Bible Strands
Isaiah 8:15
Many will stumble over these; they will fall and be broken; they will be ensnared and captured.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Isaiah addresses the houses of Israel and the dwellers of Jerusalem, describing how the divine presence functions as both a sanctuary and a point of division. The prophecy warns that reliance on or rejection of this divine standard will determine their fate.
The words — רַבִּ֑ים (ra.Bim) = many [people] and וְ/נִשְׁבָּ֔רוּ (ve./nish.Ba.ru) = and/ they will be broken. These terms quantify the scope of the disaster and specify the physical ruin that follows rejection of the stated testimony.
The thread — Matthew 21:44 expands the physical consequences of contact with the stone motif. Isaiah 28:13 shows the same divine word becoming a mocking phrase ("Order on order, line on line") to those who refuse it. Luke 20:17 applies the rejected stone motif to Jesus, tracing the division from Psalm 118:22.
Why it lands — The text demands a clear choice: stand on the divine standard or be destroyed by it. It requires readers to stop treating the testimony as optional and recognize it as the irreversible point of human destiny.
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 many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.
Cross-references
- Matthew 21:44 He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”
- Isaiah 28:13 Then the word of the LORD to them will become: “Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line; a little here, a little there,” so that they will go stumbling backward and will be injured, ensnared, and captured.
- Luke 20:17 But Jesus looked directly at them and said, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?
- Isaiah 59:10 Like the blind, we feel our way along the wall, groping like those without eyes. We stumble at midday as in the twilight; among the vigorous we are like the dead.
- Matthew 11:6 Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of Me.”
- Matthew 15:14 Disregard them! They are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”
- John 6:66 From that time on many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him.
- Romans 9:32 Why not? Because their pursuit was not by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,
- 1 Corinthians 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,