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.
Terrible things will happen to you [people of Assyria]! You have destroyed [others], [but] you have not been destroyed [yet]. You have betrayed/deceived [others], [but] you have not been betrayed/deceived [yet]. When you stop destroying [others], others will destroy you. When you stop betraying/deceiving others, [others] betray 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.
Yahweh, be kind to us, because we have patiently waited for you [to help us]. Enable us to be strong every day, and rescue us when we have troubles.
3 From the voice of the Angel, the people fled. And from your exultation, the nations were scattered.
Our enemies run away when they hear your voice. When you stand up and show that you are powerful [IDM], the people of all nations flee.
4 And your spoils will be gathered together, just as the locusts are collected when the ditches have become filled with them.
[And after our enemies have been defeated], we, your people, will take away all our enemies’ possessions like [SIM] caterpillars and locusts strip off all the leaves of plants.
5 The Lord has been magnified, because he has lived on high. He has filled Zion with judgment and justice.
Yahweh is greater than anyone else, and he lives in heaven, and he will rule justly and righteously in Jerusalem.
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.
[When that happens], he will enable you to live securely/safely; he will fully protect your possessions, he will enable you to be wise and to know [all that you need to know]; and revering Yahweh will be [like] [MET] a valuable treasure for you.
7 Behold, outside, those who see will cry out. The Angels of peace will weep bitterly.
[But now], look, our brave men are crying out in the streets; our ambassadors [have gone to other countries to make peace treaties], [but they will] cry bitterly [because they will not succeed].
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.
No one travels on our roads [DOU]. [The leaders of Assyria] have broken/disregarded their peace treaty [with us]; they despise the people who made those treaties, and they do not respect anyone.
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 [of Judah] is dry and barren. The [cedar trees in] Lebanon are drying up and decaying. The Sharon [Plain along the coast] is now a desert. There are no more leaves on the trees in the Bashan and Carmel [areas].
10 “Now, I will rise up!” says the Lord. “Now I will be exalted! Now I will lift myself up!”
Yahweh says, “Now I will begin to show that I am very powerful [DOU].
11 You will conceive heat. You will give birth to stubble. Your own spirit will devour you like fire.
You [people of Assyria] make plans that are [as useless as] [MET] chaff and straw. Your breath will become a fire that will burn you up.
12 And the people will be like the ashes from a fire. They will be consumed by fire like a bundle of thorns.
[Your] people will be burned until only ashes remain [MET] like [SIM] thornbushes are cut down and burned up in a fire.
13 “You who are far away, listen to what I have done! And you who are near, acknowledge my strength!”
You people who live far away and you people who live nearby, pay attention to what I have done and realize that I am [very] powerful.”
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 Jerusalem will tremble because of being very afraid; godless people will be terrified. [They say], “None of us can [RHQ] remain alive because this fire is burning everything; it is like the fire on Yahweh’s altar that will burn forever!”
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.
Those who act honestly and say what is right, those who do not try to become rich by (extortion/forcing people to give them money), those who do not try to get bribes, those who refuse to listen to people who are planning to murder someone, those who do not join others who urge them to do what is wrong,
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.
they are the people who will live safely [MTY]; they will find places to be safe in the caves in the mountains. They will have plenty of food and water.
17 His eyes will see the king in his elegance; they will discern the land from far away.
You [SYN] [people of Judah] will see the king wearing all his beautiful [robes], and you will see that he rules a land that extends far away.
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?
When you see that, you will think about when you were previously terrified, [and you will say], “[The officers of Assyria] who counted the tax money that we were forced to pay to them [have disappeared] [RHQ]! Those men who counted our towers [are gone] [RHQ]!
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.
Those arrogant people who spoke a language that we could not understand are no longer here!”
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.
[At that time], you will see Zion Hill, the place where we celebrate our festivals; you will see that Jerusalem has become a place that is calm and safe. It will be [secure], [like] [SIM] a tent [that cannot be moved because] its ropes are tight and its stakes are firmly in the ground.
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.
Yahweh will be our mighty God; he will be [like] [SIM] a mighty river that will protect us because [our enemies] will not be able to cross it; no one will be able to row across it and no ships will be able to sail across it.
22 For the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king. He himself will save us.
Yahweh is our judge; he is the one who gives us laws, and he is our king. He will rescue 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.
The ropes on our enemies’ boats will hang loose, their masts will not be fastened firmly, and their sails will not be spread out. The treasures that they have seized will be divided [among us, God’s people], and even lame [people among us] will get some.
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 in Jerusalem will no [longer] say, “We are sick,” [because Yahweh] will forgive the sins that have been committed by the people who live there.
