Bible Strands
Isaiah 32:15
until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high. Then the desert will be an orchard, and the orchard will seem like a forest.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks through Isaiah to Judah at the hinge between judgment (v. 14) and restoration (v. 16). This verse is the pivot: the condition that must be met before desolation yields to fertility.
The words — רוּחַ (rûaḥ, H7307) carries the range "wind, breath, spirit"; here it is the agent whose outpouring converts the wilderness. The verb יֵעָרֶה (yēʿārēh, H6168) is a passive form — "it will be poured out" — leaving the pourer unnamed but clearly divine.
The thread — Isaiah 29:17 uses nearly identical imagery (Lebanon → orchard → forest); Isaiah 44:3 and Ezekiel 39:29 both pair the Spirit's outpouring with a specific people and a specific promise.
Why it lands — The verse makes the Spirit's outpouring a precondition, not a bonus: without it, the desert stays a desert. It asks the reader to hold that the same power that renews a landscape is the power that renews a people, and that neither happens apart from it.
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
Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 29:17 In a very short time, will not Lebanon become an orchard, and the orchard seem like a forest?
- Ezekiel 39:29 And I will no longer hide My face from them, for I will pour out My Spirit on the house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD.”
- Isaiah 44:3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and currents on the dry ground. I will pour out My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring.
- Titus 3:5 He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
- Luke 24:49 And behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you. But remain in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
- Isaiah 59:19 So shall they fear the name of the LORD where the sun sets, and His glory where it rises. For He will come like a raging flood, driven by the breath of the LORD.
- Joel 2:28 And afterward, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
- Isaiah 11:2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him—the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the LORD.
- Zechariah 12:10 Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
- Acts 2:33 Exalted, then, to the right hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.