The best of them is as a brier. The most upright is [worse] than a thorn hedge. The day of thy watchmen, even thy visitation, has come. Now shall be their perplexity.
For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace, and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, shall be stubble. And the day that comes shall burn them up, says LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
For wickedness burns as the fire. It devours the briers and thorns. Yea, it kindles in the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke.
Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as the dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust, because they have rejected the law of LORD of hosts, an
And I will make drunk her rulers and her wise men, her governors and her deputies, and her mighty men. And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says the King, whose name is LORD of hosts.
When they are heated, I will make their feast. And I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says LORD.
And Absalom commanded his servants, saying, Notice ye now, when Amnon's heart is merry with wine, and when I say to you, Smite Amnon, then kill him. Fear not; have I not commanded you? Be courageous, and be valiant.
And Abigail came to Nabal, and, behold, he held a feast in his house like the feast of a king. And Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. Therefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.
Behold, they shall be as stubble. The fire shall burn them. They shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame. It shall not be a coal to warm at, nor a fire to sit before.