Bible Strands
Psalms 18:8
Smoke rose from His nostrils, and consuming fire came from His mouth; glowing coals blazed forth.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — David addresses God, describing the immediate aftermath of his cry for help. The verse captures the moment Yahweh responds to the earth's shaking and the mountains' trembling with visible wrath.
The words — עָשָׁן (ʿāšān, smoke) and אֵשׁ (ʾēš, fire) denote the physical emissions rising from His nostrils and mouth. תּוֹאכֵל (tōʾāḵēl, it consumed) and בָּעֲרוּ (bāʿărû, they burned) specify the active destruction of the glowing coals.
The thread — The same imagery of fire and coals descending from God appears in Psalms 11:6, Psalms 21:9, and Nahum 1:5 as a consistent judgment motif. This verse sits between the earth's quake in Psalms 18:7 and the dark cloud descent in Psalms 18:9, forming a continuous theophanic sequence.
Why it lands — The text states that divine anger manifests as physical smoke, fire, and burning coals rather than remaining abstract. It requires the reader to acknowledge that God's wrath operates as an immediate, earth-altering force.
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
There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.
Cross-references
- Psalms 21:9 You will place them in a fiery furnace at the time of Your appearing. In His wrath the LORD will engulf them, and the fire will consume them.
- Psalms 11:6 On the wicked He will rain down fiery coals and sulfur; a scorching wind will be their portion.
- Nahum 1:5 The mountains quake before Him, and the hills melt away; the earth trembles at His presence—the world and all its dwellers.
- Genesis 19:28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and he saw the smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace.
- Leviticus 10:2 So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died in the presence of the LORD.
- Numbers 16:35 And fire came forth from the LORD and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.
- Psalms 144:5 Part Your heavens, O LORD, and come down; touch the mountains, that they may smoke.
- Daniel 7:10 A river of fire was flowing, coming out from His presence. Thousands upon thousands attended Him, and myriads upon myriads stood before Him. The court was convened, and the books were opened.
- Amos 4:11 “Some of you I overthrew as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.
- Numbers 11:1 Soon the people began to complain about their hardship in the hearing of the LORD, and when He heard them, His anger was kindled, and fire from the LORD blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp.