Isaiah 33
New English Translation
The Lord Will Restore Zion
33 The destroyer is as good as dead,[a]
you who have not been destroyed!
The deceitful one is as good as dead,[b]
the one whom others have not deceived!
When you are through destroying, you will be destroyed;
when you finish[c] deceiving, others will deceive you!
2 Lord, be merciful to us! We wait for you.
Give us strength each morning.[d]
Deliver us when distress comes.[e]
3 The nations run away when they hear a loud noise;[f]
the nations scatter when you spring into action![g]
4 Your plunder[h] disappears as if locusts were eating it;[i]
they swarm over it like locusts.[j]
5 The Lord is exalted,[k]
indeed,[l] he lives in heaven;[m]
he fills Zion with justice and fairness.
6 He is your constant source of stability;[n]
he abundantly provides safety and great wisdom;[o]
he gives all this to those who fear him.[p]
7 Look, ambassadors[q] cry out in the streets;
messengers sent to make peace[r] weep bitterly.
8 Highways are empty,[s]
there are no travelers.[t]
Treaties are broken,[u]
witnesses are despised,[v]
human life is treated with disrespect.[w]
9 The land[x] dries up[y] and withers away;
the forest of Lebanon shrivels up[z] and decays.
Sharon[aa] is like the arid rift valley;[ab]
Bashan and Carmel[ac] are parched.[ad]
10 “Now I will rise up,” says the Lord.
“Now I will exalt myself;
now I will magnify myself.[ae]
11 You conceive straw,[af]
you give birth to chaff;
your breath is a fire that destroys you.[ag]
12 The nations will be burned to ashes;[ah]
like thorn bushes that have been cut down, they will be set on fire.
13 You who are far away, listen to what I have done!
You who are close by, recognize my strength.”
14 Sinners are afraid in Zion;
panic[ai] grips the godless.[aj]
They say,[ak] “Who among us can coexist with destructive fire?
Who among us can coexist with unquenchable[al] fire?”
15 The one who lives[am] uprightly[an]
and speaks honestly;
the one who refuses to profit from oppressive measures
and rejects a bribe;[ao]
the one who does not plot violent crimes[ap]
and does not seek to harm others[aq]—
16 this is the person who will live in a secure place;[ar]
he will find safety in the rocky, mountain strongholds;[as]
he will have food
and a constant supply of water.
17 You will see a king in his splendor;[at]
you will see a wide land.[au]
18 Your mind will recall the terror you experienced,[av]
and you will ask yourselves,[aw] “Where is the scribe?
Where is the one who weighs the money?
Where is the one who counts the towers?”[ax]
19 You will no longer see a defiant[ay] people
whose language you do not comprehend,[az]
whose derisive speech you do not understand.[ba]
20 Look at Zion, the city where we hold religious festivals!
You[bb] will see Jerusalem,
a peaceful settlement,
a tent that stays put;[bc]
its stakes will never be pulled up;
none of its ropes will snap in two.
21 Instead the Lord will rule there as our mighty king.[bd]
Rivers and wide streams will flow through it;[be]
no war galley will enter;[bf]
no large ships will sail through.[bg]
22 For the Lord, our ruler,
the Lord, our commander,
the Lord, our king—
he will deliver us.
23 Though at this time your ropes are slack,[bh]
the mast is not secured,[bi]
and the sail[bj] is not unfurled,
at that time you will divide up a great quantity of loot;[bk]
even the lame will drag off plunder.[bl]
24 No resident of Zion[bm] will say, “I am ill”;
the people who live there will have their sin forgiven.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 33:1 tn Heb “Woe [to] the destroyer.”sn In this context “the destroyer” appears to refer collectively to the hostile nations (vv. 3-4). Assyria would probably have been primary in the minds of the prophet and his audience.
- Isaiah 33:1 tn Heb “and the deceitful one”; NAB, NIV “O traitor”; NRSV “you treacherous one.” In the parallel structure הוֹי (hoy, “woe [to]”) does double duty.
- Isaiah 33:1 tc The form in the Hebrew text appears to derive from an otherwise unattested verb נָלָה (nalah). The translation follows the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa in reading ככלתך, a Piel infinitival form from the verbal root כָּלָה (kalah), meaning “finish.”
- Isaiah 33:2 tn Heb “Be their arm each morning.” “Arm” is a symbol for strength. The mem suffixed to the noun has been traditionally understood as a third person suffix, but this is contrary to the context, where the people speak of themselves in the first person. The mem (מ) is probably enclitic with ellipsis of the pronoun, which can be supplied from the context. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:589, n. 1.
- Isaiah 33:2 tn Heb “[Be] also our deliverance in the time of distress.”
- Isaiah 33:3 tn Heb “at the sound of tumult the nations run away.”
- Isaiah 33:3 tn Heb “because of your exaltation the nations scatter.”
- Isaiah 33:4 tn The pronoun is plural; the statement is addressed to the nations who have stockpiled plunder from their conquests of others.
- Isaiah 33:4 tn Heb “and your plunder is gathered, the gathering of the locust.”
- Isaiah 33:4 tn Heb “like a swarm of locusts swarming on it.”
- Isaiah 33:5 tn Or “elevated”; NCV, NLT “is very great.”
- Isaiah 33:5 tn Or “for” (KJV, NASB, NIV).
- Isaiah 33:5 tn Heb “on high” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “in the heavens.”
- Isaiah 33:6 tn Heb “and he is the stability of your times.”
- Isaiah 33:6 tn Heb “a rich store of deliverance, wisdom, and knowledge.”
- Isaiah 33:6 tn Heb “the fear of the Lord, it is his treasure.”
- Isaiah 33:7 tn The meaning of the Hebrew word is unknown. Proposals include “heroes” (cf. KJV, ASV “valiant ones”; NASB, NIV “brave men”); “priests,” “residents [of Jerusalem].” The present translation assumes that the term is synonymous with “messengers of peace,” with which it corresponds in the parallel structure of the verse.
- Isaiah 33:7 tn Heb “messengers of peace,” apparently those responsible for negotiating the agreements that have been broken (see v. 8).
- Isaiah 33:8 tn Or “desolate” (NAB, NASB); NIV, NRSV, NLT “deserted.”
- Isaiah 33:8 tn Heb “the one passing by on the road ceases.”
- Isaiah 33:8 tn Heb “one breaks a treaty”; NAB “Covenants are broken.”
- Isaiah 33:8 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “he despises cities.” The term עָרִים (ʿarim, “cities”) probably needs to be emended to an original עֵדִים (ʿedim, “[legal] witnesses”), a reading that is preserved in the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa. Confusion of dalet (ד) and resh (ר) is a well-attested scribal error.
- Isaiah 33:8 tn Heb “he does not regard human beings.”
- Isaiah 33:9 tn Or “earth” (KJV); NAB “the country.”
- Isaiah 33:9 tn Or “mourns” (BDB 5 s.v. I אָבַל). HALOT 6-7 lists homonyms I אבל (“mourn”) and II אבל (“dry up”). They propose the second here on the basis of parallelism. See 24:4.
- Isaiah 33:9 tn Heb “Lebanon is ashamed.” The Hiphil is exhibitive, expressing the idea, “exhibits shame.” In this context the statement alludes to the withering of vegetation.
- Isaiah 33:9 sn Sharon was a fertile plain along the Mediterranean coast. See 35:2.
- Isaiah 33:9 tn The rift valley (עֲרָבָה, ʿaravah) is a geographic feature extending from Galilee to the Gulf of Aqaba. Especially in the vicinity of the Dead Sea and then ranging southward, it is very dry with little vegetation.
- Isaiah 33:9 sn Both of these areas were known for their trees and vegetation. See 2:13; 35:2.
- Isaiah 33:9 tn Heb “shake off [their leaves]” (so ASV, NRSV); NAB “are stripped bare.”
- Isaiah 33:10 tn Or “lift myself up” (KJV); NLT “show my power and might.”
- Isaiah 33:11 tn The second person verb and pronominal forms in this verse are plural. The hostile nations are the addressed, as the next verse makes clear.
- Isaiah 33:11 sn The hostile nations’ plans to destroy God’s people will come to nothing; their hostility will end up being self-destructive.
- Isaiah 33:12 tn Heb “will be a burning to lime.” See Amos 2:1.
- Isaiah 33:14 tn Or “trembling” (ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “shake with fear.”
- Isaiah 33:14 tn Or “the defiled”; TEV “The sinful people of Zion”; NLT “The sinners in Jerusalem.”
- Isaiah 33:14 tn The words “they say” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
- Isaiah 33:14 tn Or “perpetual”; or “everlasting” (KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV).
- Isaiah 33:15 tn Heb “walks” (so NASB, NIV).
- Isaiah 33:15 tn Or, possibly, “justly”; NAB “who practices virtue.”
- Isaiah 33:15 tn Heb “[who] shakes off his hands from grabbing hold of a bribe.”
- Isaiah 33:15 tn Heb “[who] shuts his ear from listening to bloodshed.”
- Isaiah 33:15 tn Heb “[who] closes his eyes from seeing evil.”
- Isaiah 33:16 tn Heb “he [in the] exalted places will live.”
- Isaiah 33:16 tn Heb “mountain strongholds, cliffs [will be] his elevated place.”
- Isaiah 33:17 tn Heb “your eyes will see a king in his beauty”; NIV, NRSV “the king.”
- Isaiah 33:17 tn Heb “a land of distances,” i.e., an extensive land.
- Isaiah 33:18 tn Heb “your heart will meditate on terror.”
- Isaiah 33:18 tn The words “and you will ask yourselves” are supplied in the translation for clarification and stylistic reasons.
- Isaiah 33:18 sn The people refer to various Assyrian officials who were responsible for determining the amount of taxation or tribute Judah must pay to the Assyrian king.
- Isaiah 33:19 tn The Hebrew form נוֹעָז (noʿaz) is a Niphal participle derived from יָעַז (yaʿaz, an otherwise unattested verb) or from עָזָז (ʿazaz, “be strong,” unattested elsewhere in the Niphal). Some prefer to emend the form to לוֹעֵז (loʿez) which occurs in Ps 114:1 with the meaning “speak a foreign language.” See HALOT 809 s.v. עזז, 533 s.v. לעז. In this case, one might translate “people who speak a foreign language.”
- Isaiah 33:19 tn Heb “a people too deep of lip to hear.” The phrase “deep of lip” must be an idiom meaning “lips that speak words that are unfathomable [i.e., incomprehensible].”
- Isaiah 33:19 tn Heb “derision of tongue there is no understanding.” The Niphal of לָעַג (laʿag) occurs only here. In the Qal and Hiphil the verb means “to deride, mock.” A related noun is used in 28:11.
- Isaiah 33:20 tn Heb “your eyes” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).
- Isaiah 33:20 tn Or “that does not travel”; NASB “which shall not be folded.”
- Isaiah 33:21 tn Heb “But there [as] a mighty one [will be] the Lord for us.”
- Isaiah 33:21 tn Heb “a place of rivers, streams wide of hands [i.e., on both sides].”
- Isaiah 33:21 tn Heb “a ship of rowing will not go into it.”
- Isaiah 33:21 tn Heb “and a mighty ship will not pass through it.”
- Isaiah 33:23 tn The words “though at this time” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The first half of the verse is addressed to Judah and contrasts the nation’s present weakness with its future prosperity. Judah is compared to a ship that is incapable of sailing.
- Isaiah 33:23 tn Heb “they do not fasten the base of their mast.” On כֵּן (ken, “base”) see BDB 487 s.v. III כֵּן and HALOT 483 s.v. III כֵּן.
- Isaiah 33:23 tn Or perhaps, “flag.”
- Isaiah 33:23 tn Heb “then there will be divided up loot of plunder [in] abundance.”
- Isaiah 33:23 sn Judah’s victory over its enemies will be so thorough there will be more than enough plunder for everyone, even slow-moving lame men who would normally get left out in the rush to gather the loot.
- Isaiah 33:24 tn The words “of Zion” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
Isaiah 33
Living Bible
33 Woe to you, Assyrians,[a] who have destroyed everything around you but have never felt destruction for yourselves. You expect others to respect their promises to you, while you betray them! Now you, too, will be betrayed and destroyed.
2 But to us, O Lord, be merciful, for we have waited for you. Be our strength each day and our salvation in the time of trouble. 3 The enemy runs at the sound of your voice. When you stand up, the nations flee. 4 Just as locusts strip the fields and vines, so Jerusalem will strip the fallen army of Assyria![b]
5 The Lord is very great and lives in heaven. He will make Jerusalem the home of justice and goodness and righteousness. 6 An abundance of salvation is stored up for Judah in a safe place, along with wisdom and knowledge and reverence for God.
7 But now your ambassadors weep in bitter disappointment, for Assyria has refused their cry for peace. 8 Your roads lie in ruins; travelers detour on back roads. The Assyrians have broken their peace pact[c] and care nothing for the promises they made in the presence of witnesses—they have no respect for anyone. 9 All the land of Israel is in trouble; Lebanon has been destroyed; Sharon has become a wilderness; Bashan and Carmel are plundered.
10 But the Lord says: I will stand up and show my power and might. 11 You Assyrians will gain nothing by all your efforts. Your own breath will turn to fire and kill you. 12 Your armies will be burned to lime, like thorns cut down and tossed in the fire. 13 Listen to what I have done, O nations far away! And you that are near, acknowledge my might!
14 The sinners among my people shake with fear. “Which one of us,” they cry, “can live here in the presence of this all-consuming, everlasting fire?” 15 I will tell you who can live here: All who are honest and fair, who reject making profit by fraud, who hold back their hands from taking bribes, who refuse to listen to those who plot murder, who shut their eyes to all enticement to do wrong. 16 Such as these shall dwell on high. The rocks of the mountains will be their fortress of safety; food will be supplied to them, and they will have all the water they need.
17 Your eyes will see the King in his beauty and the highlands of heaven far away. 18 Your mind will think back to this time of terror when the Assyrian officers outside your walls are counting your towers and estimating how much they will get from your fallen city. 19 But soon they will all be gone. These fierce, violent people with a strange, jabbering language you can’t understand will disappear.
20 Instead you will see Jerusalem at peace, a place where God is worshiped, a city quiet and unmoved. 21 The glorious Lord will be to us as a wide river of protection, and no enemy can cross. 22 For the Lord is our Judge, our Lawgiver and our King; he will care for us and save us. 23 The enemies’ sails hang loose on broken masts with useless tackle. Their treasure will be divided by the people of God; even the lame will win their share. 24 The people of Israel will no longer say, “We are sick and helpless,” for the Lord will forgive them their sins and bless them.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 33:1 Assyrians, implied.
- Isaiah 33:4 fallen army of Assyria, see 2 Kings 19:35.
- Isaiah 33:8 peace pact, see 2 Kings 18:14-17.
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