Bible Strands
Isaiah 3:11
Woe to the wicked; disaster is upon them! For they will be repaid with what their hands have done.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet Isaiah pronounces this oracle to Judah during a period of national collapse, placing it between a promise of peace for the righteous and a condemnation of corrupt civic leadership.
The words — גְמ֥וּל (ge.Mul) denotes the exact dealing or reckoning due, while יָדָ֖י/ו (ya.Da/v) specifies "his hands," emphasizing personal agency in the coming judgment.
The thread — This principle of measured retribution echoes in Ecclesiastes 8:13, which warns that unrepentant wickedness shortens life, and James 2:13, which notes that judgment without mercy falls on those who showed none.
Why it lands — The text declares that disaster will strike the wicked precisely because they will receive the exact consequences their own actions produced, demanding acknowledgment of personal responsibility before divine justice.
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
Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.
Cross-references
- Ecclesiastes 8:13 Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.
- James 2:13 For judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
- Psalms 120:3 What will He do to you, and what will be added to you, O deceitful tongue?
- Psalms 28:4 Repay them according to their deeds and for their works of evil. Repay them for what their hands have done; bring back on them what they deserve.
- Psalms 62:12 and loving devotion to You, O Lord. For You will repay each man according to his deeds.
- Proverbs 1:31 So they will eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
- Isaiah 48:22 “There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.”
- Isaiah 65:13 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: “My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; My servants will drink, but you will go thirsty; My servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame.
- Isaiah 65:20 No longer will a nursing infant live but a few days, or an old man fail to live out his years. For the youth will die at a hundred years, and he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.
- Deuteronomy 28:15 If, however, you do not obey the LORD your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: