Jeremiah 23:29
27 They suppose the dreams that they tell one another will make My people forget My name, just as their fathers forgot My name through the worship of Baal.
28 Let the prophet who has a dream retell it, but let him who has My word speak it truthfully. For what is straw compared to grain?” declares the LORD.
“Is not My word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that smashes a rock?”
30 “Therefore behold,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who steal from one another words they attribute to Me.”
31 “Yes,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and proclaim, ‘The LORD declares it.’”
Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- “Is not My word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that smashes a rock?”
- KJV
- Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
- WEB
- “Isn’t my word like fire?” says the LORD; “and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
- ASV
- Is not my word like fire? saith Jehovah; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
- DARBY
- Is not my word like a fire, saith Jehovah; and like a hammer [that] breaketh the rock in pieces?
- BLB
- “Is it not thus, My word [is] like the fire,” a declaration of YHWH, “And like a hammer that dashes a rock?”
- ÅB
- Er ikke mitt ord som en ild, sier Herren, og lik en hammer som knuser berg?
- OTB
- "Er ikke mitt ord som ild," sier Herren, "og som en hammer som knuser en stein?
- B1930
- Er ikke mitt ord som en ild, sier Herren, og lik en hammer som knuser berg?
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Read in contextJeremiah 5:14
Therefore this is what the LORD God of Hosts says: “Because you have spoken this word, I will make My words a fire in your mouth and this people the wood it consumes.
Read in contextLuke 24:32
They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us as He spoke with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
Read in contextJeremiah 20:9
If I say, “I will not mention Him or speak any more in His name,” His message becomes a fire burning in my heart, shut up in my bones, and I become weary of holding it in, and I cannot prevail.
Read in context2 Corinthians 10:4–5
The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world. Instead, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
Read in contextRevelation 11:5
If anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone who wants to harm them must be killed.
Read in contextJohn 6:63
The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.
Read in contextActs 2:3
They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.
Read in context