Isaiah 64:2
◄  Isaiah 64:2  ►
New International Version (©2011)
As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you!

New Living Translation (©2007)
As fire causes wood to burn and water to boil, your coming would make the nations tremble. Then your enemies would learn the reason for your fame!

English Standard Version (©2001)
as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence!

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
As fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil-- To make Your name known to Your adversaries, That the nations may tremble at Your presence!

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence!

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
as fire kindles the brushwood, and fire causes water to boil-- to make Your name known to Your enemies, so that nations will tremble at Your presence!

International Standard Version (©2012)
just as fire sets twigs ablaze and the fire causes water to boil— to make known your name to your enemies, yes, to your enemies before you, so that the nations might quake at your presence!

NET Bible (©2006)
As when fire ignites dry wood, or fire makes water boil, let your adversaries know who you are, and may the nations shake at your presence!

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Be like the fire that kindles brushwood and makes water boil. Come down to make your name known to your enemies. The nations will tremble in your presence.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
As when the melting fire burns, the fire causes the waters to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence!

American King James Version
As when the melting fire burns, the fire causes the waters to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence!

American Standard Version
as when fire kindleth the brushwood, and the fire causeth the waters to boil; to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence!

Douay-Rheims Bible
They would melt as at the burning of fire, the waters would burn with fire, that thy name might be made known to thy enemies: that the nations might tremble at thy presence.

Darby Bible Translation
as fire kindleth brushwood, as the fire causeth water to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations might tremble at thy presence!

English Revised Version
as when fire kindleth the brushwood, and the fire causeth the waters to boil: to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence.

Webster's Bible Translation
As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thy adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence!

World English Bible
as when fire kindles the brushwood, [and] the fire causes the waters to boil; to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence!

Young's Literal Translation
(As fire kindleth stubble -- Fire causeth water to boil,) To make known Thy name to Thine adversaries, From Thy presence do nations tremble.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

64:1-5 They desire that God would manifest himself to them and for them, so that all may see it. This is applicable to the second coming of Christ, when the Lord himself shall descend from heaven. They plead what God had used to do, and had declared his gracious purpose to do, for his people. They need not fear being disappointed of it, for it is sure; or disappointed in it, for it is sufficient. The happiness of his people is bound up in what God has designed for them, and is preparing for them, and preparing them for; what he has done or will do. Can we believe this, and then think any thing too great to expect from his truth, power, and love? It is spiritual and cannot be comprehended by human understanding. It is ever ready. See what communion there is between a gracious God and a gracious soul. We must make conscience of doing our duty in every thing the Lord our God requires. Thou meetest him; this speaks his freeness and forwardness in doing them good. Though God has been angry with us for our sins, and justly, yet his anger has soon ended; but in his favour is life, which goes on and continues, and on that we depend for our salvation.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - As when the melting fire burneth, etc.; rather, as when fire kindles brushwood, and makes water to boil. Connect the similes with the last clause of ver. 1. The mountains shall be as powerless to resist Jehovah, as brushwood or water to resist fire. To make thy Name known (comp. Isaiah 63:12). Such an "epiphany" as the Church prays for would make the Name of Jehovah known far and wide, exalting him high above all gods, and causing "the nations" - i.e. the whole heathen world - to "tremble at his presence" and refrain from injuring his people.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

As when the melting fire burneth,.... Or, "the fire of melting" (k); a strong vehement fire, as Kimchi, such as is used under a furnace for melting metals; though De Dieu thinks a slow gentle fire is intended, such as is sufficient to keep the liquor boiling; which he concludes from the use of the word in the Arabic language, which, according to an Arabic lexicographer (l) he quotes, so signifies; and to the same purpose Hottinger (m), by the help of the Arabic language, interprets the word of a small low noise, the hissing of a boiling pot; though, as Vitringa observes, could it be granted, which can not, that a slow fire raises great bubbles in water, such as when it boils; yet the fire, with which God consumes his enemies, in a figurative sense, is represented as most vehement and noisy. It seems much better, with R. Jonah, quoted by Kimchi, to understand it of "dry stubble", which makes a great blaze and noise, and causes water to boil and rise up in bubbles; and with this agree some other versions, which render it by "bavins" (n), dry sticks and branches of trees; which being kindled,

the fire causeth the waters to boil; as the fire, under the pot, causes the waters to boil in it; the church here prays that the wrath of God might break forth upon his and her enemies, like fire that melts metals, and boils water. The figures used seem to denote the fierceness and vehemency of it. The Targum is,

"as when thou sendedst thine anger as fire in the days of Elijah, the sea was melted, the fire licked up the water;''

as if the allusion was to the affair in 1 Kings 18:38, but rather the allusion is, as Kimchi and others think, to the fire that burnt on Mount Sinai, when the Lord descended on it, and the cloud which flowed with water, as the above writer supposes, and which both together caused the smoke:

to make thy name known to thine adversaries; his terrible name, in the destruction of them; his power and his glory:

that the nations may tremble at thy presence; as Sinai trembled when the Lord was on it; and as the antichristian states will when Christ appears, and the vials of his wrath will be poured out; and the Lord's people will be delivered, and the Jews particularly converted.

(k) "ignis liquefactionum", Calvin, Vatablus; "igne liquationum", Cocceius. (l) Eliduri in Lexico Arabico tradit "significare quemvis lenem et submissum strepitum", De Dieu. (m) "Quemadmodum accenso igne fit lenis submissusque strepitus, sibilus et stridor ferventis ollae, et ignis excitat bullas", Hottinger. Smegma Orientale, I. 1. c. 7. p. 146. (n) "Quemadmodum conflagrante igne cremia", Junius & Tremellius; "nam quum accendit ignis cremia", Piscator; "sicut ardente igne ex ramalibus", Grotius; "ut ignis cremia consumens strepero motu exsilit", Vitringa.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. Oh, that Thy wrath would consume Thy foes as the fire. Rather, "as the fire burneth the dry brushwood" [Gesenius].

Isaiah 64:2 Parallel Commentaries

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Prayer for Illustration of God's Power
1Oh that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might flow down at your presence, 2As when the melting fire burns, the fire causes the waters to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence! 3When you did terrible things which we looked not for, you came down, the mountains flowed down at your presence. …

Psalm 99:1 The LORD reigns, let the nations tremble; he sits enthroned between the cherubim, let the earth shake.
Jeremiah 5:22 Should you not fear me?" declares the LORD. "Should you not tremble in my presence? I made the sand a boundary for the sea, an everlasting barrier it cannot cross. The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail; they may roar, but they cannot cross it.
Jeremiah 33:9 Then this city will bring me renown, joy, praise and honor before all nations on earth that hear of all the good things I do for it; and they will be in awe and will tremble at the abundant prosperity and peace I provide for it.'
Amos 4:12 "Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel, and because I will do this to you, Israel, prepare to meet your God."
Micah 1:4 The mountains melt beneath him and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope.
Zechariah 14:4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south.