Isaiah 9:18

9:18 For ¹  evil burned like a fire, ² 

it consumed thorns and briers;

it burned up the thickets of the forest,

and they went up in smoke. ³ 

Isaiah 10:17

10:17 The light of Israel ⁴  will become a fire,

their Holy One ⁵  will become a flame;

it will burn and consume the Assyrian king’s ⁶  briers

and his thorns in one day.

Isaiah 10:2

10:2 to keep the poor from getting fair treatment,

and to deprive ⁷  the oppressed among my people of justice,

so they can steal what widows own,

and loot what belongs to orphans. ⁸ 

Isaiah 23:6

23:6 Travel to Tarshish!

Wail, you residents of the coast!

Malachi 4:3

4:3 You will trample on the wicked, for they will be like ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Matthew 3:12

3:12 His winnowing fork ⁹  is in his hand, and he will clean out his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the storehouse, ¹⁰  but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire.” ¹¹ 

Hebrews 6:8

6:8 But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is useless and about to be cursed; ¹²  its fate is to be burned.

¹ tn Or “Indeed” (cf. NIV “Surely”). The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

² sn Evil was uncontrollable and destructive, and so can be compared to a forest fire.

³ tn Heb “and they swirled [with] the rising of the smoke” (cf. NRSV).

⁴ tn In this context the “Light of Israel” is a divine title (note the parallel title “his holy one”). The title points to God’s royal splendor, which overshadows and, when transformed into fire, destroys the “majestic glory” of the king of Assyria (v. 16b).

⁵ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

⁶ tn Heb “his.” In vv. 17-19 the Assyrian king and his empire is compared to a great forest and orchard that are destroyed by fire (symbolic of the Lord).

⁷ tn Or “rob” (ASV, NASB, NCV, NRSV); KJV “take away the right from the poor.”

⁸ tn Heb “so that widows are their plunder, and they can loot orphans.”

⁹ sn A winnowing fork was a pitchfork-like tool used to toss threshed grain in the air so that the wind blew away the chaff, leaving the grain to fall to the ground. The note of purging is highlighted by the use of imagery involving sifting though threshed grain for the useful kernels.

¹⁰ tn Or “granary,” “barn” (referring to a building used to store a farm’s produce rather than a building to house livestock).

¹¹ sn The image of fire that cannot be extinguished is from the OT: Job 20:26; Isa 34:8-10; 66:24.

¹² tn Grk “near to a curse.”