'Fire' in the Bible

Can a man embrace fireand his clothes not be burned?

A worthless man digs up evil,and his speech is like a scorching fire.

Without wood, fire goes out;without a gossip, conflict dies down.

As charcoal for embers and wood for fire,so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.

Sheol; a childless womb;earth, which is never satisfied with water;and fire, which never says, “Enough!”

Your land is desolate,your cities burned with fire;foreigners devour your fieldsbefore your very eyes—a desolation demolished by foreigners.

Then the Lord will create a cloud of smoke by day and a glowing flame of fire by night over the entire site of Mount Zion and over its assemblies. For there will be a canopy over all the glory,

Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes strawand as dry grass shrivels in the flame,so their roots will become like something rottenand their blossoms will blow away like dust,for they have rejectedthe instruction of the Lord of Hosts,and they have despisedthe word of the Holy One of Israel.

For the trampling boot of battleand the bloodied garments of warwill be burned as fuel for the fire.

For wickedness burns like a firethat consumes thorns and briersand kindles the forest thicketsso that they go up in a column of smoke.

The land is scorchedby the wrath of the Lord of Hosts,and the people are like fuel for the fire.No one has compassion on his brother.

Therefore the Lord God of Hostswill inflict an emaciating diseaseon the well-fed of Assyria,and He will kindle a burning fireunder its glory.

Israel’s Light will become a fire,and its Holy One, a flame.In one day it will burn up Assyria’s thorns and thistles.

Lord, Your hand is lifted up to take action,but they do not see it.They will see Your zeal for Your people,and they will be put to shame.The fire for Your adversaries will consume them!

you will be visited by the Lord of Hostswith thunder, earthquake, and loud noise,storm, tempest, and a flame of consuming fire.

Its collapse will be like the shatteringof a potter’s jar, crushed to pieces,so that not even a fragment of potterywill be found among its shattered remains—no fragment large enough to take fire from a hearthor scoop water from a cistern.”

Look, Yahweh comes from far away,His anger burning and heavy with smoke.His lips are full of fury,and His tongue is like a consuming fire.

And the Lord will make the splendor of His voice heardand reveal His arm striking in angry wrathand a flame of consuming fire,in driving rain, a torrent, and hailstones.

Indeed! Topheth has been readyfor the king for a long time now.Its funeral pyre is deep and wide,with plenty of fire and wood.The breath of the Lord, like a torrent of brimstone,kindles it.

His rock will pass away because of fear,and his officers will be afraid because of the signal flag.This is the Lord’s declaration—whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

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

The peoples will be burned to ashes,like thorns cut down and burned in a fire.

The sinners in Zion are afraid;trembling seizes the ungodly:“Who among us can dwell with a consuming fire?Who among us can dwell with ever-burning flames?”

They have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but made by human hands—wood and stone. So they have destroyed them.

So He poured out on Jacob His furious angerand the power of war.It surrounded him with fire, but he did not know it;it burned him, but he paid no attention.

I will be with youwhen you pass through the waters,and when you pass through the rivers,they will not overwhelm you.You will not be scorchedwhen you walk through the fire,and the flame will not burn you.

It serves as fuel for man.He takes some of it and warms himself;also he kindles a fire and bakes bread;he even makes it into a god and worships it;he makes an idol from it and bows down to it.

He burns half of it in a fire,and he roasts meat on that half.He eats the roast and is satisfied.He warms himself and says, “Ah!I am warm, I see the blaze.”

No one reflects,no one has the perception or insight to say,“I burned half of it in the fire,I also baked bread on its coals,I roasted meat and ate.I will make something detestable with the rest of it,and I will bow down to a block of wood.”

Look, they are like stubble;fire burns them up.They cannot deliver themselvesfrom the power of the flame.This is not a coal for warming themselves,or a fire to sit beside!

Look, all you who kindle a fire,who encircle yourselves with firebrands;walk in the light of your fireand in the firebrands you have lit!This is what you’ll get from My hand:you will lie down in a place of torment.

Look, I have created the craftsmanwho blows on the charcoal fireand produces a weapon suitable for its task;and I have created the destroyer to cause havoc.

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!

Our holy and beautiful temple,where our fathers praised You,has been burned with fire,and all that was dear to us lies in ruins.

They say, ‘Keep to yourself,don’t come near me, for I am too holy for you!’These practices are smoke in My nostrils,a fire that burns all day long.

Look, the Lord will come with fire—His chariots are like the whirlwind—to execute His anger with furyand His rebuke with flames of fire.

“As they leave, they will see the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against Me; for their worm will never die, their fire will never go out, and they will be a horror to all mankind.”

Circumcise yourselves to the Lord;remove the foreskin of your hearts,men of Judah and residents of Jerusalem.Otherwise, My wrath will break out like fireand burn with no one to extinguish itbecause of your evil deeds.

Therefore, this is what the Lord God of Hosts says:Because you have spoken this word,I am going to make My wordsbecome fire in your mouth.These people are the wood,and the fire will consume them.

The bellows blow,blasting the lead with fire.The refining is completely in vain;the evil ones are not separated out.

The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven, and they pour out drink offerings to other gods so that they provoke Me to anger.

They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom in order to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, a thing I did not command; I never entertained the thought.

The Lord named youa flourishing olive tree,beautiful with well-formed fruit.He has set fire to it,and its branches are consumedwith a great roaring sound.

Then I will make you serve your enemiesin a land you do not know,for My anger will kindle a firethat will burn against you.

You will, on your own, relinquish your inheritancethat I gave you.I will make you serve your enemiesin a land you do not know,for you have set My anger on fire;it will burn forever.

If you do not listen to Me to consecrate the Sabbath day by not carrying a load while entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, I will set fire to its gates, and it will consume the citadels of Jerusalem and not be extinguished.”

They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, something I have never commanded or mentioned; I never entertained the thought.

If I say, “I won’t mention Himor speak any longer in His name,”His message becomes a fire burning in my heart,shut up in my bones.I become tired of holding it in,and I cannot prevail.

House of David, this is what the Lord says:Administer justice every morning,and rescue the victim of robberyfrom the hand of his oppressor,or My anger will flare up like fireand burn unquenchablybecause of their evil deeds.

I will punish you according to what you have done—this is the Lord’s declaration.I will kindle a fire in its forestthat will consume everything around it.’”

I will appoint destroyers against you,each with his weapons.They will cut down the choicest of your cedarsand throw them into the fire.

“Is not My word like fire”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and like a hammer that pulverizes rock?

Based on what happens to them, all the exiles of Judah who are in Babylon will create a curse that says, ‘May the Lord make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire!’

The Chaldeans who are going to fight against this city will come, set this city on fire, and burn it along with the houses where incense has been burned to Baal on their rooftops and where drink offerings have been poured out to other gods to provoke Me to anger.

They have built the high places of Baal in the Valley of Hinnom to make their sons and daughters pass through the fire to Molech—something I had not commanded them. I had never entertained the thought that they do this detestable act causing Judah to sin!

Since it was the ninth month, the king was sitting in his winter quarters with a fire burning in front of him.

As soon as Jehudi would read three or four columns, Jehoiakim would cut the scroll with a scribe’s knife and throw the columns into the blazing fire until the entire scroll was consumed by the fire in the brazier.

Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch son of Neriah, the scribe, and he wrote on it at Jeremiah’s dictation all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim, Judah’s king, had burned in the fire. And many other words like them were added.

I will kindle a fire in the temples of Egypt’s gods, and he will burn them and take them prisoner. He will clean the land of Egypt as a shepherd picks lice off his garment, and he will leave there unscathed.

Those who flee will stand exhausted in Heshbon’s shadowbecause fire has come out from Heshbonand a flame from within Sihon.It will devour Moab’s foreheadand the skull of the noisemakers.

I will set fire to the wall of Damascus;it will consume Ben-hadad’s citadels.

The arrogant will stumble and fallwith no one to pick him up.I will set fire to his cities,and it will consume everything around him.”

The fords have been seized,the marshes set on fire,and the soldiers are terrified.

This is what Yahweh of Hosts says:Babylon’s thick walls will be totally demolished,and her high gates consumed by fire.The peoples will have labored for nothing;the nations will exhaust themselves only to feed the fire.

מ MemHe sent fire from heaven into my bones;He made it descend.He spread a net for my feetand turned me back.He made me desolate,sick all day long.

ג GimelHe has cut off every horn of Israelin His burning angerand withdrawn His right handin the presence of the enemy.He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming firethat consumes everything.

ד DaletHe has bent His bow like an enemy;His right hand is positioned like an adversary.He has killed everyone who was loved,pouring out His wrath like fireon the tent of Daughter Zion.

כ KafThe Lord has exhausted His wrath,poured out His burning anger;He has ignited a fire in Zion,and it has consumed her foundations.

I looked and there was a whirlwind coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing back and forth and brilliant light all around it. In the center of the fire, there was a gleam like amber.

The form of the living creatures was like the appearance of burning coals of fire and torches. Fire was moving back and forth between the living creatures; it was bright, with lightning coming out of it.

From what seemed to be His waist up, I saw a gleam like amber, with what looked like fire enclosing it all around. From what seemed to be His waist down, I also saw what looked like fire. There was a brilliant light all around Him.

Take some more of them, throw them into the fire, and burn them in it. A fire will spread from it to the whole house of Israel.

I looked, and there was a form that had the appearance of a man. From what seemed to be His waist down was fire, and from His waist up was something that looked bright, like the gleam of amber.

After the Lord commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, “Take fire from inside the wheelwork, from among the cherubim,” the man went in and stood beside a wheel.

Then the cherub reached out his hand to the fire that was among them. He took some, and put it into the hands of the man clothed in linen, who took it and went out.

In fact, it is put into the fire as fuel. The fire devours both of its ends, and the middle is charred. Can it be useful for anything?

Even when it was whole it could not be made into a useful object. How much less can it ever be made into anything useful when the fire has devoured it and it is charred!

“Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire as fuel, so I will give up the residents of Jerusalem.

I will turn against them. They may have escaped from the fire, but it will still consume them. And you will know that I am Yahweh when I turn against them.

You slaughtered My children and gave them up when you passed them through the fire to the images.

But it was uprooted in fury,thrown to the ground,and the east wind dried up its fruit.Its strong branches were torn off and dried up;fire consumed them.

Fire has gone out from its main branchand has devoured its fruit,so that it no longer has a strong branch,a scepter for ruling.This is a lament and should be used as a lament.”

When they made every firstborn pass through the fire, I defiled them through their gifts in order to devastate them so they would know that I am Yahweh.

When you offer your gifts, making your children pass through the fire, you continue to defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. So should I be consulted by you, house of Israel? As I live”—this is the declaration of the Lord God—“I will not be consulted by you!

and say to the forest there: Hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord God says: I am about to ignite a fire in you, and it will devour every green tree and every dry tree in you. The blazing flame will not be extinguished, and every face from the south to the north will be scorched by it.

I will pour out My indignation on you;I will blow the fire of My fury on you.I will hand you over to brutal men,skilled at destruction.

You will be fuel for the fire.Your blood will be spilled in the land.You will not be remembered,for I, Yahweh, have spoken.”

Just as one gathers silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin into the furnace to blow fire on them and melt them, so I will gather you in My anger and wrath, put you inside, and melt you.

Yes, I will gather you together and blow on you with the fire of My fury, and you will be melted within the city.

So I have poured out My indignation on them and consumed them with the fire of My fury. I have brought their actions down on their own heads.” This is the declaration of the Lord God.

When I vent My jealous rage on you, they will deal with you in wrath. They will cut off your nose and ears, and your descendants will fall by the sword. They will seize your sons and daughters, and your descendants will be consumed by fire.

For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands; they have committed adultery with their idols. They have even made the children they bore to Me pass through the fire as food for the idols.

The assembly will stone them and cut them down with their swords. They will kill their sons and daughters and burn their houses with fire.

Now speak a parable to the rebellious house. Tell them: This is what the Lord God says:Put the pot on the fire—put it on,and then pour water into it!

Pile on the logs and kindle the fire!Cook the meat welland mix in the spices!Let the bones be burned!

It has frustrated every effort;its thick rust will not come off.Into the fire with its rust!

You profaned your sanctuariesby the magnitude of your iniquitiesin your dishonest trade.So I made fire come from within you,and it consumed you.I reduced you to ashes on the groundin the sight of everyone watching you.

They will know that I am Yahwehwhen I set fire to Egyptand all its allies are shattered.

I will make Pathros desolate,set fire to Zoan,and execute judgments on Thebes.

I will set fire to Egypt;Pelusium will writhe in anguish,Thebes will be breached,and Memphis will face foes in broad daylight.