Isaiah 30:13

13 this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant.

Isaiah 30:13 in Other Translations

KJV
13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.
ESV
13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;
NLT
13 calamity will come upon you suddenly— like a bulging wall that bursts and falls. In an instant it will collapse and come crashing down.
MSG
13 This perverse way of life will be like a towering, badly built wall That slowly, slowly tilts and shifts, and then one day, without warning, collapses -
CSB
13 this iniquity of yours will be like a spreading breach, a bulge in a high wall whose collapse will come very suddenly.

Isaiah 30:13 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 30:13

Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready
to fall
Or, "as a falling breach" F13; contempt of the word of God, and trusting in wickedness, rejecting the counsel of God, and placing confidence in the creature, these would be the cause of ruin; which ruin is signified by the breach of a falling wall, or by a breach in a wall, by reason of which it is in danger of falling, and is just ready to fall: swelling out in a high wall;
like a wall that bellies out and bulges, and which, when it once begins to do, suddenly falls; and the higher it is, it comes with more force, and the greater is the fall: whose breaking cometh suddenly, at an instant;
and so it is suggested, should be the ruin of this people; the high towering confidence they had in Egypt would fall with its own weight, and they with it, and be broken to pieces in a moment; and which is further illustrated by another simile.


FOOTNOTES:

F13 (lpwn Urpk) "sicut ruptura cadens", Montanus, Cocceius, De Dieu. Ben Melech observes, that a breach is after the building is fallen; for the breach does not fall, but it is said on account of the end of it, or what it is at last, as in Isa. xlvii. 2. "grind meal" or "flour".

Isaiah 30:13 In-Context

11 Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!”
12 Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says: “Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit,
13 this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant.
14 It will break in pieces like pottery, shattered so mercilessly that among its pieces not a fragment will be found for taking coals from a hearth or scooping water out of a cistern.”
15 This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.

Cross References 3

  • 1. S Nehemiah 2:17; Psalms 62:3; S Psalms 80:12
  • 2. S 1 Kings 20:30
  • 3. S Isaiah 17:14; Isaiah 29:5
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