text describes enemies vanishing like scattered chaff, a pattern repeated in Isaiah 30:13 regarding a collapsing wall, Isaiah 37:36 where an angel strikes the Assyrian camp, and 1 Thessalonians 5:3 where destruction arrives like sudden labor pains.
Why it lands — The passage states that human opposition will be terminated abruptly by divine action rather than human strategy. It requires the reader to abandon reliance on military strength and recognize the certainty of God's intervention.
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
Moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.
Cross-references
- 1 Thessalonians 5:3 While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
- Isaiah 30:13 this iniquity of yours is like a breach about to fail, a bulge in a high wall, whose collapse will come suddenly—in an instant!
- Isaiah 37:36 Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!
- 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.
- Isaiah 31:3 But the Egyptians are men, not God; their horses are flesh, not spirit. When the LORD stretches out His hand, the helper will stumble, and the one he helps will fall; both will perish together.
- Job 21:18 Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a storm?
- Psalms 1:4 Not so the wicked! For they are like chaff driven off by the wind.
- Psalms 35:5 May they be like chaff in the wind, as the angel of the LORD drives them away.
- Psalms 46:5 God is within her; she will not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns.
- Psalms 76:5 The valiant lie plundered; they sleep their last sleep. No men of might could lift a hand.