Isaiah 33

How terrible for you, destroyer, who has not been destroyed! How terrible for you, betrayer, who has not been betrayed! When you finish destroying, you will be destroyed. When you stop betraying, others will betray you.

1Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.

NoteThe "destroyer" is not named anywhere in the chapter. Isaiah is speaking during the period when Assyria, the dominant empire of the day, was overrunning the small kingdoms of the region, including Judah, and taking tribute from them; ancient and modern readers alike have generally taken the unnamed power to be Assyria. "Woe to you" is a set formula, the cry raised at a funeral, used here as an announcement that doom is coming.

2LORD, be kind to us. We have waited for you. Be our strength every morning, and rescue us when trouble comes.

2O LORD, be gracious unto us; we have waited for thee: be thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.

NoteThe Hebrew text here reads "be their arm every morning" (as the King James has it); many manuscripts and early translations read "our arm," which is the sense the rendering follows. "Arm" is a standard Hebrew figure for strength in action, the way we might say "muscle."

3At the roar of your voice, the peoples ran away. When you stood up, the nations scattered.

3At the noise of the tumult the people fled; at the lifting up of thyself the nations were scattered.

4The goods taken from you will be swept up the way young locusts strip a field. Men will rush over the spoil like a swarm of locusts darting back and forth.

4And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpiller: as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them.

NoteLocusts were the region's most familiar agricultural disaster: a swarm could settle on cultivated land and strip it bare within hours. "Young locusts" are the wingless immature stage, which advances on foot in a dense mass. Who is plundering whom in this verse is genuinely unclear in the Hebrew: it can be read as the enemy's plunder being swept up by Judah, or as Judah's goods being swept up by the enemy.

5The LORD is lifted high, because he lives above all. He has filled Zion with justice and right living.

5The LORD is exalted; for he dwelleth on high: he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness.

NoteZion was originally the name of the fortified ridge in Jerusalem; it came to stand for the whole city, its temple, and its people.

6He will be the firm foundation of your times, a rich supply of rescue, wisdom, and knowledge. Respect for the LORD is Zion's treasure.

6And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.

Note"The fear of the LORD" is a fixed Hebrew phrase meaning reverent awe and the loyalty that goes with it, not fright. It describes an attitude, close to what we mean by holding something in awe.

7Look: their bravest men cry out in the streets. The messengers sent to make peace weep bitterly.

7Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without: the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly.

NoteThe "messengers sent to make peace" are diplomatic envoys, sent to negotiate terms or pay tribute in the hope of avoiding invasion. Their weeping means the mission has failed.

8The main roads are empty, and travelers have stopped using them. The agreement has been broken, the cities are despised, and no one's life is respected.

8The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.

NoteThe "agreement" is a treaty between states. Such treaties were sworn before witnesses and before the gods of both parties; breaking one was the gravest kind of bad faith. The Hebrew of the traditional text reads "he has despised the cities" (as the King James has it); a manuscript found at Qumran reads "witnesses," differing by one letter, and that is the reading followed here.

9The land grieves and dries up. Lebanon is shamed and withered. The plain of Sharon looks like a desert, and the trees of Bashan and Carmel drop their leaves.

9The earth mourneth and languisheth: Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down: Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.

NoteThese are the four most fertile and famous landscapes known to Isaiah's hearers: Lebanon, the mountains north of Israel covered in great cedar forests; Sharon, the rich coastal plain; Bashan, the high grazing land east of the Jordan; and Carmel, the wooded ridge running down to the sea. Naming all four together is a way of saying the whole land, at its best, has failed.

10"Now I will stand up," says the LORD. "Now I will raise myself. Now I will be lifted high.

10Now will I rise, saith the LORD; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself.

11You are pregnant with dry husks and you give birth to straw. Your own breath is a fire that will burn you up.

11Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you.

NoteChaff is the papery casing blown away when grain is threshed; stubble is the stalk-ends left standing in a field after harvest. Both were proverbially worthless and both burn instantly, the point of the image.

12The peoples will be burned to powder, like thorn bushes cut down and thrown on the fire.

12And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.

NoteLimestone was burned in kilns at very high heat to make lime for plaster and mortar; what came out was a white powder. Thorn scrub was the usual fuel, since it was worthless for anything else and caught fire fiercely.

13You who are far away, hear what I have done. You who are near, admit how strong I am."

13Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done; and, ye that are near, acknowledge my might.

14The sinners in Zion are frightened. Shaking has taken hold of those who live without God. They ask, "Which of us can live beside a fire that eats everything up? Which of us can live beside flames that never go out?"

14The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?

NoteThe King James "hypocrites" does not mean pretenders here. The Hebrew word means someone godless or morally polluted. Verses 14–16 follow a form used at the temple gates: a question about who may enter God's presence, answered by a list of conditions. Psalms 15 and 24 use the same pattern.

15The one who lives rightly and speaks honestly, who refuses money made by squeezing others, who shakes his hand free of a bribe, who plugs his ears rather than listen to plans for murder, and shuts his eyes rather than look at evil

15He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

NoteShaking out the hands was a physical gesture of refusal, showing the palms empty. "Hearing of blood" means listening to talk of shedding blood, being party to a plot against someone's life.

16that person will live up on the heights. A rocky fortress will be his safe place. His bread will be provided, and his water will not run out.

16He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.

17Your eyes will see the king in all his splendor. You will look out over a land that stretches far away.

17Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off.

Note"The king" is deliberately open: it can be read as the human king of Judah, seen in splendor again once the siege is lifted, or as the LORD himself, called king in verse 22. "A land that stretches far away" contrasts with the shut-in view from a city under siege, where the horizon ends at the enemy's lines.

18Your mind will think back on the terror you knew. You will ask, "Where is the official who counted? Where is the one who weighed the payment? Where is the one who counted the towers?"

18Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?

NoteThese are the enemy's occupation officials, remembered with relief once they are gone: the scribe who registered what was owed, the officer who weighed out the silver of the tribute, and the officer who surveyed the city's defensive towers, either to assess them for attack or to count them for the levy.

19You will no longer see that bold and brutal people, a people whose speech is too hard for you to follow, whose language sounds like stammering that you cannot understand.

19Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand.

NoteAssyrian officials spoke Akkadian, and their empire drew troops from many nations. To Hebrew speakers an unknown language sounded like meaningless stammering, the same idea behind the Greek word "barbarian," coined from the sound of foreign speech.

20Look at Zion, the city where we hold our appointed feasts. Your eyes will see Jerusalem as a settled, quiet home, a tent that never has to be moved. Not one of its pegs will be pulled up, and none of its ropes will snap.

20Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.

NoteThe "appointed feasts" were the annual festivals at which Israelites were expected to travel to Jerusalem. The image that follows is of a nomad's tent: a tent stays put only as long as its pegs are driven in and its guy ropes hold, and a tent is by nature something you strike and move on from. Saying this tent will never be moved says the city will never again be uprooted.

21There the LORD in his splendor will be for us like a place of wide rivers and streams, where no boat rowed with oars will travel and no majestic ship will pass.

21But there the glorious LORD will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.

NoteGreat capitals of the region (Nineveh on the Tigris, Babylon on the Euphrates, Thebes on the Nile) were built on broad rivers that gave them water, trade, and a defensive moat. Jerusalem had no such river. The saying here is that God will supply what a river supplies, without the drawback: a navigable river is also the road by which an enemy's warships arrive.

22For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king. He is the one who will save us.

22For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.

NoteJudge, lawgiver, and king name the three functions of a ruler in the ancient world: settling disputes, issuing binding decrees, and commanding in war.

23Your ship's ropes hang loose. They cannot hold the mast steady or spread the sail. Then a huge pile of plunder will be divided up, and even people who cannot walk well will carry some off.

23Thy tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail: then is the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame take the prey.

NoteThe image shifts abruptly to a ship whose rigging has gone slack, and the Hebrew does not say whose ship it is: it can be read as the enemy's vessel disabled, or as Judah pictured as a crippled ship that is nonetheless given the spoil. "Even people who cannot walk well will carry some off" means the victory is so complete that no fighting is needed to collect the plunder.

24No one living there will say, "I am sick." The people who live in the city will have their wrongdoing forgiven.

24And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.

NoteIn Hebrew usage, physical sickness and unforgiven guilt were commonly spoken of in the same breath, as two aspects of a community's condition; the two halves of this verse are set side by side for that reason.