Isaiah 33

Yahweh’s Judgment and Help

33Ah, destroyer, and yourself not destroyed!

And treacherous one, and no one has dealt treacherously with him!^a

When you cease^b destroying, you will be destroyed.

When you stop dealing treacherously, one will deal treacherously with you.

²Yahweh, be gracious to us, we wait for you.

Be our^c arm in the mornings,

indeed our salvation in the time of trouble.

³At the sound of tumult, peoples fled;

because of your exaltation, nations scattered.

⁴And your spoil is gathered,

as the gathering of the locust,

as a swarm of locusts storming on it.

⁵Yahweh is exalted, for he dwells on high;

he filled Zion with justice and righteousness,

⁶and he will be the security of your times,

an abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge.

The fear of Yahweh is his treasure.

⁷Look! Their heroes cry out in the street;

the messengers of peace weep bitterly.

⁸Highways are deserted;

the traveler on the road ceases.

One breaks a treaty,

he rejects the cities,^d

he does not hold man in high regard.

⁹The land mourns; it languishes.

Lebanon feels abashed; it withers.

Sharon is like the desert,

and Bashan and Carmel are losing their leaves.^e

¹⁰“Now I will arise,” says Yahweh.

“Now I will lift myself up proudly;

now I will raise myself.

¹¹You conceive dry grass, you bring forth stubble;

your breath is a fire; it will consume you.

¹²And the peoples will be burning to lime—

they are burned like thorns that have been cut down in the fire.

¹³You who are far away, hear what I have done;

and you who are near, know my might!”

¹⁴Sinners are afraid in Zion;

trembling has seized the godless:

“Who of us can live^f with devouring fire?

Who of us can live^g with everlasting consuming hearths?”

¹⁵He who walks in righteousness

and speaks uprightness,

who rejects the gain of extortion,

who refuses^h a bribe,

who stops up his earsⁱ from hearing bloodshed^j

and shuts his eyes from seeing evil.

¹⁶That one will live on the heights;

the fortresses of rocks will be his refuge.

His food will be given;

his waters^k will endure.

¹⁷Your eyes will see the king in his beauty;

they will see a distant land.^l

¹⁸Your mind^m will meditate on the terror:

“Where is the one who counted?

Where is the one who weighed out?

Where is the one who counted the towers?”

¹⁹You will not see the insolent people,

the people whose language is too obscure to understand,ⁿ

whose stammering of tongue cannot be understood.^o

²⁰Look on Zion, the city of our appointed festivals!

Your eyes will see Jerusalem,

an undisturbed settlement,

a tent that is not moved.^p

No one will ever pull out its tent pegs,

and none of its ropes will be torn in two.

²¹Rather, there Yahweh will be mighty for us,

a place of rivers and broad streams,^q

a galley ship with^r oars^s cannot go in it,

and a mighty ship cannot pass through it.

²²For Yahweh is our judge; Yahweh is our lawgiver.

Yahweh is our king; he is the one who will save us.

²³Your riggings hang slack;

they do not hold the base of their mast firm,

they do not spread out the sail.

Then the prey of spoil in abundance will be divided;

the lame will take plunder.

²⁴And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”;

the people who live in it, their iniquity will be taken away.