Isaiah 33
About IsaiahWritten by AI
Isaiah is the first of the major prophets and one of the books the New Testament quotes most often. Isaiah son of Amoz preached in Jerusalem from about 740 to 700 BC, during the reigns of four kings of Judah, while the Assyrian empire threatened the land. Many scholars think chapters 40 to 66 come from later writers in the time of the exile and return. Many Christians hold that Isaiah wrote the whole book, noting that the New Testament quotes both halves under his name.
The book moves from judgment to comfort. Chapters 1 to 39 confront Judah's sin and the proud nations, with the history of King Hezekiah at the center. From chapter 40 the tone changes: “Comfort, comfort My people.” God promises to bring His people home, and the book ends with new heavens and a new earth.
Watch for God's title, the Holy One of Israel, and for the promised King from David's line and the Servant of the LORD who suffers for others. Christians see both fulfilled in Jesus, though some prophecies are read differently among believers.
Before you read Isaiah 33Written by AI
A woe on the destroyer, and a prayer for God's grace. The sinners in Zion tremble and ask who can live with God's consuming fire; the answer is the one who walks in righteousness and speaks truth. The chapter ends with a calm picture of Jerusalem secure, with the LORD as Judge, lawgiver and King.
The LORD Is Exalted
Woe to you, O destroyer never destroyed,
O traitor never betrayed!
When you have finished destroying,
you will be destroyed.
When you have finished betraying,
you will be betrayed.
O LORD, be gracious to us!
We wait for You.
Be our strength every morning
and our salvation in time of trouble.
The peoples flee the thunder of Your voice;
the nations scatter when You rise.
Your spoil, O nations, is gathered as by locusts;
like a swarm of locusts men sweep over it.
The LORD is exalted, for He dwells on high;
He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.
He will be the sure foundation for your times,
a storehouse of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge.
The fear of the LORD is Zion’s treasure.
Behold, their valiant ones cry aloud in the streets;
the envoys of peace weep bitterly.
The highways are deserted;
travel has ceased.
The treaty has been broken,
the witnesses are despised,
and human life is disregarded.
The land mourns and languishes;
Lebanon is ashamed and decayed.
Sharon is like a desert;
Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
“Now I will arise,” says the LORD.
“Now I will lift Myself up. Now I will be exalted.
You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble.
Your breath is a fire that will consume you.
The peoples will be burned to ashes,
like thorns cut down and set ablaze.
You who are far off, hear what I have done;
you who are near, acknowledge My might.”
The sinners in Zion are afraid;
trembling grips the ungodly:
“Who of us can dwell with a consuming fire?
Who of us can dwell with everlasting flames?”
He who walks righteously
and speaks with sincerity,
who refuses gain from extortion,
whose hand never takes a bribe,
who stops his ears against murderous plots
and shuts his eyes tightly against evil—
he will dwell on the heights;
the mountain fortress will be his refuge;
his food will be provided
and his water assured.
Your eyes will see the King in His beauty
and behold a land that stretches afar.
Your mind will ponder the former terror:
“Where is he who tallies? Where is he who weighs?
Where is he who counts the towers?”
You will no longer see the insolent,
a people whose speech is unintelligible,
who stammer in a language you cannot understand.
Look upon Zion,
the city of our appointed feasts.
Your eyes will see Jerusalem,
a peaceful pasture, a tent that does not wander;
its tent pegs will not be pulled up,
nor will any of its cords be broken.
But there the Majestic One, our LORD,
will be for us a place of rivers and wide canals,
where no galley with oars will row,
and no majestic vessel will pass.
For the LORD is our Judge,
the LORD is our lawgiver,
the LORD is our King.
It is He who will save us.
Your ropes are slack;
they cannot secure the mast or spread the sail.
Then an abundance of spoils will be divided,
and even the lame will carry off plunder.
And no resident of Zion will say, “I am sick.”
The people who dwell there
will be forgiven of iniquity.