Isaiah 9:18
New International Version
Surely wickedness burns like a fire; it consumes briers and thorns, it sets the forest thickets ablaze, so that it rolls upward in a column of smoke.

New Living Translation
This wickedness is like a brushfire. It burns not only briers and thorns but also sets the forests ablaze. Its burning sends up clouds of smoke.

English Standard Version
For wickedness burns like a fire; it consumes briers and thorns; it kindles the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke.

Berean Standard Bible
For wickedness burns like a fire that consumes the thorns and briers and kindles the forest thickets which roll upward in billows of smoke.

King James Bible
For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.

New King James Version
For wickedness burns as the fire; It shall devour the briers and thorns, And kindle in the thickets of the forest; They shall mount up like rising smoke.

New American Standard Bible
For wickedness burns like a fire; It consumes briars and thorns; It also sets the thickets of the forest aflame And they roll upward in a column of smoke.

NASB 1995
For wickedness burns like a fire; It consumes briars and thorns; It even sets the thickets of the forest aflame And they roll upward in a column of smoke.

NASB 1977
For wickedness burns like a fire; It consumes briars and thorns; It even sets the thickets of the forest aflame, And they roll upward in a column of smoke.

Legacy Standard Bible
For wickedness burns like a fire; It consumes briars and thorns; It even sets the thickets of the forest aflame, And they roll upward in a column of smoke.

Amplified Bible
For wickedness burns like a fire; It consumes briars and thorns, It even sets the forest thickets ablaze; And it swirls upward in a column of smoke.

Christian Standard Bible
For wickedness burns like a fire that consumes thorns and briers and kindles the forest thickets so that they go up in a column of smoke.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
For wickedness burns like a fire that consumes thorns and briers and kindles the forest thickets so that they go up in a column of smoke.

American Standard Version
For wickedness burneth as the fire; it devoureth the briers and thorns; yea, it kindleth in the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Because sin burned as fire and it will devour a thicket and thorns, and it shall continue into the branches of the forest, and the chosen ones shall be engulfed in smoke

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And iniquity shall burn as fire, and shall be devoured by fire as dry grass: and it shall burn in the thickets of the wood, and shall devour all that is round about the hills.

Contemporary English Version
Evil had spread like a raging forest fire sending thornbushes up in smoke.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For wickedness is kindled as a fire, it shall devour the brier and the thorn: and shall kindle in the thicket of the forest, and it shall be wrapped up in smoke ascending on high.

English Revised Version
For wickedness burneth as the fire; it devoureth the briers and thorns: yea, it kindleth in the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in thick clouds of smoke.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Surely wickedness burns like fire. It burns up briars and thorns. It sets the underbrush in the forest on fire, and it whirls upward in clouds of smoke.

Good News Translation
The wickedness of the people burns like a fire that destroys thorn bushes and thistles. It burns like a forest fire that sends up columns of smoke.

International Standard Version
"For wickedness has burned like a blaze that consumes briers and thorns; it sets thickets of the forest on fire, and skyward they swirl in a column of smoke.

JPS Tanakh 1917
For wickedness burneth as the fire; It devoureth the briers and thorns; Yea, it kindleth in the thickets of the forest, And they roll upward in thick clouds of smoke.

Literal Standard Version
For wickedness has burned as a fire, | It devours brier and thorn, | And it kindles in thickets of the forest, | And they lift themselves up, an exaltation of smoke!

Majority Standard Bible
For wickedness burns like a fire that consumes the thorns and briers and kindles the forest thickets which roll upward in billows of smoke.

New American Bible
For wickedness burns like fire, devouring brier and thorn; It kindles the forest thickets, which go up in columns of smoke.

NET Bible
For evil burned like a fire, it consumed thorns and briers; it burned up the thickets of the forest, and they went up in smoke.

New Revised Standard Version
For wickedness burned like a fire, consuming briers and thorns; it kindled the thickets of the forest, and they swirled upward in a column of smoke.

New Heart English Bible
For wickedness burns like a fire. It devours the briers and thorns; yes, it kindles in the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke.

Webster's Bible Translation
For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the rising of smoke.

World English Bible
For wickedness burns like a fire. It devours the briers and thorns; yes, it kindles in the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke.

Young's Literal Translation
For burned as a fire hath wickedness, Brier and thorn it devoureth, And it kindleth in thickets of the forest, And they lift themselves up, an exaltation of smoke!

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Judgment Against Israel's Unrepentance
18For wickedness burns like a fire that consumes the thorns and briers and kindles the forest thickets which roll upward in billows of smoke. 19By the wrath of the LORD of Hosts the land is scorched, and the people are fuel for the fire. No man even spares his brother.…

Cross References
Psalm 68:2
As smoke is blown away, You will drive them out; as wax melts before the fire, the wicked will perish in the presence of God.

Psalm 83:14
As fire consumes a forest, as a flame sets the mountains ablaze,

Isaiah 1:7
Your land is desolate; your cities are burned with fire. Foreigners devour your fields before you--a desolation demolished by strangers.

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 26:11
O LORD, Your hand is upraised, but they do not see it. They will see Your zeal for Your people and be put to shame. The fire set for Your enemies will consume them!

Isaiah 33:14
The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling grips the ungodly: "Who of us can dwell with a consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting flames?"

Isaiah 50:11
Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who array yourselves with firebrands, walk in the light of your fire and of the firebrands you have lit! This is what you will receive from My hand: You will lie down in a place of torment.


Treasury of Scripture

For wickedness burns as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.

wickedness

Isaiah 1:31
And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.

Isaiah 30:30,33
And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones…

Isaiah 33:12
And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.

it shall

Isaiah 10:16-18
Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire…

Isaiah 27:4
Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.

Hebrews 6:8
But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.

shall kindle

Ezekiel 20:47,48
And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein…

mount

Isaiah 5:24
Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Psalm 37:20
But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.

Hosea 13:3
Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.

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Ablaze Aflame Blackberries Briars Brier Briers Burned Burneth Burns Clouds Column Consumes Dark Devour Devoureth Devours Evil Exaltation Fire Forest Kindle Kindles Kindleth Lifting Mount Pillar Rising Roll Rolling Sets Smoke Surely Themselves Thick Thickets Thorns Upward Wickedness Woods
Isaiah 9
1. What joy shall be in the midst of afflictions, by the birth and kingdom of Christ
8. The judgments upon Israel for their pride
13. For their hypocrisy
18. And for their unrepentance














(18) It shall devour the briers and thorns . . .--The words are obviously figurative for men who were base and vile, as in 2Samuel 23:6; but the figure may have been suggested by Isaiah 7:23-24. The outward desolation, with its rank growth of underwood, was to the prophet's eye a type of the moral condition of his people. And for such a people sin becomes the punishment of sin, and burns like a fire in a forest thicket, leaving the land clear for fresh culture and a better growth. (Comp. Isaiah 33:11-12; James 3:5; Hebrews 6:8.)

Verse 18. - Wickedness burneth as the fire; i.e. the contagion of wickedness overspreads a whole nation in the same rapid way that fire spreads over a field of stubble or a forest. They shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke; rather, they - i.e., the forest thickets - shall be whirled upward with the uplifting of smoke. The burning thickets shall mount up with the volumes of smoke into the air, and hang there as a murky but lurid pall. The flames of wickedness give no light to a land, but lunge it in heavy, hopeless gloom.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
For
כִּֽי־ (kî-)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

wickedness
רִשְׁעָ֔ה (riš·‘āh)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 7564: Wickedness

burns
בָעֲרָ֤ה (ḇā·‘ă·rāh)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 1197: To kindle, consume, to be, brutish

like a fire
כָאֵשׁ֙ (ḵā·’êš)
Preposition-k, Article | Noun - common singular
Strong's 784: A fire

that consumes
תֹּאכֵ֑ל (tō·ḵêl)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 398: To eat

the thorns
וָשַׁ֖יִת (wā·ša·yiṯ)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 7898: Scrub, trash, wild growth of weeds, briers

and briers
שָׁמִ֥יר (šā·mîr)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 8068: A thorn, a gem, the diamond

and kindles
וַתִּצַּת֙ (wat·tiṣ·ṣaṯ)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 3341: To burn, set on fire, to desolate

the forest
הַיַּ֔עַר (hay·ya·‘ar)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3293: A copse of bushes, a forest, honey in the comb

thickets
בְּסִֽבְכֵ֣י (bə·siḇ·ḵê)
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 5442: A thicket

which roll upward
וַיִּֽתְאַבְּכ֖וּ (way·yiṯ·’ab·bə·ḵū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hitpael - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 55: To coil upward

in columns
גֵּא֥וּת (gê·’ūṯ)
Noun - feminine singular construct
Strong's 1348: Arrogance, majesty, ornament

of smoke.
עָשָֽׁן׃ (‘ā·šān)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 6227: Smoke


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OT Prophets: Isaiah 9:18 For wickedness burns like a fire (Isa Isi Is)
Isaiah 9:17
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