Isaiah 33
The LORD Is Exalted
¹ 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.
² O LORD, be gracious to us! We wait for You. Be our strength every morning and our salvation in time of trouble.
³ The peoples flee the thunder of Your voice; the nations scatter when You rise.
⁴ Your spoil, O nations, 1 is gathered as by locusts; like a swarm of locusts men sweep over it.
⁵ The LORD is exalted, for He dwells on high; He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.
⁶ 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.
⁷ Behold, their valiant ones cry aloud in the streets; the envoys of peace weep bitterly.
⁸ The highways are deserted; travel has ceased. The treaty 2 has been broken, the witnesses 3 are despised, and human life is disregarded.
⁹ The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is ashamed and decayed. Sharon is like a desert; Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
¹⁰ “Now I will arise,” says the LORD. “Now I will lift Myself up. Now I will be exalted.
¹¹ You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble. Your breath is a fire that will consume you.
¹² The peoples will be burned to ashes, like thorns cut down and set ablaze.
¹³ You who are far off, hear what I have done; you who are near, acknowledge My might.”
¹⁴ 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?”
¹⁵ 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—
¹⁶ he will dwell on the heights; the mountain fortress will be his refuge; his food will be provided and his water assured.
¹⁷ Your eyes will see the King in His beauty and behold a land that stretches afar.
¹⁸ Your mind will ponder the former terror: “Where is he who tallies? Where is he who weighs? Where is he who counts the towers?”
¹⁹ You will no longer see the insolent, a people whose speech is unintelligible, who stammer in a language you cannot understand.
²⁰ 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.
²¹ 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.
²² For the LORD is our Judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our King. It is He who will save us.
²³ 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.
²⁴ And no resident of Zion will say, “I am sick.” The people who dwell there will be forgiven of iniquity.