'Devours' in the Bible
So they gave the Israelites a bad report about the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we went, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants. And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature.
“Behold, a people rises up like a lionessAnd lifts itself up like a lion;He will not lie down until he devours the preyAnd drinks the blood of the slain.”
‘For a fire is kindled by My anger,And it burns to the depths of Sheol (the place of the dead, the nether world),It devours the earth with its yield,And sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.
Then David said to the messenger, “Tell Joab this, ‘Do not let this thing disturb you, for the sword devours one [side] as well as another. Strengthen your battle against the city and overthrow it’; and so encourage Joab.”
May our God come and not keep silent;Fire devours before Him,And around Him a mighty tempest rages.
Therefore, as the tongue of fire consumes the stubble [from straw]And the dry grass collapses into the flame,So their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away like fine dust;Because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hostsAnd despised and discarded the word of the Holy One of Israel.
For wickedness burns like a fire;It consumes briars and thorns,It even sets the forest thickets ablaze;And it swirls upward in a column of smoke.
They slice off [in discord] what is on the right hand but are still hungry,And they eat what is on the left hand but they are not satisfied;Each eats the flesh of his own arm.
Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live on it suffer the punishment of their guilt. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned [under the curse of God’s wrath], and few people are left.
“Destroyers have comeOn all the caravan roads in the desert,For the sword of the Lord (Babylon) is devouringFrom one end of the land even to the other;No one has peace or a way of escape.
“Declare in Egypt and proclaim in Migdol,And proclaim in Memphis and in Tahpanhes;Say, ‘Take your stand and get yourself ready,For the sword has devoured those around you.’
Before them a fire devours,And behind them a flame burns;Before them the land is like the Garden of Eden,But behind them a desolate wilderness;And nothing at all escapes them.