Bible Strands
Isaiah 63:6
I trampled the nations in My anger; in My wrath I made them drunk and poured out their blood on the ground.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks as the sole actor of judgment, declaring His action immediately after noting in Isaiah 63:5 that no human helper was found. He addresses the house of Israel at the pivot point between recounting His wrath and recounting His covenant faithfulness in Isaiah 63:7.
The words — The Hebrew verbs אָבַס (avus) and שָׁכַר (shakar) literally mean "tread down" and "make drunk," describing the physical pouring of enemy blood (nitz'ham) to the ground. The text states God's direct, violent execution of judgment before any interpretive framework of retribution is applied.
The thread — The image of oppressors drunk on their own blood appears in Isaiah 49:26, and the motif of undiluted wine of God's wrath is echoed in Revelation 14:10 and the collapse of nations in Revelation 16:19. The thread tracks a consistent scriptural pattern of divine vengeance moving from prophetic declaration to apocalyptic realization.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to acknowledge that divine justice operates without human assistance and that God's wrath is an active, completed event. It asks for a clear-eyed assessment of accountability without softening the text's declaration of physical retribution.
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
And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 49:26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine. Then all mankind will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
- Revelation 14:10 he too will drink the wine of God’s anger, poured undiluted into the cup of His wrath. And he will be tormented in fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb.
- Revelation 16:19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. And God remembered Babylon the great and gave her the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath.
- Job 21:20 Let his eyes see his own destruction; let him drink for himself the wrath of the Almighty.
- Psalms 60:3 You have shown Your people hardship; we are staggered from the wine You made us drink.
- Psalms 75:8 For a cup is in the hand of the LORD, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours from His cup, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to the dregs.
- Isaiah 25:10 For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain. But Moab will be trampled in his place as straw is trodden into the dung pile.
- Isaiah 26:5 For He has humbled those who dwell on high; He lays the lofty city low. He brings it down to the ground; He casts it into the dust.
- Isaiah 29:9 Stop and be astonished; blind yourselves and be sightless; be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not from strong drink.
- Isaiah 51:21 Therefore now hear this, you afflicted one, drunken, but not with wine.