Isa 33 | CPDV | STEP | Woe to you who plunder! Will you yourselves not also be plundered? And woe to you who despise! Will you yourselves not also be despised? When you will have completed your plundering, you will be plundered. When, out of fatigue, you will have ceased acting with contempt, you will be treated with contempt.

Isaiah 33

God’s revenge against the enemies of his church. The happiness of the heavenly Jerusalem.

1 Woe to you who plunder! Will you yourselves not also be plundered? And woe to you who despise! Will you yourselves not also be despised? When you will have completed your plundering, you will be plundered. When, out of fatigue, you will have ceased acting with contempt, you will be treated with contempt. ^{▼▼33:1 That spoilest, etc: This is particularly directed to Sennacherib.(Challoner)} 2 O Lord, take pity on us. For we have waited for you. Be our arm in the morning and our salvation in the time of tribulation. 3 From the voice of the Angel, the people fled. And from your exultation, the nations were scattered. 4 And your spoils will be gathered together, just as the locusts are collected when the ditches have become filled with them. 5 The Lord has been magnified, because he has lived on high. He has filled Zion with judgment and justice. 6 And there will be faith in your times: the riches of salvation, wisdom and knowledge. For the fear of the Lord is his treasure. 7 Behold, outside, those who see will cry out. The Angels of peace will weep bitterly. ^{▼▼33:7 The angels of peace: The messengers or deputies sent to negotiate a peace.(Challoner)} 8 The roads have become desolate. Travelers have ceased along the paths. The covenant has been nullified. He has tossed aside cities. He has disregarded men. 9 The earth has mourned and languished. Lebanon has been confounded and desecrated. And Sharon has become like a desert. And Bashan and Carmel have been struck together.

10 “Now, I will rise up!” says the Lord. “Now I will be exalted! Now I will lift myself up!” 11 You will conceive heat. You will give birth to stubble. Your own spirit will devour you like fire. 12 And the people will be like the ashes from a fire. They will be consumed by fire like a bundle of thorns.

13 “You who are far away, listen to what I have done! And you who are near, acknowledge my strength!” 14 The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling has taken hold of the hypocrites. Who among you is able to live with a devouring fire? Who among you will live with an everlasting flame? 15 The one who walks in justice and speaks the truth, who casts out avarice with oppression and shakes all bribes from his hands, who blocks his ears so that he may not listen to blood, and closes his eyes so that he may not see evil. 16 Such a one will live on high; the fortification of rocks will be his lofty place. Bread has been given to him; his waters are reliable.

17 His eyes will see the king in his elegance; they will discern the land from far away. 18 Your heart will meditate on fear. Where are the learned? Where are those who ponder the words of the law? Where are the teachers of little ones? 19 You will not look upon a shameless people, a people of exalted words. For you are not able to understand the dissertation of a tongue in which there is no wisdom. 20 Look with favor upon Zion, the city of our solemnity. Your eyes will behold Jerusalem: an opulent habitation, a tabernacle that can never be taken away. Its stakes will not be taken away forever, nor will any of its cords be broken. ^{▼▼33:20The tabernacle of Jerusalem is being described under the figure of a tent. Its stakes are its tent pegs, and its cords connect the tent pegs to the tent, anchoring the tent itself.(Conte)} 21 For only in that place has our Lord been magnified. It is a place of rivers, very broad and open. No ship with oars will cross through it, nor will the great Greek ship pass through it. ^{▼▼33:21 Of rivers: He speaks of the rivers of endless joys that flow from the throne of God to water the heavenly Jerusalem, where no enemy’s ship can come, etc.(Challoner)} 22 For the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king. He himself will save us. 23 Your ropes have become loose, and they will not prevail. Your mast will be such that you will not be able to unfurl a flag. Then the spoils of much plunder will be divided. The lame will seize the spoils. ^{▼▼33:23 Thy tacklings: He speaks of the enemies of the church, under the allegory of a ship that is disabled.(Challoner)} 24 He who is nearby will not say: “I am too weak.” The people who live in it will have their iniquity taken away from them.