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 you, destroyer who has not been destroyed! Woe to the betrayer whom they have not betrayed! When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed. When you stop betraying, they will 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 gracious to us; we wait for you; be our arm every morning, our salvation in the 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 flee; when you arise, the nations are scattered.
4 And your spoils will be gathered together, just as the locusts are collected when the ditches have become filled with them.
Your spoil is gathered as the locusts gather; as locusts leap, men leap on it.
5 The Lord has been magnified, because he has lived on high. He has filled Zion with judgment and justice.
Yahweh is exalted. He lives in a high place. He will fill Zion with justice 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.
He will be the stability in your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of Yahweh is his treasure.
7 Behold, outside, those who see will cry out. The Angels of peace will weep bitterly.
Look, their envoys cry in the streets; the diplomats hoping for peace weep 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 deserted; there are no more travelers. Covenants are broken, witnesses are despised, and mankind is not respected.
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 and withers away; Lebanon is ashamed and withers away; Sharon is like a desert plain; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
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 Yahweh; “now I will be lifted up; now I will be elevated.
11 You will conceive heat. You will give birth to stubble. Your own spirit will devour you like fire.
You conceive chaff, and you give birth to stubble; your breath is a fire that will consume you.
12 And the people will be like the ashes from a fire. They will be consumed by fire like a bundle of thorns.
The peoples will be burned to lime, as thornbushes are cut down and are burned.
13 “You who are far away, listen to what I have done! And you who are near, acknowledge my strength!”
You who are far away, hear what I have done; and, you who are near, acknowledge my might.”
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 afraid; trembling has seized the godless ones. Who among us can sojourn with a raging fire? Who among us can sojourn with everlasting 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 who walks righteously and speaks honestly; who despises the gain of oppression, who shakes his hand so that it will not accept a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed, and who shuts his eyes from looking on 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.
this is the man who will dwell on the heights, his place of defense will be the fortress among the cliffs, his food will be given, and his water will be in steady supply.
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 beauty; they will see a land off in the distance.
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 recall the terror; where is the scribe, where is he who weighed the money? Where is he who counted the towers?
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.
You will no longer see the defiant people, a people of a strange language that you do not understand.
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.
Look at Zion, the city of our feasts; your eyes will see Jerusalem as a quiet habitation, a tent that will not be removed, whose stakes will never be pulled up nor will any of its cords 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.
Instead, Yahweh in majesty will be with us, in a place of broad rivers and streams. No warship with oars will travel it, and no large ships will sail by.
22 For the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king. He himself will save us.
For Yahweh is our judge, Yahweh is our lawgiver, Yahweh is our king; he will 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 riggings are slack; they cannot hold the mast in place; they cannot spread the sail; when the great spoil is divided, even the lame will drag off the 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.
The inhabitants will not say, “I am sick;” the people who live there will be forgiven for their iniquity.
