Verse Lens · Context pointer
Isaiah 17:13 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 13. 13The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Role in This Section
The oracle concerning Zion and the nations states or reports “The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters” at Isaiah 17:13 as a specific part of “Roaring Nations Flee at a Divine Rebuke.”
Read It With
- Isaiah 17:12–14
Read Isaiah 17:13 with 17:12–14. By itself, “The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters” can be detached from the speaker, addressee, historical horizon, poetic movement, or outcome that gives it force. The complete unit establishes: Many peoples sound like seas and waters but scatter like chaff before evening terror vanishes by morning.
Why It Needs Context
The oracle concerning Zion and the nations states or reports “The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters” at Isaiah 17:13 as a specific part of “Roaring Nations Flee at a Divine Rebuke.” Because nearby lines develop or qualify it, Isaiah 17:12–14 supplies the minimum responsible context.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Isaiah 17:12–14 — Roaring Nations Flee at a Divine RebukeSources used for this context pointer
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Isaiah 17:12–14, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Isaiah
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology at the exact unit, without treating morphology as apparatus, lexicon, composition history, or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Isa.xml, OSIS 17:12–14 with Hebrew/KJV versification difference checked
Open the fixed Hebrew Isaiah file ↗