Isaiah 33

¹ Woe to you who destroy, though you were not destroyed; and deal treacherously, though they didn’t deal treacherously with you! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed; and when you have finished dealing treacherously, they will deal treacherously with you.

² Yahweh, be gracious to us! We have waited for you. Be our arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.

³ At the noise of the thunder the peoples have fled. When you lift yourself up, the nations are scattered.

⁴ Your plunder will be gathered as the caterpillar gathers. Men will leap on it as locusts leap.

⁵ Yahweh is exalted, for he dwells on high. He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

⁶ There will be stability in your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of Yahweh is your treasure.

⁷ Behold, their valiant ones cry outside; the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.

⁸ The highways lie waste. The traveling man ceases. He has broken the covenant. He has despised the cities. He doesn’t regard man.

⁹ The land mourns and languishes. Lebanon is confounded and withers away. Sharon is like a desert. Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.

¹⁰ “Now I will arise,” says Yahweh. “Now I will lift myself up. Now I will be exalted.

¹¹ You will conceive chaff. You will give birth to stubble. Your breath is a fire that will devour you.

¹² The peoples will be as the burning of lime, as thorns cut down that are burned in the fire.

¹³ Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and, you who are near, acknowledge my might.”

¹⁴ The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless ones. Who among us can dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burning?

¹⁵ He who walks righteously, and speaks blamelessly; he who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands from taking a bribe; who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil—

¹⁶ he will dwell on high. His place of defense will be the munitions of rocks. Bread will be given him. His waters will be sure.

¹⁷ Your eyes will see the king in his beauty. They will see a distant land.

¹⁸ Your heart will meditate on the terror. “Where is he who counted? Where is he who weighed? Where is he who counted the towers?”

¹⁹ You will not see the fierce people, a people of a strange speech that you can’t comprehend, with a strange language that you can’t understand.

²⁰ Look at Zion, the city of our appointed feasts. Your eyes will see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tent that will not be removed. Its stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken.

²¹ But there Yahweh will be with us in majesty, a place of broad rivers and streams, in which no galley with oars will go, nor will any gallant ship pass by.

²² For Yahweh is our judge. Yahweh is our lawgiver. Yahweh is our king. He will save us.

²³ Your rigging is loose. They couldn’t strengthen their mast. They couldn’t spread the sail. Then the prey of a great spoil is divided. The lame take the prey.

²⁴ The inhabitant won’t say, “I am sick.” The people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.