Isaiah 33:1-21 ▼

1 Woe to you, O destroyer never destroyed, O traitor never betrayed! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed. When you have finished betraying, you will be betrayed.

2 O LORD {YHWH}, be gracious to us! We wait for You. Be our strength every morning and our salvation in time of trouble.

3 The peoples flee the thunder of Your voice; the nations scatter when You rise.

4 Your⁺ spoil, O nations, (O nations) is gathered as by locusts; like a swarm of locusts men sweep over it.

5 The LORD {YHWH} is exalted, for He dwells on high; He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

6 He will be the sure foundation for your times, a storehouse of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of the LORD {YHWH} is Zion’s treasure.

7 Behold, their valiant ones cry aloud in the streets; the envoys of peace weep bitterly.

8 The highways are deserted; travel has ceased. The treaty (covenant) has been broken, the witnesses [the cities] are despised, and human life is disregarded.

9 The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon (whiteness) is ashamed and decayed. Sharon (a plain) is like a desert; Bashan (fruitful) and Carmel (garden-land) shake off their leaves.

10 “Now I will arise,” says the LORD {YHWH}. “Now I will lift Myself up. Now I will be exalted.

11 You⁺ conceive chaff; you⁺ give birth to stubble. Your⁺ breath {ruachem} is a fire that will consume you⁺.

12 The peoples will be burned to ashes, like thorns cut down and set ablaze.

13 You who are far off, hear what I have done; you who are near, acknowledge My might.”

14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling grips the ungodly: “Who of us can dwell with a consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting flames?”

15 He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, who refuses gain from extortion, whose hand never takes a bribe, who stops his ears against murderous plots and shuts his eyes tightly against evil—

16 he will dwell on the heights; the mountain fortress will be his refuge (height); his food will be provided and his water assured.

17 Your eyes will see the King in His beauty and behold a land that stretches afar.

18 Your mind will ponder the former terror: “Where is he who tallies? Where is he who weighs? Where is he who counts the towers?”

19 You will no longer see the insolent, a people whose speech is unintelligible, who stammer in a language you cannot understand.

20 Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts. Your eyes will see Jerusalem (city of peace), a peaceful pasture, a tent that does not wander; its tent pegs will not be pulled up, nor will any of its cords be broken.

21 But there the Majestic One, our LORD {YHWH}, will be for us a place of rivers and wide canals, where no galley with oars will row, and no majestic vessel will pass.