Isaiah 33

1 Woe to you who plunder! Will you yourselves not also be plundered? And woe to you who despise! Will you yourselves not also be despised? When you will have completed your plundering, you will be plundered. When, out of fatigue, you will have ceased acting with contempt, you will be treated with contempt.

Ho! you who make waste those who did not make you waste; acting falsely to those who were not false to you. When you have come to an end of wasting, you will be made waste, and after your false acts, they will do the same to you.

2 O Lord, take pity on us. For we have waited for you. Be our arm in the morning and our salvation in the time of tribulation.

O Lord, have mercy on us; for we have been waiting for your help: be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of trouble.

3 From the voice of the Angel, the people fled. And from your exultation, the nations were scattered.

At the loud noise the peoples have gone in flight; at your coming up the nations have gone in all directions.

4 And your spoils will be gathered together, just as the locusts are collected when the ditches have become filled with them.

And the goods taken in war will be got together like the massing of young locusts; men will be rushing on them like the rushing of locusts.

5 The Lord has been magnified, because he has lived on high. He has filled Zion with judgment and justice.

The Lord is lifted up; his place is on high: he has made Zion full of righteousness and true religion.

6 And there will be faith in your times: the riches of salvation, wisdom and knowledge. For the fear of the Lord is his treasure.

And she will have no more fear of change, being full of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge: the fear of the Lord is her wealth.

7 Behold, outside, those who see will cry out. The Angels of peace will weep bitterly.

See, the men of war are sorrowing outside the town: those who came looking for peace are weeping bitterly.

8 The roads have become desolate. Travelers have ceased along the paths. The covenant has been nullified. He has tossed aside cities. He has disregarded men.

The highways are waste, no man is journeying there: the agreement is broken, he has made sport of the towns, he has no thought for man.

9 The earth has mourned and languished. Lebanon has been confounded and desecrated. And Sharon has become like a desert. And Bashan and Carmel have been struck together.

The earth is sorrowing and wasting away; Lebanon is put to shame and has become waste; Sharon is like the Arabah; and in Bashan and Carmel the leaves are falling.

10 “Now, I will rise up!” says the Lord. “Now I will be exalted! Now I will lift myself up!”

Now will I come forward, says the Lord; now will I be lifted up; now will my power be seen.

11 You will conceive heat. You will give birth to stubble. Your own spirit will devour you like fire.

Your designs will be without profit, and their effect will be nothing: you will be burned up by the fire of my breath.

12 And the people will be like the ashes from a fire. They will be consumed by fire like a bundle of thorns.

And the peoples will be like the burning of chalk: as thorns cut down, which are burned in the fire.

13 “You who are far away, listen to what I have done! And you who are near, acknowledge my strength!”

Give ear, you who are far off, to what I have done: see my power, you who are near.

14 The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling has taken hold of the hypocrites. Who among you is able to live with a devouring fire? Who among you will live with an everlasting flame?

The sinners in Zion are full of fear; the haters of God are shaking with wonder. Who among us may keep his place before the burning fire? who among us may see the eternal burnings?

15 The one who walks in justice and speaks the truth, who casts out avarice with oppression and shakes all bribes from his hands, who blocks his ears so that he may not listen to blood, and closes his eyes so that he may not see evil.

He whose ways are true, and whose words are upright; he who gives no thought to the profits of false acts, whose hands have not taken rewards, who will have no part in putting men to death, and whose eyes are shut against evil;

16 Such a one will live on high; the fortification of rocks will be his lofty place. Bread has been given to him; his waters are reliable.

He will have a place on high: he will be safely shut in by the high rocks: his bread will be given to him; his waters will be certain.

17 His eyes will see the king in his elegance; they will discern the land from far away.

Your eyes will see the king in his glory: they will be looking on a far-stretching land.

18 Your heart will meditate on fear. Where are the learned? Where are those who ponder the words of the law? Where are the teachers of little ones?

Your heart will give thought to the cause of your fear: where is the scribe, where is he who made a record of the payments, where is he by whom the towers were numbered?

19 You will not look upon a shameless people, a people of exalted words. For you are not able to understand the dissertation of a tongue in which there is no wisdom.

Never again will you see the cruel people, a people whose tongue has no sense for you; whose language is strange to you.

20 Look with favor upon Zion, the city of our solemnity. Your eyes will behold Jerusalem: an opulent habitation, a tabernacle that can never be taken away. Its stakes will not be taken away forever, nor will any of its cords be broken.

Let your eyes be resting on Zion, the town of our holy feasts: you will see Jerusalem, a quiet resting-place, a tent which will not be moved, whose tent-pins will never be pulled up, and whose cords will never be broken.

21 For only in that place has our Lord been magnified. It is a place of rivers, very broad and open. No ship with oars will cross through it, nor will the great Greek ship pass through it.

But there the Lord will be with us in his glory, ... wide rivers and streams; where no boat will go with blades, and no fair ship will be sailing.

22 For the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king. He himself will save us.

For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our law-giver, the Lord is our king; he will be our saviour.

23 Your ropes have become loose, and they will not prevail. Your mast will be such that you will not be able to unfurl a flag. Then the spoils of much plunder will be divided. The lame will seize the spoils.

Your cords have become loose; they were not able to make strong the support of their sails, the sail was not stretched out: then the blind will take much property, the feeble-footed will make division of the goods of war.

24 He who is nearby will not say: “I am too weak.” The people who live in it will have their iniquity taken away from them.

And the men of Zion will not say, I am ill: for its people will have forgiveness for their sin.