Isaiah 33
1 Tragedy is coming to you, you destroyer who has not experienced destruction yourself, you deceiver who has not experienced deception yourself! When you have finished with your destroying, you will be destroyed yourself. Then you are finished with your deceiving, you will be deceived yourselves.
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.
2 Lord, please be kind to us; we put our confidence in you. Be the strength we rely on every morning; be our salvation in times of trouble.
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.
3 When you roar, the peoples run away; when you prepare for action, the nations scatter!
From the voice of the Angel, the people fled. And from your exultation, the nations were scattered.
4 You plunder defeated enemy armies like caterpillars eating up plants; like an attack of swarming locusts.
And your spoils will be gathered together, just as the locusts are collected when the ditches have become filled with them.
5 The Lord is praised for he lives in highest heaven; he has filled Zion with justice and right.
The Lord has been magnified, because he has lived on high. He has filled Zion with judgment and justice.
6 He will be your constant support throughout your lives an abundant source of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. Reverence for the Lord is what makes Zion rich.
And there will be faith in your times: the riches of salvation, wisdom and knowledge. For the fear of the Lord is his treasure.
7 But look! Even your bravest soldiers are crying loudly in the street; the messengers you sent to ask for peace are weeping bitterly.
Behold, outside, those who see will cry out. The Angels of peace will weep bitterly.
8 Your highways are deserted; nobody's traveling on your roads anymore. He breaks the treaty; he despises the witnesses; he doesn't care about anybody.
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.
9 Israel is in mourning and fades away; Lebanon withers in shame; the fields of Sharon have become a desert; the forests of Bashan and Carmel have shed their leaves.
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.
10 “But now I'm going to intervene!” says the Lord. “I'm prepared to act! I will show myself to be above all others!
“Now, I will rise up!” says the Lord. “Now I will be exalted! Now I will lift myself up!”
11 All you give birth to is only dry grass, all you deliver is just stubble. Your breath is a fire that will burn you up.
You will conceive heat. You will give birth to stubble. Your own spirit will devour you like fire.
12 You people will be burned to ashes like thorns that are cut down and thrown into the fire.
And the people will be like the ashes from a fire. They will be consumed by fire like a bundle of thorns.
13 Those of you who are far away, recognize what I have accomplished; those of you who are nearby, recognize how powerful I am.”
“You who are far away, listen to what I have done! And you who are near, acknowledge my strength!”
14 The sinners who live in Zion tremble with fear; those who are irreligious are overcome with terror. They ask, “Who can live with this fire that consumes everything? Who can live among such everlasting burning?”
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?
15 Those who live right and speak the truth, those who refuse to profit from extortion and refuse to take bribes, who don't listen to plots to kill people, who close their eyes rather than look at evil.
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.
16 They will live on high; they will be protected by the mountain fortresses; they will always be provided with food and will always have water.
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.
17 You will see the king in his wonderful appearance, and you will view a land that stretches into the distance.
His eyes will see the king in his elegance; they will discern the land from far away.
18 In your mind you will think about the terrifying things that were expected, and then ask yourself, “Where are the enemy officials—the scribes who were to record events, the treasurers who were to weigh the looted money, the surveyors who were to count and destroy the towers?”
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?
19 You won't see these offensive people anymore with their barbaric language that sounds like someone stammering and is impossible to understand.
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.
20 On the contrary, you'll see Zion as a festival city. You will view Jerusalem as a quiet and peaceful place. It will be like a tent that's never taken down, whose tent-pegs are never pulled up, whose guy ropes never snap.
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.
21 Right here our majestic Lord will be like a place of broad rivers and waters that no enemy ship with oars can cross—no great ship can pass.
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.
22 For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king. He is the one who will save us.
For the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king. He himself will save us.
23 The rigging on your ship hangs loose so the mast isn't secure and the sail can't be spread. Then all the looted treasure you're carrying will be divided among the victors—even those who are lame will have their share.
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.
24 Nobody in Israel will say, “I'm sick,” and those who live there will have their guilt removed.
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.
