331 Woe to you who destroy, but you weren’t destroyed;
and who betray, but nobody betrayed you!
When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed;
and when you have made an end of betrayal, you will be betrayed. 2 Yahweh, be gracious to us. We have waited for you.
Be our strength 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 spoil 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 are desolate.
The traveling man ceases.
The covenant is broken.
He has despised the cities.
He doesn’t respect man. 9 The land mourns and languishes.
Lebanon is confounded and withers away.
Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare. 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 bring forth stubble.
Your breath is a fire that will devour you. 12 The peoples will be like the burning of lime,
like thorns that are cut down and 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 live with the devouring fire?
Who among us can live with everlasting burning?
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Isaiah 33:1-14
Commentary on Isaiah 33:1-14
(Read Isaiah 33:1-14)
Here we have the proud and false destroyer justly reckoned with for all his fraud and violence. The righteous God often pays sinners in their own coin. Those who by faith humbly wait for God, shall find him gracious to them; as the day, so let the strength be. If God leaves us to ourselves any morning, we are undone; we must every morning commit ourselves to him, and go forth in his strength to do the work of the day. When God arises, his enemies are scattered. True wisdom and knowledge lead to strength of salvation, which renders us stedfast in the ways of God; and true piety is the only treasure which can never be plundered or spent. The distress Jerusalem was brought into, is described. God's time to appear for his people, is, when all other helpers fail. Let all who hear what God has done, acknowledge that he can do every thing. Sinners in Zion will have much to answer for, above other sinners. And those that rebel against the commands of the word, cannot take its comforts in time of need. His wrath will burn those everlastingly who make themselves fuel for it. It is a fire that shall never be quenched, nor ever go out of itself; it is the wrath of an ever-living God preying on the conscience of a never-dying soul.