Isaiah 33

Read the chapter

¹Woe to you who plunder, though you have not been plundered; And you who deal treacherously, though they have not dealt treacherously with you! When you cease plundering, You will be plundered; When you make an end of dealing treacherously, They will deal treacherously with you. ✦ ²O Lord, be gracious to us; We have waited for You. Be their arm every morning, Our salvation also in the time of trouble. ✦ ³At the noise of the tumult the people shall flee; When You lift Yourself up, the nations shall be scattered; ✦ ⁴And Your plunder shall be gathered Like the gathering of the caterpillar; As the running to and fro of locusts, He shall run upon them. ✦ ⁵The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high; He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness. ✦ ⁶Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, And the strength of salvation; The fear of the Lord is His treasure. ✦ ⁷Surely their valiant ones shall cry outside, The ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly. ✦ ⁸The highways lie waste, The traveling man ceases. He has broken the covenant, He has despised the cities, He regards no man. ✦ ⁹The earth mourns and languishes, Lebanon is shamed and shriveled; Sharon is like a wilderness, And Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits. ✦ ¹⁰“NowI will rise,” says the Lord; “Now I will be exalted, Now I will lift Myself up. ✦ ¹¹You shall conceive chaff, You shall bring forth stubble; Your breath, as fire, shall devour you. ✦ ¹²And the people shall be like the burnings of lime; Like thorns cut up they shall be burned in the fire. ✦ ¹³Hear, you who are afar off, what I have done; And you who are near, acknowledge My might.” ✦ ¹⁴The sinners in Zion are afraid; Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites: “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” ✦ ¹⁵He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, He who despises the gain of oppressions, Who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes, Who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed, And shuts his eyes from seeing evil: ✦ ¹⁶He will dwell on high; His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks; Bread will be given him, His water will be sure. ✦ ¹⁷Your eyes will see the King in His beauty; They will see the land that is very far off. ✦ ¹⁸Your heart will meditate on terror: “Where is the scribe? Where is he who weighs? Where is he who counts the towers?” ✦ ¹⁹You will not see a fierce people, A people of obscure speech, beyond perception, Of a stammering tongue that you cannot understand. ✦ ²⁰Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts; Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet home, A tabernacle that will not be taken down; Not one of its stakes will ever be removed, Nor will any of its cords be broken. ✦ ²¹But there the majestic Lord will be for us A place of broad rivers and streams, In which no galley with oars will sail, Nor majestic ships pass by ✦ ²²(For the Lord is our Judge, The Lord is our Lawgiver, The Lord is our King; He will save us); ✦ ²³Your tackle is loosed, They could not strengthen their mast, They could not spread the sail. Then the prey of great plunder is divided; The lame take the prey. ✦ ²⁴And the inhabitant will not say, “I am sick”; The people who dwell in it will be forgiven their 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.

← Isaiah 32 Isaiah 34 →