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Isaiah 33:11

in Isaiah 33

You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble. Your breath is a fire that will consume you.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble: your breath is a fire that shall devour you.

KJV

Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you.

This verse in Isaiah 33

Commentary

9 notes on this verse
Ye shall conceive chaff - An address of God to the Assyrians. The figure is one that denotes that their counsels would be in vain. Chaff and stubble are used in the Scriptures, in contrast with grain, to denote anything which is not solid, nutritious, or substantial; then anything which is frivolous, useless, vain. A similar image occurs in Isa 26:18 (see the note on that place; compare Isa 59:4).

This site's exposition

Now I will arise

on Isaiah 33:10-12

The LORD answers the ruin with His own rising: "Now I will arise". He tells the enemy, "You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble". Matthew Henry read "The peoples will be burned to ashes, like thorns cut down and set ablaze" as swift and total destruction.

This site's exposition

You conceive chaff

The LORD now speaks to the Assyrians. Barnes read the birth figure as plans that come to nothing, for chaff and stubble are the worthless leavings of the harvest. Isaiah used a like picture at 26:18.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Isaiah · Written before 420.

proposed

(Verse 7 and following) Behold, those who see will cry out: The angels of peace will weep bitterly. The roads are abandoned, the passer-by has ceased on the path, the pact has become void, cities have been thrown down, men have not been regarded. The land has mourned and languished, Lebanon is confused and darkened, Sharon has become like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel have been shaken.

The Medieval Church1 voice

A commentator

Thomas Aquinas

Commentary on Isaiah · Written before 1274.

proposed

Second, he sets out the frustrated counsel of the Assyrians: you shall conceive heat, that is, you shall think that others burn; you shall bring forth stubble, that is, it shall follow that you yourself shall be burned; your breath, that is, your indignation, shall …

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

When the sinners in Zion saw what dreadful execution the wrath of God made they were in a great fright, being conscious to themselves that they had provoked this God by their secretly worshipping other gods; and therefore they cry out, Who among us shall dwell with this devouring fire, before which so vast an army is as thorns?

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Encouragement to God's People. 13 Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done; and, ye that are near, acknowledge my might. 14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites.

quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — scripture-overlap:88%@v12-14

Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble,....
1 more voice on this verse

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

Your breath “And my spirit” - “For רוחכם ruchechem, your spirit, read רוחי כמו ruchi kemo. “Secker. Which reading is confirmed by the Chaldee, where מימרי meymri, “my word, “answers to רוחי ruchi, “my spirit.”

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

chaff (חֲשַׁשׁ) a kind of chaff, something that is easily ignited.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Isaiah 33:11:1, via Sefaria, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
Now I will rise Because of the many evils the enemy perpetrated against My people, I will no longer restrain Myself; now I will rise, be raised and be exalted.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Isaiah 33:10:1, via Sefaria, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

7 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • תַּהֲר֥וּyou will conceive

    taharuH2029 →43 times

  • חֲשַׁ֖שׁdry grass

    chashashH2842 →

  • תֵּ֣לְדוּyou will give birth to

    teleduH3205 →496 times

  • קַ֑שׁstubble

    kashH7179 →16 times

  • רוּחֲכֶ֕םbreath your

    ruchakhemH7307 →378 times

  • אֵ֖שׁ[is] a fire

    ʾeshH784 →378 times

  • תֹּאכַלְכֶֽם׃[which] it will consume you

    tokhalkhemH398 →810 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    James 1:15

    Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

    it leads to

    • Job 15:35

      They conceive trouble and give birth to evil; their womb is pregnant with deceit.”

      Reached by 3 separate paths from here.

    • Psalms 7:14

      Behold, the wicked man travails with evil; he conceives trouble and births falsehood.

    • Romans 5:12–21

      Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.

    • Genesis 2:17

      but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”

    • Isaiah 59:4

      No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case honestly. They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.

  • Through

    Psalms 7:14

    Behold, the wicked man travails with evil; he conceives trouble and births falsehood.

    it leads to

    • James 1:15

      Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Isaiah 59:4–5

      No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case honestly. They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.

  • Through

    Isaiah 59:4

    No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case honestly. They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.

    it leads to

    • Micah 7:2–5

      The godly man has perished from the earth; there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt one another with a net.

Where this verse is studied

On this page

Studies1

About Isaiah

The Prophet Isaiah, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Prophet Isaiah, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Isaiah; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.