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.

Woe to them that afflict you; but no one makes you miserable: and he that deals perfidiously with you does not deal perfidiously: they that deal perfidiously shall be taken and given up, and as a moth on a garment, so shall they be spoiled.

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.

Lord, have mercy upon us; for we have trusted in you: the seed of the rebellious is gone to destruction, but our deliverance was in a time of affliction.

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

By reason of the terrible sound the nations were dismayed for fear of you, and the heathen were scattered.

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

And now shall the spoils of your small and great be gathered: as if one should gather locusts, so shall they mock you.

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

The God who dwells on high is holy: Sion is filled with judgment and righteousness.

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.

They shall be delivered up to the law: our salvation is our treasure: there are wisdom and knowledge and piety toward the Lord; these are the treasures of righteousness.

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

Behold now, these shall be terrified with fear of you: those whom you feared shall cry out because of you: messengers shall be sent, bitterly weeping, entreating for peace.

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.

For the ways of these shall be made desolate: the terror of the nations has been made to cease, and the covenant with these is taken away, and you shall by no means deem them men.

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 land mourns; Libanus is ashamed: Saron is become marshes; Galilee shall be laid bare, and Chermel.

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

Now will I arise, says the Lord, now will I be glorified; now will I be exalted.

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

Now shall you see, now shall you perceive; the strength of your breath, shall be vain; fire shall devour you.

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 nations shall be burnt up; as a thorn in the field cast out and burnt up.

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

They that are afar off shall hear what I have done; they that draw near shall know my strength.

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 Sion have departed; trembling shall seize the ungodly. Who will tell you that a fire is kindled? Who will tell you of the eternal place?

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 that walks in righteousness, speaking rightly, hating transgression and iniquity, and shaking his hands from gifts, stopping his ears that he should not hear the judgment of blood, shutting his eyes that he should not see injustice.

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 shall dwell in a high cave of a strong rock: bread shall be given him, and his water shall be sure.

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

You shall see a king with glory: your eyes shall behold a land from afar.

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 soul shall meditate terror. Where are the scribes? where are the counselors, where is he that numbers them that are growing up,

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.

[even] the small and great people? with whom he took not counsel, neither did he understand [a people] of deep speech, so that a despised people should not hear, and there is no understanding to him that hears.

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.

Behold the city of Sion, our refuge: your eyes shall behold Jerusalem, a rich city, tabernacles which shall not be shaken, neither shall the pins of her tabernacle be moved for ever, neither shall her cords be at all 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.

for the name of the Lord is great to you: you shall have a place, [even] rivers and wide and spacious channels: you shall not go this way, neither a vessel with oars go [thereby].

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

For my God is great: the Lord our judge shall not pass me by: the Lord is our prince, the Lord is our king; the Lord, he shall save us.

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 are broken, for they had no strength: your meat has given way, it shall not spread the sails, it shall not bear a signal, until it be given up for plunder; therefore shall many lame men take spoil.

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 people dwelling among them shall by no means say, I am in pain: for their sin shall be forgiven them.