Isaiah 33

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

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

Where this chapter connects

Isa 10 ·13 Isa 37 ·10 Ps 46 ·8 2 Kgs 18 ·7 Isa 32 ·6 Isa 30 ·6 Isa 26 ·5 Isa 33 ·5

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 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.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereVideoBibleProject — video overviews & word studiesBibleProject · 5–10 min · Free · evangelical
Free animated overviews of every book of the Bible, plus themes and Hebrew/Greek word studies — the best visual on-ramp to any book. (Biblical-theology, broadly evangelical, not distinctly Reformed.)
★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Seminary

★ Start hereCommentaryThe Book of Isaiah (NICOT)John N. Oswalt · Paid · evangelical
The standard evangelical commentary on Isaiah — thorough and devotionally warm.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Isaiah videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Isaiah 33YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Isaiah 33David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on IsaiahMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Isaiah 33Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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