In line 1 the prophet compares wickedness to a consuming fire. The remainder of the verse then describes in detail the destructive action of this fire, and by implication that of the wickedness it represents. The point of the comparison throughout the verse is made more explicit in Good News Translation, which says “The wickedness … burns like a fire that destroys thorn bushes and thistles. It burns like….” In some languages the relationship between fire and wickedness may need to be clarified as Good News Translation has done. Translators may do this by using a relative clause after fire, so that the imagery that follows is associated with the fire.

For wickedness burns like a fire: The word For translates the Hebrew particle ki, whose function is sometimes difficult to determine. It does not introduce a reason for something here, but it is simply used for emphasis (see 1.29). New International Version renders it “Surely,” while New Jerusalem Bible and Bible en français courant begin with “Yes.” Good News Translation and Revised English Bible omit it. These models are all valid options. Translators have to decide which way of beginning this subsection is more natural.

The Hebrew noun translated wickedness occurs only this once in Isaiah although the root does appear elsewhere. It is a general word for all kinds of evil. If no such abstract word is available, translators may have to say “the bad ways [of acting] of/by people” or “the bad things people do.” Here the poet suggests that this wickedness burns like a fire. In other words, when people commit evil acts, they are doing something that is as destructive as fire. For this line Revised English Bible has “Wicked men have been set ablaze like a fire.” This interpretation links well with verse 19 (“people are like fuel for the fire”), but most versions understand it in the same way as Good News Translation. The use of present tense for the verb burns in Revised Standard Version, New American Bible, and New International Version makes these words a general statement of principle rather than a description of what has already taken place. Past tense is more appropriate here. In some languages the syntax requires that the verb burns have an object in order to be complete. If so, we may say “… burns everything just like a fire does.”

It consumes briers and thorns: In the next three lines the prophet describes the burning as total and complete. He does this to emphasize the effect of fire and thus, by implication, that of evil in society. Fire consumes or “eats” smaller bushes. We have noted above that the verb “eat” is a keyword in this subsection. For briers and thorns, see the comments at 5.6 and 7.23.

It kindles the thickets of the forest is another description of fire’s destructive power. Fire not only destroys small bushes but even the forest itself. Thickets translates a Hebrew noun that refers to a tangled mass, so thickets of the forest describes dense or thick bushland.

They roll upward in a column of smoke: As the bushes in the forest burn, there is smoke. Roll upward is a very picturesque way of referring to the way smoke rises. However, the Hebrew verb here is not found elsewhere in the Bible, so its meaning is determined from the general context. The expression column of smoke may not be an appropriate figure in all languages to describe the way smoke rises, so translators need to choose their own idiomatic terms here. They should try to match the poetic descriptions of this verse. For this line Bible en français courant (freely rendered) has “and it makes smoke swirl up into the sky.”

Some possible examples for this verse are:

• Wickedness has burned everything like a fire. Fire devoured briers and thornbushes; it raged through tangled forest undergrowth. Like a towering cloud, its smoke rose.

• Evil destroys just like fire does.
Fire consumes thornbushes;
it rages through bushland.
Its smoke rises to the heavens like a storm cloud.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .