Bible Strands
Isaiah 47:14
Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. There will be no coals to warm them or fire to sit beside.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet addresses the personified city of Babylon, pronouncing judgment on her astrologers and counselors after Yahweh has decreed her fall. This declaration follows a direct challenge to her advisors to come forward and save her in Isaiah 47:13.
The words — The Hebrew כְּקַשׁ (khe./Kash) literally means "like chaff," while יַצִּילוּ (ya.Tzi.lu) translates "they will deliver." These terms establish that the advisors will be consumed and utterly incapable of self-preservation.
The thread — This imagery of divine consumption appears in Nahum 1:10, Malachi 4:1, and Isaiah 10:17, where God’s judgment consistently reduces human arrogance to dry stubble. The motif reinforces that no earthly strategy withstands divine fire.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that human expertise and alliances cannot avert divine judgment. It requires the reader to abandon reliance on self-sufficient counsel and acknowledge God’s sovereign control over outcomes.
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
Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.
Cross-references
- Nahum 1:10 For they will be entangled as with thorns and consumed like the drink of a drunkard—like stubble that is fully dry.
- Malachi 4:1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”
- Isaiah 10:17 And the Light of Israel will become a fire, and its Holy One a flame. In a single day it will burn and devour Assyria’s thorns and thistles.
- Ezekiel 15:7 And I will set My face against them. Though they may have escaped the fire, yet another fire will consume them. And when I set My face against them, you will know that I am the LORD.
- Isaiah 41:2 Who has aroused one from the east and called him to his feet in righteousness? He hands nations over to him and subdues kings before him. He turns them to dust with his sword, to windblown chaff with his bow.
- Matthew 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
- Psalms 83:13 Make them like tumbleweed, O my God, like chaff before the wind.
- Isaiah 5:24 Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes the straw, and as dry grass shrivels in the flame, so their roots will decay and their blossoms will blow away like dust; for they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of Hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
- Isaiah 30:14 It will break in pieces like a potter’s jar, shattered so that no fragment can be found. Not a shard will be found in the dust large enough to scoop the coals from a hearth or to skim the water from a cistern.”
- Isaiah 40:24 No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner have their stems taken root in the ground, than He blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like stubble.