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 thee that wastest, while thou wast not wasted; and traitor, while men dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt have made an end of wasting, thou shalt be wasted, and when thou shalt have finished to deal treacherously, men shall deal treacherously with thee.
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.
O Lord, be gracious; we have waited for thee: be thou their support every morning, also 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 noise of [thy] thunder people fled; when thou liftedst thyself up nations were scattered.
4 And your spoils will be gathered together, just as the locusts are collected when the ditches have become filled with them.
And your spoil shall be gathered as the cricket gathereth: as locusts run about, so shall people hasten after it.
5 The Lord has been magnified, because he has lived on high. He has filled Zion with judgment and justice.
The Lord is exalted; for he dwelleth on high; he hath filled 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.
And the stability of thy times and the strength of thy happiness shall be wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is his treasure.
7 Behold, outside, those who see will cry out. The Angels of peace will weep bitterly.
Behold, their valiant ones cry without: the ambassadors of 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 lie waste, ceased hath the wayfaring traveler: he hath broken the covenant, he despiseth cities, he regardeth not man.
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.
It mourneth, it languisheth—the land: Lebanon is ashamed, it is withered away; Sharon is become like a wilderness; and bereft of their fruits are Bashan and Carmel.
10 “Now, I will rise up!” says the Lord. “Now I will be exalted! Now I will lift myself up!”
Now will I arise, saith the Lord; now will I raise myself; now will I lift myself up.
11 You will conceive heat. You will give birth to stubble. Your own spirit will devour you like fire.
Ye shall be pregnant with hay, [and] ye shall bring forth stubble: your breath is a fire, which shall devour you.
12 And the people will be like the ashes from a fire. They will be consumed by fire like a bundle of thorns.
And the people shall be burnt as lime: as cut-off thorns shall they blaze up in fire.
13 “You who are far away, listen to what I have done! And you who are near, acknowledge my strength!”
Hear, ye distant ones, what I have done; and acknowledge ye that are near 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?
In Zion sinners are in dread; trembling hath seized on hypocrites. “Who among us shall abide with the devouring fire? who among us shall abide 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 that walketh in righteousness, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands against taking hold of bribes, that stoppeth his ears against hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes against 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.
He shall dwell on high; rocky strongholds shall be his refuge: his bread shall be given him; his water shall be sure.
17 His eyes will see the king in his elegance; they will discern the land from far away.
The king in his beauty shall thy eyes behold: they shall see a far-off land.
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?
Thy heart shall meditate [on past] terror. “Where is who wrote down? where is he that weighed? where is he that 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.
The barbarous people shalt thou not see any more, the people of a speech too obscure to be understood, of a stammering tongue, without meaning.
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 on Zion, the town of our solemn assemblies; thy eyes shall see Jerusalem as an undisturbed residence, a tent that shall not be struck for removal; not one of the stakes of which shall ever be moved, and all the cords of which shall never be torn loose.
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.
But there will the Lord [show himself] mighty unto us, [in] a place of rivers and streams of ample breadth; wherein no oared galley shall go, and a gallant ship shall not pass thereby.
22 For the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king. He himself will save us.
For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord 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.
Loose hang thy tacklings; they cannot well uphold strongly their mast, they cannot spread the sail. Then are divided booty and spoil in abundance, [even] the lame take the booty.
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 no inhabitant shall say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be one whose iniquity is forgiven.
