When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place.
But it shall hail in the downfall of the forest; and the city shall be utterly laid low.
And it hath hailed in the going down of the forest, And in the valley is the city low.
And it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place.
Isaiah — The gospel prophet — a Judean court-prophet across Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (c. 740–700 BC) who sees past Assyria to Babylon and past Babylon to the Messiah. Sixty-six chapters divided into the Book of Judgment (1–39) and the Book of Comfort (40–66), climaxing in the Servant wounded for our transgressions.
Voices7
(Verse 9 and following) Women of wealth, rise up and listen to my voice: confident daughters, hear my words. After days and years, you will be troubled, O confident ones: for the harvest is complete, and there will be no more gathering. O women of wealth, be astounded, be troubled: strip yourselves and be ashamed. As Symmachus interpreted, expose yourselves: it continues. Gird your loins, beat your breasts, over the desirable region, over the fertile vineyard: over the ground of my people, thorns and thistles will grow: how much more over all the houses of the joyful city?
Jerome· Commentary on Isaiah, 420patristic
Hail, namely, of tribulation, in the descent of the forest, that is, it shall descend from the Lord upon your enemies; the city, Ninive, above: the high city he shall lay low (Isa 26:5).
Thomas Aquinas· Commentary on Isaiah, 1274patristic
When it shall hail, coming down on the forest,....
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed
When it shall hail - Hebrew, ברדת ברד bârad beredeth - And it shall hail in coming down. There is a paranomasia in the original here, which cannot be expressed in a translation - a figure of speech, which, as we have seen, is common in Isaiah. Hail is an image of divine vengeance or punishment; and the reference here is, doubtless, to the storms of indignation that would come on the enemies of the Jews, particularly on the Assyrians (see the notes at Isa 30:30).
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)evangelical
Address to the women of Jerusalem who troubled themselves little about the political signs of the times, but lived a life of self-indulgence (Isa 3:16-23); the failure of food through the devastations of the enemy is here foretold, being what was most likely to affect them as mothers of families, heretofore accustomed to every luxury.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871reformed
The city - Jerusalem, which, though now it was the seat of God's worship and people, yet he foresaw, would be the great enemy of the Messiah. Low - Hebrew. shall be humbled with humiliation: shall be greatly humbled, or brought very low.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765evangelical
Those that would dwell in a peaceable habitation must be willing to dwell low, and in a low place. Some think here is an allusion to the preservation of the land of Goshen from the plague of hail, which made great destruction in the land of Egypt.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710puritan
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first — the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Isaiah 30:30And the LORD will cause His majestic voice to be heard and His mighty arm to be revealed, striking in angry wrath with a flame of consuming fire, and with cloudburst, storm, and hailstones.
leads to
you will be visited by the LORD of Hosts with thunder and earthquake and loud noise, with windstorm and tempest and consuming flame of fire.
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
Behold, the Lord has one who is strong and mighty. Like a hailstorm or destructive tempest, like a driving rain or flooding downpour, he will smash that crown to the ground.
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple. And there were flashes of lightning, and rumblings, and peals of thunder, and an earthquake,…
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded— hailstones and coals of fire.
Through
Isaiah 28:17I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the level. Hail will sweep away your refuge of lies, and water will flood your hiding place.
leads to
I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line used against the house of Ahab, and I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes out a bowl—wiping…
Through
Isaiah 26:5For 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.
leads to
And he cried out in a mighty voice: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a lair for demons and a haunt for every unclean spirit, every unclean bird, and every detestable…
Unleash the fury of your wrath; look on every proud man and bring him low.
Babylon will become a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals, an object of horror and scorn, without inhabitant.
The whole web at once: see the Arc.
The verses this one reaches12
I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the level. Hail will sweep away your refuge of lies, and water will flood your hiding place.
And the LORD will cause His majestic voice to be heard and His mighty arm to be revealed, striking in angry wrath with a flame of consuming fire, and with cloudburst, storm, and hailstones.
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.
Behold, the Lord has one who is strong and mighty. Like a hailstorm or destructive tempest, like a driving rain or flooding downpour, he will smash that crown to the ground.
Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen;the majestic trees are ruined!Wail, O oaks of Bashan,for the dense forest has been cut down!
Then the first angel sounded his trumpet, and hail and fire mixed with blood were hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, along with a third of the trees and all the green grass.
Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple. And there were flashes of lightning, and rumblings, and peals of thunder, and an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.
Through your servants you have taunted the Lord, and you have said: “With my many chariots I have ascended to the heights of the mountains, to the remote peaks of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the finest of its cypresses. I have reached its farthest heights, the densest of its forests.
Then a mighty angel picked up a stone the size of a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying: “With such violence the great city of Babylon will be cast down, never to be seen again.
“I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD of Hosts. “I will cut off from Babylon her name and her remnant, her offspring and her posterity,” declares the LORD.
This is the burden against Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite:
For the fortified city lies deserted— a homestead abandoned, a wilderness forsaken. There the calves graze, and there they lie down; they strip its branches bare.
8 more linked verses are grouped by book below ↓
Every other verse the study tradition links to this one, in the Bible’s own order. The first links in each book carry a line of their text; every reference opens its full verse page.
Isaiah3
Ezekiel1
Nahum2
Cross-references are drawn from classic Bible study tools and open, shareable Bible data.
