Lexicon :: Strong's H1104 - bālaʿ

“You stretched out Your right hand,

The [fn]sea swallowed them.

“Will You never turn Your gaze away from me [it plagues me],

Nor let me alone until I swallow my spittle?

“If he is snatched from his place [in the garden],

Then his place will forget him, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’

‘Your hands have formed and made me altogether.

Would You [turn around and] destroy me?

“He swallows [his ill-gotten] riches,

But will vomit them up;

God will drive them out of his belly.

“He gives back what he has labored for and attained

And cannot swallow it [down to enjoy it];

As to the riches of his labor,

He cannot even enjoy them.

“So shall it be told Him that I wish to speak?

Or should a man say that he would be swallowed up [and destroyed by God]?

You will make them as [if in] a blazing oven in the time of your anger;

The LORD will swallow them up in His wrath,

And the fire will devour them.

Do not let them say in their heart, “Aha, that is what we wanted!”

Do not let them say, “We have swallowed him up and destroyed him.”

[fn]Confuse [my enemies], O Lord, divide their tongues [destroying their schemes],

For I have seen violence and strife in the city.

Do not let the floodwater overwhelm me,

Nor the deep waters swallow me up,

Nor the pit [of Sheol] shut its mouth over me.

Therefore the earth opened and swallowed Dathan,

And engulfed the company of Abiram.

They staggered and trembled like a drunken man,

And were at their wits’ end [all their wisdom was useless].

Then they would have [quickly] swallowed us alive,

When their wrath was kindled against us;

Let us swallow them alive like Sheol (the place of the dead),

Even whole, as those who go down to the pit [of death];

A wicked and worthless witness mocks justice,

And the mouth of the wicked spreads iniquity.

There is precious treasure and oil in the house of the wise [who prepare for the future],

But a short-sighted and foolish man swallows it up and wastes it.

O My people! Children are their oppressors,

And women rule over them.

O My people! Your leaders lead you astray

And confuse (destroy, swallow up) the direction of your paths.

For those who lead this people are causing them to go astray;

And those who are led [astray] by them are swallowed up.

“Then the spirit of the Egyptians will become exhausted within them and emptied out;

And I will confuse their strategy,

So that they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead,

And mediums and soothsayers.

And on this mountain He will destroy the covering that is [cast] over all peoples,

And the veil [of death] that is woven and spread over all the nations.

And the fading flower of its glorious beauty,

Which is at the head of the rich valley,

Will be like the early fig before the summer,

Which one sees,

And as soon as it is in his hand

He [greedily] swallows it [and so will the Assyrians rapidly devour Samaria, Israel’s capital].

But even these reel with wine and stagger from strong drink:

The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink;

They are confused by wine, they stagger from strong drink;

They reel while seeing visions,

They stagger when pronouncing judgment.

“For your ruins and desolate places and your land [once the scene] of destruction—

Certainly now [in the coming years] will be too cramped for the inhabitants,

And those who once engulfed you will be far away.

“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured [fn]me, he has crushed me,

He has set me down like an empty vessel.

Like a monster he has swallowed me up,

He has filled his belly with my delicacies;

He has spit me out and washed me away.

The Lord has swallowed up; He has not spared

All the country places of Jacob.

In His wrath He has thrown down

The strongholds of the Daughter of Judah (Jerusalem).

He has brought them down to the ground [in disgrace];

He has debased the kingdom and its princes.

The Lord has become like an enemy;

He has swallowed up Israel.

He has swallowed up all its palaces;

He has destroyed its strongholds

And multiplied in the Daughter of Judah

Mourning and lamentation (expressions of grief).

The LORD determined to lay in ruins

The [city] wall of the Daughter of Zion.

He has stretched out a line,

He has not stopped His hand from destroying.

He has caused the rampart and the wall to lament (mourn in grief);

They have languished together.

All your enemies

Have opened their mouths wide against you;

They [scornfully] hiss and gnash their teeth.

They say, “We have swallowed her up!

Certainly this is the day for which we waited;

We have reached it, we have seen it!”

For they sow the wind [in evil]

And they reap the whirlwind [in disaster].

The standing grain has no growth;

It yields no grain.

If it were to yield, strangers would swallow it up.

Now the LORD had prepared (appointed, destined) a great [fn]fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the stomach of the fish [fn]three days and three nights.

Your eyes are too pure to approve evil,

And You cannot look favorably on wickedness.

Why then do You look favorably

On those who act treacherously?

Why are you silent when the wicked (Chaldean oppressors) destroy

Those more righteous than they?