Just as caterpillars and locusts strip the fields and vines, so the fallen army of Assyria will be stripped!
Parallel translations
- WEB Your plunder will be gathered as the caterpillar gathers. Men will leap on it as locusts leap.
- KJV And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpiller: as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them.
- BSB Your spoil, O nations, is gathered as by locusts; like a swarm of locusts men sweep over it.
- NKJV And Your plunder shall be gathered Like the gathering of the caterpillar; As the running to and fro of locusts, He shall run upon them.
- NASB Your plunder is gathered as the caterpillar gathers; Like an infestation of locusts, people storm it.
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
The enemy's plunder will be gathered up swiftly, as locusts swarm and leap upon it. It matters because the spoils of the defeated oppressor pass to God's people.
Overview
Following the enemy's rout, Isaiah pictures the gathering of their abandoned plunder, swift and thorough like swarming locusts. The reversal turns the oppressor's spoil into the people's gain. It dramatizes God's complete victory and the way He turns the schemes of the wicked to the good of His own.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Joel 2:25I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the great locust, the grasshopper, and the caterpillar, my great army, which I sent among you.
- 2 Chr 14:13Asa and the people who were with him pursued them to Gerar: and so many of the Ethiopians fell that they could not recover themselves; for they were destroyed before Yahweh and before his army; and they carried away very much booty.
- 2 Chr 20:25When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take their plunder, they found among them in abundance both riches and dead bodies, and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away. They took plunder for three days, it was so much.
- Isa 33:23Your rigging is untied. They couldn’t strengthen the foot of their mast. They couldn’t spread the sail. Then the prey of a great plunder was divided. The lame took the prey.
- Joel 2:9They rush on the city. They run on the wall. They climb up into the houses. They enter in at the windows like thieves.
- 2 Kgs 7:15–16They went after them to the Jordan; and behold, all the path was full of garments and equipment which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. The messengers returned, and told the king.
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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 33:4 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.