Isaiah

Isaiah 33

24 verses · Major Prophets · Old Testament

1Woe 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.
2Yahweh, be gracious to us. We have waited for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble. 3At the noise of the thunder, the peoples have fled. When you lift yourself up, the nations are scattered. 4Your plunder will be gathered as the caterpillar gathers. Men will leap on it as locusts leap. 5Yahweh is exalted, for he dwells on high. He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness. 6There will be stability in your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of Yahweh is your treasure.
7Behold, their valiant ones cry outside; the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly. 8The highways are desolate. The traveling man ceases. The covenant is broken. He has despised the cities. He doesn’t respect man. 9The 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. 11You will conceive chaff. You will give birth to stubble. Your breath is a fire that will devour you. 12The peoples will be like the burning of lime, like thorns that are cut down and burned in the fire.
13Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and, you who are near, acknowledge my might.” 14The 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? 15He 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 blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil— 16he will dwell on high. His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks. His bread will be supplied. His waters will be sure.
17Your eyes will see the king in his beauty. They will see a distant land. 18Your heart will meditate on the terror. Where is he who counted? Where is he who weighed? Where is he who counted the towers? 19You 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. 20Look 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. 21But 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. 22For Yahweh is our judge. Yahweh is our lawgiver. Yahweh is our king. He will save us.
23Your 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.
24The inhabitant won’t say, “I am sick.” The people who dwell therein will be forgiven their iniquity.

Commentary

No commentary on this chapter yet.

What others are saying

4 commentators · 61 notes on this chapter

Matthew HenryEnglish Puritan / Nonconformist · 1708–17142

Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.

Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.

v. 1–12

Here we have, I. The proud and false Assyrian justly reckoned with for all his fraud and violence, and laid under a woe, Isa 33:1. Observe, 1. The sin which the enemy had been guilty of. He had spoiled the people of God, and made a prey of them, and herein…

v. 13–24

Here is a preface that commands attention; and it is fit that all should attend, both near and afar off, to what God says and does (Isa 33:13): Hear, you that are afar off, whether in place or time. Let distant regions and future ages hear what God has done…

John GillParticular Baptist / High Calvinist · 1746–176324

The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.

Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.

v. 1

Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled,.... Which some understand of Nebuchadnezzar; others of Sennacherib, which is more probable; it seems best to interpret it of the Romish antichrist. Kimchi thinks that, if it respects the times of Hezekiah…

v. 2

O Lord, be gracious unto us,.... This is a prayer of the church under the persecutions of antichrist, imploring the grace and favour of God in their miserable and distressed circumstances; desiring his gracious help, assistance, and deliverance; pleading not…

v. 3

At the noise of the tumult the people fled,.... The Vulgate Latin Version renders it, "at the voice of the angel"; and Jerom reports it as the opinion of the Jews, that it was Gabriel; and many interpret the words either of the noise the angel made in the…

Keil & DelitzschGerman Lutheran, conservative-critical · 1861–187513

The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.

Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.

v. 2

In Isa 33:2 the prophet's word of command is changed into a believing prayer: "Jehovah, be gracious to us; we wait for Thee: be their arm with every morning, yea, our salvation in time of need!" "Their arm," i.e., the power which shelters and defends them…

v. 3–4

While the prophet is praying thus, he already sees the answer. "At the sound of a noise peoples pass away; at Thy rising nations are scattered. And your booty is swept away as a swarm of locusts sweeps away; as beetles run, they run upon it." The…

v. 5–6

The prophet sees this as he prays, and now feasts himself on the consequences of this victory of Jehovah, prophesying in Isa 33:5, Isa 33:6 : "Jehovah is exalted; for, dwelling on high, He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness. And there will be…

Jamieson, Fausset & BrownScottish Presbyterian / Reformed · 187122

The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.

Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.

v. 2

us; we . . . their . . . our--He speaks interceding for His people, separating himself in thought for a moment from them, and immediately returns to his natural identification with them in the word "our." every morning--each day as it dawns, especially during…

v. 3

the tumult--the approach of Jehovah is likened to an advancing thunderstorm (Isa 29:6; Isa 30:27), which is His voice (Rev 1:15), causing the people to "flee." nation--the Assyrian levies.

v. 4–5

The invaders' "spoil" shall be left behind by them in their flight, and the Jews shall gather it. caterpillar--rather, "the wingless locust"; as it gathers; the Hebrew word for "gathers" is properly used of the gathering of the fruits of harvest (Isa 32:10)…

World English Bible — Public domain