The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Isaiah 33
1 Woe to you who destroy, but you weren’t
destroyed, and who betray, but nobody betrayed
you When you have finished destroying, you
will be destroyed; and when you have finished betrayal,
you will be betrayed.
2 Yahweh, be gracious to us. We have
waited for you. Be our strength every morning,
our salvation also in the time of trouble.
3 At the noise of the thunder, the peoples
have fled. When you lift yourself up, the nations
are scattered.
4 Your plunder will be gathered as the
caterpillar gathers. Men will leap on it as locusts leap.
5 Yahweh is exalted, for he dwells on high.
He has filled Zion with justice and
righteousness.
6 There will be stability in your times,
abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge.
The fear of Yahweh is your treasure.
7 Behold, their valiant ones cry outside;
the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.
8 The highways are desolate. The traveling man ceases.
The covenant is broken. He has despised the cities.
He doesn’t respect man.
9 The land mourns and languishes.
Lebanon is confounded and withers
away. Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan
and Carmel are stripped bare.
10 “Now I will arise,” says Yahweh.
“Now I will lift myself up.
Now I will be exalted.
11 You will conceive chaff.
You will give birth to stubble.
Your breath is a fire that will devour
you.
12 The peoples will be like the burning of
lime, like thorns that are cut down and
burned in the fire.
13 Hear, you who are far off, what I have
done; and, you who are near, acknowledge
my might.”
14 The sinners in Zion are afraid.
Trembling has seized the godless ones.
Who among us can live with the devouring
fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning?
15 He who walks righteously
and speaks blamelessly,
he who despises the gain of oppressions,
who gestures with his hands, refusing
to take a bribe,
who stops his ears from hearing of
bloodshed, and shuts his eyes from looking at
evil—
16 he will dwell on high. His place of defense will be the
fortress of rocks. His bread will be supplied.
His waters will be sure.
17 Your eyes will see the king in his beauty.
They will see a distant land.
18 Your heart will meditate on the terror.
Where is he who counted? Where is he who weighed?
Where is he who counted the towers?
19 You will no longer see the fierce people,
a people of a deep speech that you
can’t comprehend, with a strange language that you can’t
understand.
20 Look at Zion, the city of our appointed
festivals. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet
habitation, a tent that won’t be removed.
Its stakes will never be plucked up,
nor will any of its cords be broken.
21 But there Yahweh will be with us in
majesty, a place of wide rivers and streams,
in which no galley with oars will go,
neither will any gallant ship pass by
there.
22 For Yahweh is our judge. Yahweh is our lawgiver.
Yahweh is our king. He will save us.
23 Your rigging is untied.
They couldn’t strengthen the foot of
their mast. They couldn’t spread the sail.
Then the prey of a great plunder was divided.
The lame took the prey.
24 The inhabitant won’t say, “I am sick.”
The people who dwell therein will be
forgiven their iniquity.