Isaiah 33-34
English Standard Version
O Lord, Be Gracious to Us
33 (A)Ah, you destroyer,
who yourself have not been destroyed,
you traitor,
whom none has betrayed!
When you have ceased to destroy,
you will be destroyed;
and when you have finished betraying,
they will betray you.
2 O Lord, be gracious to us; (B)we wait for you.
Be our arm every morning,
our salvation in the time of trouble.
3 (C)At the tumultuous noise peoples flee;
when you lift yourself up, nations are scattered,
4 and your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;
(D)as locusts leap, it is leapt upon.
5 (E)The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high;
he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness,
6 (F)and he will be the stability of your times,
abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;
the fear of the Lord is Zion's[a] treasure.
7 Behold, their heroes cry in the streets;
(G)the envoys of peace weep bitterly.
8 (H)The highways lie waste;
the traveler ceases.
(I)Covenants are broken;
cities[b] are despised;
there is no regard for man.
9 (J)The land mourns and languishes;
Lebanon is confounded and withers away;
Sharon is like a desert,
and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
10 (K)“Now I will arise,” says the Lord,
“now I will lift myself up;
now I will be exalted.
11 (L)You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble;
your breath is (M)a fire that will consume you.
12 And the peoples will be as if burned to lime,
(N)like thorns cut down, that are 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:
(O)“Who among us can dwell (P)with the consuming fire?
Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?”
15 (Q)He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,
who despises the gain of oppressions,
who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe,
who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed
(R)and shuts his eyes from looking on evil,
16 he will dwell on the heights;
his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks;
(S)his bread will be given him; his water will be sure.
17 (T)Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty;
(U)they will see a land that stretches afar.
18 (V)Your heart will muse on the terror:
“Where is he who counted, where is (W)he who weighed the tribute?
Where is (X)he who counted the towers?”
19 (Y)You will see no more the insolent people,
the people (Z)of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend,
stammering in a tongue that you cannot understand.
20 Behold Zion, the city of our appointed feasts!
(AA)Your eyes will see Jerusalem,
an untroubled habitation, an (AB)immovable tent,
whose stakes will never be plucked up,
nor will any of its cords be broken.
21 But there the Lord in majesty will be for us
a place of (AC)broad rivers and streams,
(AD)where no galley with oars can go,
nor majestic ship can pass.
22 For the Lord is our (AE)judge; the Lord is our (AF)lawgiver;
the Lord is our (AG)king; he will save us.
23 Your cords hang loose;
they cannot hold the mast firm in its place
or keep the sail spread out.
(AH)Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided;
even (AI)the lame will take the prey.
24 And no inhabitant will say, (AJ)“I am sick”;
(AK)the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.
Judgment on the Nations
34 Draw near, (AL)O nations, to hear,
and give attention, O peoples!
Let the earth hear, and all that fills it;
the world, and all that comes from it.
2 For the Lord is enraged against all the nations,
and furious against all their host;
he has (AM)devoted them to destruction,[c] has given them over for slaughter.
3 Their slain shall be cast out,
and (AN)the stench of their corpses shall rise;
(AO)the mountains shall flow with their blood.
4 (AP)All the host of heaven shall rot away,
and the skies roll up like a scroll.
All their host shall fall,
as leaves fall from the vine,
like leaves falling from the fig tree.
5 For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;
behold, it descends for judgment upon (AQ)Edom,
upon the people (AR)I have devoted to destruction.
6 The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood;
it is gorged with fat,
with the blood of lambs and goats,
with the fat of the kidneys of rams.
(AS)For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 (AT)Wild oxen shall (AU)fall with them,
and (AV)young steers with (AW)the mighty bulls.
Their land shall drink its fill of blood,
and their soil shall be gorged with fat.
8 (AX)For the Lord has a day of vengeance,
a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
9 (AY)And the streams of Edom[d] shall be turned into pitch,
and her soil into sulfur;
her land shall become burning pitch.
10 Night and day (AZ)it shall not be quenched;
(BA)its smoke shall go up forever.
(BB)From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
none shall pass through it forever and ever.
11 (BC)But the hawk and the porcupine[e] shall possess it,
the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.
(BD)He shall stretch the line of (BE)confusion[f] over it,
and the plumb line of emptiness.
12 Its nobles—there is no one there to call it a kingdom,
and all its princes shall be nothing.
13 (BF)Thorns shall grow over its strongholds,
nettles and thistles in its fortresses.
It shall be the haunt of (BG)jackals,
an abode for ostriches.[g]
14 (BH)And wild animals shall meet with hyenas;
the wild goat shall cry to his fellow;
indeed, there the night bird[h] settles
and finds for herself a resting place.
15 There the owl nests and lays
and hatches and gathers her young in her shadow;
indeed, there (BI)the hawks are gathered,
each one with her mate.
16 Seek and read from the book of the Lord:
Not one of these shall be missing;
none shall be without her mate.
For the mouth of the Lord has commanded,
and his Spirit has gathered them.
17 (BJ)He has cast the lot for them;
his hand has portioned it out to them with the line;
they shall possess it forever;
from generation to generation they shall dwell in it.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 33:6 Hebrew his
- Isaiah 33:8 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scroll witnesses
- Isaiah 34:2 That is, set apart (devoted) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction); also verse 5
- Isaiah 34:9 Hebrew her streams
- Isaiah 34:11 The identity of the animals rendered hawk and porcupine is uncertain
- Isaiah 34:11 Hebrew formlessness
- Isaiah 34:13 Or owls
- Isaiah 34:14 Identity uncertain
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
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