Your mind will ponder the former terror: “Where is he who tallies? Where is he who weighs? Where is he who counts the towers?”
Parallel translations
- WEB Your heart will meditate on the terror. Where is he who counted? Where is he who weighed? Where is he who counted the towers?
- KJV Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?
- NKJV Your heart will meditate on terror: “Where is the scribe? Where is he who weighs? Where is he who counts the towers?”
- NASB Your heart will meditate on terror: “Where is one who counts? Where is one who weighs? Where is one who counts the towers?”
- NLT You will think back to this time of terror, asking, “Where are the Assyrian officers who counted our towers? Where are the bookkeepers who recorded the plunder taken from our fallen city?”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
In safety, the people will look back and marvel that the terrifying enemy officials are gone.
Overview
With the danger past, Judah will recall the dread of Assyrian officers who counted tribute, weighed payments, and inspected the towers for assault. The taunting question 'where is he?' celebrates that the oppressor has vanished. This echoes the triumph of God's deliverance and foreshadows the final removal of every threat to God's people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- 1 Cor 1:20Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
- Ps 31:7–8I will be glad and rejoice in Your loving devotion, for You have seen my affliction; You have known the anguish of my soul.
- 1 Sam 25:33–36Blessed is your discernment, and blessed are you, because today you kept me from bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand.
- 2 Kgs 18:14So Hezekiah king of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand from me.” And the king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
- Isa 17:14In the evening, there is sudden terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who loot us and the lot of those who plunder us.
- Gen 23:16Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the standard of the merchants.
- 1 Sam 30:6And David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of every man grieved for his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God.
- Ps 71:20Though You have shown me many troubles and misfortunes, You will revive me once again. Even from the depths of the earth You will bring me back up.
- 2 Kgs 18:31Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree, and drink water from his own cistern,
- 2 Kgs 15:19Then Pul king of Assyria invaded the land, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver in order to gain his support and strengthen his own grip on the kingdom.
- Isa 38:9–22This is a writing by Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:
- Isa 10:16–19Therefore the Lord GOD of Hosts will send a wasting disease among Assyria’s stout warriors, and under his pomp will be kindled a fire like a burning flame.
- Ps 31:22In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from Your sight!” But You heard my plea for mercy when I called to You for help.
- 2 Tim 3:11my persecutions, and the sufferings that came upon me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.
- 2 Cor 1:8–10We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the hardships we encountered in the province of Asia. We were under a burden far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 33:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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