The 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.

ISAIAH 17:13KJV
Know the Bible

Isaiah 17:13 (KJV)

What does Isaiah 17:13 mean?

Isaiah 17:13 pictures a threatening crowd of nations as a force that seems overwhelming but cannot stand when God confronts it. The verse contrasts the nations’ noisy approach with their sudden retreat, portraying God as stronger than the forces advancing against his people.

Isaiah uses familiar images from farming and the landscape. Chaff is the light outer material separated from grain, while the “rolling thing” suggests dry plant matter blown across the ground. Both pictures make the nations look as helpless before the wind as they had seemed powerful in their approach.

The Hebrew behind Isaiah 17:13

  • “rebuke” — גָּעַר (gaʿar): This word can mean to reprimand or speak sharply against someone. Here, God’s rebuke is followed by the nations’ flight, giving his command the force to turn them back.
  • “chaff” — מֹץ (mots): This is the light husk separated from grain during threshing. On an exposed mountain threshing floor, wind could carry the unwanted material away.
  • “rolling thing” — גַּלְגַּל (galgal): This word can refer to something that rolls or whirls. In this setting, it is often understood as a tumbleweed or other dry plant material driven along by the wind.

Why Isaiah 17:13 matters

  • The nations are portrayed as a collective threat. Their “rushing of many waters” echoes the roar of “many people” in verse 12, rather than describing a single attacker.
  • The verse leaves the retreat in God’s hands. The KJV says that “God shall rebuke them,” and the nations flee; Isaiah does not describe a battle won by a human army.
  • The windblown images sharpen the change in the nations’ position. They come as a rushing flood, but depart like scattered chaff and rolling plant matter.

Where else these words appear

“rush” Hebrew H7582 · used in 5 verses

  • 2 Kings 19:25 Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.
  • Isaiah 6:11 Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,
  • Isaiah 17:12 Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!

“chaff” Hebrew H4671 · used in 8 verses

  • Job 21:18 They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.
  • Psalms 35:5 Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the LORD chase them.
  • Isaiah 41:15 Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.

“thing” Hebrew H1534 · used in 11 verses

  • Psalms 77:18 The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook.
  • Isaiah 5:28 Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:
  • Ezekiel 10:6 And it came to pass, that when he had commanded the man clothed with linen, saying, Take fire from between the wheels, from between the cherubims; then he went in, and stood beside the wheels.

“rebuke” Hebrew H1605 · used in 13 verses

  • Genesis 37:10 And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?
  • Psalms 106:9 He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness.
  • Nahum 1:4 He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth.