Bible Strands
Isaiah 32:13
and for the land of my people, overgrown with thorns and briers—even for every house of merriment in this city of revelry.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Isaiah pronounces judgment on Judah’s leadership and populace immediately after commanding mourning over lost agricultural abundance. The declaration occurs within a prophetic vision contrasting imminent desolation with a future era of righteous governance.
The words — The Hebrew קֹץ (qotz) and שָׁמִיר (shamir) literally denote thornbushes and wild thorns that will grow up (תַּעֲלֶה, ta'aleh) over the territory. These terms specify the physical overgrowth that will replace cultivated fields and festive houses.
The thread — The imagery of thorns and briers overtaking productive land appears in Isaiah 7:23 and Isaiah 22:2, where revelry and agricultural prosperity are similarly linked to impending judgment. The motif traces a consistent prophetic pattern where societal complacency precedes environmental and urban desolation.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that spiritual neglect produces tangible ruin, replacing cultivated order with untamed waste. Readers must confront the direct correlation between collective moral failure and the loss of societal stability.
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
Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city:
Cross-references
- Isaiah 22:2 O city of commotion, O town of revelry? Your slain did not die by the sword, nor were they killed in battle.
- Hosea 9:6 For even if they flee destruction, Egypt will gather them and Memphis will bury them. Their precious silver will be taken over by thistles, and thorns will overrun their tents.
- Isaiah 7:23 And on that day, in every place that had a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver, only briers and thorns will be found.
- Isaiah 34:13 Her towers will be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She will become a haunt for jackals, an abode for ostriches.
- Psalms 107:34 and fruitful land into fields of salt, because of the wickedness of its dwellers.
- Isaiah 5:6 I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and thorns and briers will grow up. I will command the clouds that rain shall not fall on it.”
- Isaiah 6:11 Then I asked: “How long, O Lord?” And He replied: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left unoccupied and the land is desolate and ravaged,
- Isaiah 22:12 On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth.
- Jeremiah 39:8 The Chaldeans set fire to the palace of the king and to the houses of the people, and they broke down the walls of Jerusalem.
- Hosea 10:8 The high places of Aven will be destroyed—it is the sin of Israel; thorns and thistles will overgrow their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” and to the hills, “Fall on us!”