Isaiah 66:16

For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
fire	בָאֵשׁ֙ va.'Esh	H784	fire (literally or figuratively) · preposition with the article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
sword	וּבְחַרְבּ֖וֹ u.ve.char.Bo	H2719	drought · conjunction + preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
LORD	יְהוָ֣ה Yah.weh	H3068	Jehovah · proper noun, a title
plead	נִשְׁפָּ֔ט nish.Pat	H8199	to judge · verb, niphal active participle, masculine singular absolute
flesh	בָּשָׂ֑ר ba.Sar	H1320	flesh (from its freshness) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
slain	חַֽלְלֵ֥י cha.Lei	H2491	pierced (especially to death) · adjective, masculine plural construct
LORD	יְהוָֽה Yah.weh	H3068	Jehovah · proper noun, a title
many	וְרַבּ֖וּ ve.ra.Bu	H7231	properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person common plural

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Ezekiel 38:21-22 And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man’s sword shall be against his brother.
Isaiah 30:30 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…
Ezekiel 39:2-10 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee up…
Isaiah 27:1 In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpe…
Revelation 19:11-21 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge…
Isaiah 34:5-10 For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 66:15–end

These verses, like the pillar of cloud and fire, have a dark side towards the enemies of God's kingdom and all that are rebels against his crown, and a bright side towards his faithful loyal subjects. Probably they refer to the Jews in captivity in Babylon, of whom some are said to have been sent thither for their hurt, and with them God here threatens to proceed in his controversy; they hated to be reformed, and therefore should be ruined by the calamity (Jer 24:9); others were sent thither for their good, and they should have the trouble sanctified to them, should in due time get well through it and see many a good day after it. Many of the expressions here used are accommodated to that gl…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 66:16

Rather, "With fire will Jehovah judge, and with His sword (He will judge) all flesh." The parallelism and collocation of the Hebrew words favor this (Isa 65:12). all flesh--that is, all who are the objects of His wrath. The godly shall be hidden by the Lord in a place of safety away from the scene of judgment (Isa 26:20-21; Psa 31:20; Th1 4:16-17).

Adam Clarke on Isaiah 66:15

The Lord will come with fire "Jehovah shall come as a fire" - For באש baesh, in fire, the Septuagint had in their copy קאש kaesh, as a fire; ὡς πυρ. To render his anger with fury "To breathe forth his anger in a burning heat" - Instead of להשב lehashib, as pointed by the Masoretes, to render, I understand it as להשב lehashshib, to breathe, from נשב nashab.

John Gill on Isaiah 66:16

For by fire, and by his sword, will the Lord plead with all flesh,.... With the Mahometans, the Turks, the Ottoman empire, against whom he will call for a sword, and will rain upon them fire and brimstone, signified by Gog and Magog, Ezekiel 38:22 and with the other antichristian powers at the battle of Armageddon; and when the fourth vial will be poured upon the sun, and men will be scorched with fire; see Revelation 16:8, and the slain of the Lord shall be many; that is, those that will be slain by the Lord, both in the attempt of the Turks to recover the land of Canaan out of the hands of the Jews, possessed of it; whose numbers of slain will be so many, that the burying of them will las…

The Church Fathers

"For he will come like fire." … For he will descend from heaven in the glory of God the Father and with the angels. This is his chariot, as it is praised in the Psalms: "The chariot of the Lord is ten thousand in dimensions with thousands of those rejoicing." For he will come to give judgment in anger and to cast them off with a flame of fire. For "casting off" means rejection, just as he says to those who are dead in their sins, "Depart from me, you evildoers."
— Cyril of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 5:6.66:15-17

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Fire · Frequently employed as an instrument of divine vengeance — Frequently employed as an instrument of divine vengeance
Gentiles · PROPHECIES OF THE CONVERSION OF — PROPHECIES OF THE CONVERSION OF

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Isaiah 66:16

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 66:15–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 66:16

Adam Clarke on Isaiah 66:15

John Gill on Isaiah 66:16

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Isaiah 66:16

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 66:15–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 66:16

Adam Clarke on Isaiah 66:15

John Gill on Isaiah 66:16

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Isaiah 66:16

Keil & Delitzsch on Isaiah 66:16

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Isaiah 66:15-16

Rashi on Isaiah 66:16