Isaiah 32:19

New Living Translation

Even if the forest should be destroyed and the city torn down,

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
But hail will level the forest,and the city will sink into the depths.

Hebrew Names Version
But it shall hail in the downfall of the forest; and the city shall be utterly laid low.

King James Version
When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place.

English Standard Version
And it will hail when the forest falls down, and the city will be utterly laid low.

New American Standard Bible
And it will hail when the forest comes down, And the city will be utterly laid low.

New Century Version
Hail will destroy the forest, and the city will be completely destroyed.

Amplified Bible
But it will hail, when the forest comes down, And the [capital] city will fall in utter humiliation.

World English Bible
But it shall hail in the downfall of the forest; and the city shall be utterly laid low.

Geneva Bible (1587)
When it haileth, it shall fall on the forest, and the citie shall be set in the lowe place.

Legacy Standard Bible
And it will hail when the forest comes down,And the city will be utterly laid low.

Berean Standard Bible
But hail will level the forest, and the city will sink to the depths.

Contemporary English Version
even if hailstones flatten forests and cities.

Complete Jewish Bible
Just as the forest will surely come down, the city will surely be laid low.

Darby Translation
And it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place.

Easy-to-Read Version
But before this happens, the forest must fall and the city must be torn down.

George Lamsa Translation
And hail shall come down on the forest, and the city shall be made low like a plain.

Good News Translation
(But hail will fall on the forests, and the city will be torn down.)

Lexham English Bible
And it hails when the forest comes down, and the city will become low in humiliation.

Literal Translation
Though it hails when the forest is going down, and the city is laid low,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And whe the hale falleth, it shal fall in the wodde and in the citie.

American Standard Version
But it shall hail in the downfall of the forest; and the city shall be utterly laid low.

Bible in Basic English
But the tall trees will come down with a great fall, and the town will be low in a low place.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And it shall hail, in the downfall of the forest; but the city shall descend into the valley.

King James Version (1611)
When it shall haile, comming downe on the forrest; and the citie shall be low in a low place.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And when the hayle falleth, it shall fall in the wood, and the citie shalbe set lowe in the valley.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And if the hail should come down, it shall not come upon you; and they that dwell in the forests shall be in confidence, as those in the plain country.

English Revised Version
But it shall hail, in the downfall of the forest; and the city shall be utterly laid low.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
But hail schal be in the coming doun of the foreste, and bi lownesse the citee schal be maad low.

Update Bible Version
But it shall hail in the downfall of the forest; and the city shall be completely laid low.

Webster's Bible Translation
When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place.

New English Translation
Even if the forest is destroyed and the city is annihilated,

New King James Version
Though hail comes down on the forest, And the city is brought low in humiliation.

New Life Bible
But it will hail when the many trees come down and all the city will be laid waste.

New Revised Standard
The forest will disappear completely, and the city will be utterly laid low.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
But it shall hail during the felling of the forest, And in a sunken place, shall, the city, sink.

Douay-Rheims Bible
But hail shall be in the descent of the forest, and the city shall be made very low.

Revised Standard Version
And the forest will utterly go down, and the city will be utterly laid low.

Young's Literal Translation
And it hath hailed in the going down of the forest, And in the valley is the city low.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
And it will hail when the forest comes down, And the city will be utterly laid low.

Contextual Overview

⁹ Listen, you women who lie around in ease. Listen to me, you who are so smug. ¹⁰ In a short time—just a little more than a year— you careless ones will suddenly begin to care. For your fruit crops will fail, and the harvest will never take place. ¹¹ Tremble, you women of ease; throw off your complacency. Strip off your pretty clothes, and put on burlap to show your grief. ¹² Beat your breasts in sorrow for your bountiful farms and your fruitful grapevines. ¹³ For your land will be overgrown with thorns and briers. Your joyful homes and happy towns will be gone. ¹⁴ The palace and the city will be deserted, and busy towns will be empty. Wild donkeys will frolic and flocks will graze in the empty forts and watchtowers ¹⁵ until at last the Spirit is poured out on us from heaven. Then the wilderness will become a fertile field, and the fertile field will yield bountiful crops. ¹⁶ Justice will rule in the wilderness and righteousness in the fertile field. ¹⁷ And this righteousness will bring peace. Yes, it will bring quietness and confidence forever. ¹⁸ My people will live in safety, quietly at home. They will be at rest.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

it shall: Isaiah 25:4, Isaiah 28:2, Isaiah 28:17, Isaiah 30:30, Isaiah 37:24, Exodus 9:18-26, Ezekiel 13:11-13, Matthew 7:25, Revelation 8:7

on the: Zechariah 11:2

the city shall be low: or, the city shall be utterly abased, Isaiah 14:22, Isaiah 14:23, Isaiah 26:5, Nahum 1:1, Nahum 1:8, Nahum 2:10-13, Revelation 18:21

Reciprocal: Exodus 9:26 - General Isaiah 4:6 - for a covert Isaiah 26:20 - enter Isaiah 32:2 - an hiding Revelation 11:19 - and great

Gill's Notes on the Bible

When it shall hail, coming down on the forest,.... The people of God will be peaceable and quiet, safe and secure, when the judgments of God, signified by a "hail" storm, shall come upon antichrist, and the antichristian states, intended by the "forest", both for their numbers, and for their barrenness and unfruitfulness; see Revelation 16:21 and as so it sometimes is, by the disposition of divine Providence, that a storm of hail falls not upon fields and gardens, and the fruits of the earth, but upon forests and desert lands; and as the plague of hail fell upon the Egyptians, and not upon the Israelites in Goshen, to which some think the allusion is here; so will it be when God comes to take vengeance on the enemies of his people:

and the city shall be low in a low place: meaning not the city of Jerusalem, surrounded with mountains, built under hills, and so under the wind, and not exposed to the fury of a storm; but rather Babylon, built in a plain, in a low plain, and yet should be brought lower still; mystical Babylon is here meant, the city of Rome, that should "in humiliation be humbled", as the words may be rendered, that is, brought very low, exceeding low; see Isaiah 26:5 and which, at the time of the great hail, will be divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations shall fall, and Babylon be had in remembrance by the Lord to destroy it, Revelation 16:19.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

When it shall hail - Hebrew, ברדת ברד bârad b^eredeth - ‘And it shall hail in coming down. There is a paranomasia in the original here, which cannot be expressed in a translation - a figure of speech, which, as we have seen, is common in Isaiah. ‘Hail’ is an image of divine vengeance or punishment; and the reference here is, doubtless, to the storms of indignation that would come on the enemies of the Jews, particularly on the Assyrians (see the notes at Isaiah 30:30).

Coming down on the forest - Coming down on the army of the Assyrian, which is here called ‘a forest.’ The same term ‘forest’ is given to the army of the Assyrians in Isaiah 10:18-19, Isaiah 10:33-34. The sense is, that the divine judgment would come down on that army with as much severity as a storm of hail descends on a forest - stripping the leaves from the trees, destroying its beauty, and laying it waste.

And the city - According to Gesenius, this is Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire. According to Rosenmuller, Grotius, and others, it is Babylon. Hensler supposes that it is Jerusalem, and that the sense is, that as a city that is situated in a valley is safe when the storm and tempest sweep over the hills, so would it be to Jerusalem when the storm of wrath should sweep away the army of the Assyrian. But the connection evidently requires us to understand it of the capital of the enemy; though whether it be Nineveh or Babylon perhaps cannot be determined.

Shall be low in a low place - Margin, ‘Utterly abased.’ Hebrew, ‘In humility shall be humbled.’ The sense is, shall be completely prostrate. Those who refer this to Jerusalem suppose it refers to the time when God should humble it by bringing the enemy so near, and exciting so much consternation and alarm. Those who refer it to Babylon suppose it relates to its destruction. If referred to Nineveh, it must mean when the pride of the capital of the Assyrian empire should be iratabled by the complete overthrow of their army, and the annihilation of their hopes. The connection seems to require us to adopt this latter interpretation. The whole verse is very obscure; but perhaps the above will express its general sense.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 32:19. The city shall be low in a low place. - "The city shall be laid level with the plain."] For ובשפלה ubashephelah, the Syriac reads וכשפלה ukeshephelah. The city - probably Nineveh or Babylon: but this verse is very obscure. Saltus; Assyriorum regnum: civitas; magnifica Assyriorum castra. Ephrem Syr. in loc. For וברד ubarad, a MS. has וירד vaiyered; and so conjectured Abp. Secker, referring to Zechariah 11:2.