Woe to you who destroy, but you weren’t destroyed, and who betray, but nobody betrayed you! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed; and when you have finished betrayal, you will be betrayed.
Parallel Translations
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Woe to you who destroy, but you weren’t destroyed, and who betray, but nobody betrayed you! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed; and when you have finished betrayal, you will be betrayed.
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Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.
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Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! When thou hast ceased to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou art weary with dealing treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.
Cross-references (18)
Passages linked to Isaiah 33:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Matthew 7:2 For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you.
- Isaiah 24:16 From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs. Glory to the righteous! But I said, “I pine away! I pine away! woe is me!” The treacherous have dealt treacherously. Yes, the treacherous have dealt very treacherously.
- Isaiah 10:12 Therefore it will happen that when the Lord has performed his whole work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the willful proud heart of the king of Assyria, and the insolence of his arrogant looks.
- Isaiah 21:2 A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; attack! I have stopped all of Media’s sighing.
- Jeremiah 25:12-14 “It will happen, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,” says Yahweh, “for their iniquity. I will make the land of the Chaldeans desolate forever. I will bring on that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations. For many nations and great kings will make bondservants of them, even of them. I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the work of their hands.”
- Obadiah 1:10-16 For the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame will cover you, and you will be cut off forever. In the day that you stood on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away his substance, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots for Jerusalem, even you were like one of them. But don’t look down on your brother in the day of his disaster, and don’t rejoice over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction. Don’t speak proudly in the day of distress. Don’t enter into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. Don’t look down on their affliction in the day of their calamity, neither seize their wealth on the day of their calamity. Don’t stand in the crossroads to cut off those of his who escape. Don’t deliver up those of his who remain in the day of distress. For the day of Yahweh is near all the nations! As you have done, it will be done to you. Your deeds will return upon your own head. For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so will all the nations drink continually. Yes, they will drink, swallow down, and will be as though they had not been.
- Revelation 17:17 For God has put in their hearts to do what he has in mind, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God should be accomplished.
- Judges 1:7 Adoni-Bezek said, “Seventy kings, having their thumbs and their big toes cut off, scavenged under my table. As I have done, so God has done to me.” They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.
- 2 Kings 18:13-17 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them. Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, “I have offended you. Return from me. That which you put on me, I will bear.” The king of Assyria appointed to Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in Yahweh’s house, and in the treasures of the king’s house. At that time, Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of Yahweh’s temple, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria. The king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great army to Jerusalem. They went up and came to Jerusalem. When they had come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller’s field.
- 2 Chronicles 28:16-21 At that time king Ahaz sent to the kings of Assyria to help him. For again the Edomites had come and struck Judah, and carried away captives. The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the lowland, and of the South of Judah, and had taken Beth Shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and also Gimzo and its villages; and they lived there. For Yahweh brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel, because he acted without restraint in Judah and trespassed severely against Yahweh. Tilgath Pilneser king of Assyria came to him, and gave him trouble, but didn’t strengthen him. For Ahaz took away a portion out of Yahweh’s house, and out of the house of the king and of the princes, and gave it to the king of Assyria; but it didn’t help him.
- Isaiah 10:5-6 Alas Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation! I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people who anger me I will give him a command to take the plunder and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
- Isaiah 17:14 At evening, behold, terror! Before the morning, they are no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us.
- Isaiah 37:36-38 Then Yahweh’s angel went out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, went away, returned to Nineveh, and stayed there. As he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place.
- Habakkuk 2:5-8 Yes, moreover, wine is treacherous. An arrogant man who doesn’t stay at home, who enlarges his desire as Sheol, and he is like death, and can’t be satisfied, but gathers to himself all nations, and heaps to himself all peoples. Won’t all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, ‘Woe to him who increases that which is not his, and who enriches himself by extortion! How long?’ Won’t your debtors rise up suddenly, and wake up those who make you tremble, and you will be their victim? Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples will plunder you, because of men’s blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city and to all who dwell in it.
- Zechariah 14:1-3 Behold, a day of Yahweh comes, when your plunder will be divided within you. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city will be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city will go out into captivity, and the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. Then Yahweh will go out and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
- Revelation 13:10 If anyone is to go into captivity, he will go into captivity. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, he must be killed. Here is the endurance and the faith of the saints.
- Revelation 17:12-14 The ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. These have one mind, and they give their power and authority to the beast. These will war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings, and those who are with him are called chosen and faithful.”
- Revelation 16:6 For they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. They deserve this.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (23 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain The Chaldeans shall do like to the Assyrians, as…
The Chaldeans shall do like to the Assyrians, as the Assyrians did to Israel, and the Medes and Persians shall do the same to the Chaldeans.
Meaning, the enemies of the Church, as were the Chaldeans and Assyrians, but chiefly of Sennacherib, but not only.
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When thine appointed time shall come that God shall take away thy power: and that which thou hast wrongfully gotten, shall be given to others, as Amos 5:11.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 33:1 Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou…
Isa 33:1 Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou [wast] not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; [and] when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.
Ver. 1. Woe to thee that spoilest.] Minatur vastationem vastatori Sennacherib, vel Antichristo, quem praesignat. {a} Sennacherib and Antichrist are here threatened.
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And thou wast not spoiled.] Thou abusest thy present peace, and the riches of God’s goodness and patience toward thee, to fall foul upon others unprovoked.
And dealest treacherously.] This some {b} understand of Sennacherib. See 2Ki 18:14; 2Ki 18:17. Others of Shebna and other traitors in Jerusalem, who dealt underhandedly with the enemy against Hezekiah, and might haply meet with the like meed as he did who betrayed the Rhodes to the Turks, who flayed him and salted him. Or at least as Charles IV’s agents did from Philip, Duke of Austria, who paid them the sum he promised them, but in counterfeit money, saying that false coin is good enough for such false knaves as they had showed themselves to be.
Thou shalt be spoiled.] Of kingdom, and life, and all, by thy treacherous sons. {Isa 37:38}
“ Siquis quod fecit patitur, iustissima lex est. ”
See Jdg 7:11. {See Trapp on "Jdg 7:11"} And fear thou God, who loveth to retaliate, to pay wicked men home in their own coin, to fill them with their own ways, to overshoot them in their own bow, &c. Vae ergo vastatoribus: one time or other God will be even with such.
{a} Oecolam.
{b} Ibid.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Woe to thee that spoilest! to Sennacherib, who wasted…
Woe to thee that spoilest! to Sennacherib, who wasted the land of Judah.
Thou wast not spoiled; thou didst not meet with any considerable opposition, but wast victorious over all thine enemies; of which the Assyrian boasteth, Isa 10:8,9; 36:18,19.
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Dealest treacherously; as Sennacherib did with Hezekiah, 2Ki 18:14,17.
They dealt not treacherously with thee; none of thine enemies could prevail against thee, either by force, of which he speaketh in the former clause, or by treachery, as here. Or, when they dealt not, &c.; when Hezekiah did not deal treacherously with thee. If it be said that Hezekiah dealt treacherously with him, in breaking his faith, and rebel. ling against him, it may be answered, that Hezekiah neither promised nor owed him any service or subjection. What was done in that kind was done by Ahaz only; and he only begged his assistance for a particular work, and paid him well for it, 2Ki 16:7,8, and the king of Assyria did not keep his conditions with him; for he distressed him, but strengthened him not, 2Ch 28:20.
When thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; when thou hast performed the work of chastening my people, for which I sent thee, thou also shalt be spoiled by thine enemies.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Here we have,
Here we have,
I. The proud and false Assyrian justly reckoned with for all his fraud and violence, and laid under a woe, Isa 33:1. Observe, 1. The sin which the enemy had been guilty of. He had spoiled the people of God, and made a prey of them, and herein had broken his treaty of peace with them, and dealt treacherously. Truth and mercy are two such sacred things, and have so much of God in them, that those cannot but be under the wrath of God that make conscience of neither, but are perfectly lost to both, that care not what mischief they do, what spoil they make, what dissimulations they are guilty of, nor what solemn engagements they violate, to compass their own wicked designs. Bloody and deceitful men are the worst of men. 2. The aggravation of this sin. He spoiled those that had never done him any injury and that he had no pretence to quarrel with, and dealt treacherously with those that had always dealt faithfully with him. Note, The less provocation we have from men to do a wrong thing the more provocation we give to God by doing it. 3. The punishment he should fall under for this sin. He that spoiled the cities of Judah shall have his own army destroyed by an angel and his camp plundered by those whom he had made a prey of. The Chaldeans shall deal treacherously with the Assyrians and revolt from them. Two of Sennacherib's own sons shall deal treacherously with him and basely murder him at his devotions. Note, The righteous God often pays sinners in their own coin. He that leads into captivity shall go into captivity, Rev 13:10; Rev 18:6. 4. The time when he shall be thus dealt with. When he shall make an end to spoil, and to deal treacherously, not by repentance and reformation, which might prevent his ruin (Dan 4:27), but when he shall have done his worst, when he shall have gone as far as God would permit him to go, to the utmost of his tether, then the cup of trembling shall be put into his hand. When he shall have arrived at his full stature in impiety, shall have filled up the measure of his iniquity, then all shall be called over again. When he has done God will begin, for his day is coming.
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II. The praying people of God earnest at the throne of grace for mercy for the land now in its distress (Isa 33:2): "O Lord! be merciful to us. Men are cruel; be thou gracious. We have deserved thy wrath, but we entreat thy favour; and, if we may find the propitious to us, we are happy; the trouble we are in cannot hurt us, shall not ruin us. It is in vain to expect relief from creatures; we have no confidence in the Egyptians, but we have waited for thee only, resolving to submit to thee, whatever the issue of the trouble be, and hoping that it shall be a comfortable issue." Those that by faith humbly wait for God shall certainly find him gracious to them. They prayed, 1. For those that were employed in military services for them: "Be thou their arm every morning. Hezekiah, and his princes, and all the men of war, need continual supplies of strength and courage from thee; supply their need therefore, and be to them a God all-sufficient. Every morning, when they go forth upon the business of the day, and perhaps have new work to do and new difficulties to encounter, let them be afresh animated and invigorated, and, as the day, so let the strength be." In our spiritual warfare our own hands are not sufficient for us, nor can we bring any thing to pass unless God not only strengthen our arms (Gen 49:24), but be himself our arm; so entirely do we depend upon him as our arm every morning, so constantly do we depend upon his power, as well as his compassions, which are new every morning, Lam 3:23. If God leaves us to ourselves any morning, we are undone; we must therefore every morning commit ourselves to him, and go forth in his strength to do the work of the day in its day. 2. For the body of the people: "Be thou our salvation also in the time of trouble, ours who sit still, and do not venture into the high places of the field." They depend upon God not only as their Saviour, to work deliverance for them, but as their salvation itself; for, whatever becomes of their secular interests, they will reckon themselves safe and saved if they have him for their God. If he undertake to be their Saviour, he will be their salvation; for as for God his work is perfect. Some read it thus: "Thou who wast their arm every morning, who wast the continual strength and help of our fathers before us, be thou our salvation also in time of trouble. Help us as thou helpedst them; they looked unto thee and were lightened (Psa 34:5); let us then not walk in darkness."
III. The Assyrian army ruined and their camp made a rich but cheap and easy prey to Judah and Jerusalem. No sooner is the prayer made (Isa 33:2) than it is answered (Isa 33:3), nay, it is outdone. They prayed that God would save them from their enemies; but he did more than that; he gave them victory over their enemies and abundant cause to triumph; for, 1. The strength of the Assyrian camp was broken (Isa 33:3) when the destroying angel slew so many thousands of them: At the noise of the tumult, of the shrieks of the dying men (who, we may suppose, did not die silently), the rest of the people fled, and shifted every one for his own safety. When God did thus lift up himself the several nations, or clans, of which the army was composed, were scattered. It was time to stir when such an unprecedented plague broke out among them. When God arises his enemies are scattered, Psa 68:1. 2. The spoil of the Assyrian camp is seized, by way of reprisal, for all the desolations of the defenced cities of Judah (Isa 33:4): Your spoil shall be gathered by the inhabitants of Jerusalem, like the gathering of the caterpillar, and as the running to and fro of locusts, that is, the spoilers shall as easily and as quickly make themselves masters of the riches of the Assyrians as a host of caterpillars, or locusts, make a field, or a tree, bare. Thus the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just and Israel is enriched with the spoil of the Egyptians. Some make the Assyrians to be the caterpillars and locusts, which, when they are killed, are gathered together in heaps, as the frogs of Egypt, and are run upon, and trodden to dirt.
IV. God and his Israel glorified and exalted hereby. When the spoil of the enemy is thus gathered, 1. God will have the praise of it (Isa 33:5): The Lord is exalted. It is his honour thus to abase proud men, and hide them in the dust, together; thus he magnifies his own name, and his people give him the glory of it, as Israel when the Egyptians were drowned, Exo 15:1, Exo 15:2, etc. He is exalted as one that dwells on high, out of the reach of their blasphemies, and that has an over-ruling power over them, and wherein they deal proudly delights to show himself above them - that does what he will, and they cannot resist him. 2. His people will have the blessing of it. When God lifts up himself to scatter the nations that are in confederacy against Jerusalem (Isa 33:3) then, as a preparative for that, or as the fruit and product of it, he has filled Zion with judgment and righteousness, not only with a sense of justice, but with a zeal for it and a universal care that it be duly administered. It shall again be called, The city of righteousness, Isa 1:26. In this the grace of God is exalted, as much as his providence was in the destruction of the Assyrian army. We may conclude God has mercy in store for a people when he fills them with judgment and righteousness, when all sorts of people, and all their actions and affairs, are governed by them, and they are so full of them that no other considerations can crowd in to sway them against these. Hezekiah and his people are encouraged (Isa 33:6) with an assurance that God would stand by them in their distress. Here is, (1.) A gracious promise of God for them to stay themselves upon: Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation. Here is a desirable end proposed, and that is the stability of our times, that things be not disturbed and unhinged at home, and the strength of salvation, deliverance from, and success against, enemies abroad. The salvation that God ordains for his people has strength in it; it is a horn of salvation. And here are the way and means for obtaining this end - wisdom and knowledge, not only piety, but prudence. That is it which, by the blessing of God, will be the stability of our times and the strength of salvation, that wisdom which is first pure, then peaceable, and which sacrifices private interests to a public good; such prudence as this will establish truth and peace, and fortify the bulwarks in defence of them. (2.) A pious maxim of state for Hezekiah and his people to govern themselves by: The fear of the Lord is his treasure. It is God's treasure in the world, from which he receives his tribute; or, rather, it is the prince's treasure. A good prince accounts it so (that wisdom is better than gold) and he shall find it so. Note, True religion is the true treasure of any prince or people; it denominates them rich. Those places that have plenty of Bibles, and ministers, and serious good people, are really rich; and it contributes to that which makes a nation rich in this world. It is therefore the interest of a people to support religion among them and to take heed of every thing that threatens to hinder it.
V. The great distress that Jerusalem was brought into described, that those who believed the prophet might know beforehand what troubles were coming and might provide accordingly, and that when the foregoing promise of their deliverance should have its accomplishment the remembrance of the extremity of their case might help to magnify God in it and make them the more thankful, Isa 33:7-9. It is here foretold, 1. That the enemy would be very insolent and abusive and there would be no dealing with him, either by treaties of peace (for he has broken the covenant without any hesitation, as if it were below him to be a servant to his word), or by the preparations of war, for he has despised the cities; he scorns to take notice either of their appeals to justice or of their petitions for mercy. He makes himself master of them so easily (though they are called fenced cities), and meets with so little resistance, that he despises them, and has no relentings when he puts all to the sword; for he regards no man, has no pity or concern, no, not for those that he is under particular obligations to. He neither fears God nor regards man, but is haughty and imperious to every one. There are those that take a pride in trampling upon all mankind, and have neither veneration for the honourable nor compassion for the miserable. 2. That therefore he would not be brought to any terms of reconciliation: The valiant ones of Jerusalem, being unable to make their parts good with him, must be contentedly run down with noise and insolence, which will make them cry without, because they cannot serve their country as they might have done against a fair adversary. The ambassadors sent by Hezekiah to treat of peace, finding him so haughty and unmanageable, shall weep bitterly for vexation at the disappointment they had met with in their negotiations; they shall weep like children, as despairing to find out any expedient to pacify him. 3. That the country should be made quite desolate for a time by his army. (1.) No man durst travel the roads; so that a stop was put to trade and commerce, and (which was worse) no man could safely go up to Jerusalem, to keep the solemn feasts: The highways lie waste. While the fields lie waste, trodden like the highways, the highways lie waste, untrodden like the fields, for the traveller ceases. (2.) No man had any profit from the grounds, Isa 33:9. The earth used to rejoice in its own productions for the service of God's Israel, but now the enemies of Israel eat them up, or tread them down: it mourns and languishes; the country looks melancholy and the country people have misery in their countenances, wanting necessary food for themselves and their families; the wonted joy of harvest is turned into lamentation, so withering and uncertain are all worldly joys. The desolation is universal. That part of the country which belonged to the ten tribes was already laid waste: "Lebanon famed for cedars, Sharon for roses, Bashan for cattle, Carmel for corn, all very fruitful, have now become like wildernesses, are ashamed to be called by their old names, they are so unlike what they were. They shake off their fruits before their time into the hand of the spoiler, which used to be gathered seasonably by the hand of the owner."
VI. God appearing, at length, in his glory against his proud invader, Isa 33:10-12. When things are brought thus to the last extremity, 1. God will magnify himself. He had seemed to sit by as an unconcerned spectator: "But now will I arise, saith the Lord; now will I appear and act, and therein I will be not only evidenced, but exalted." He will not only demonstrate that there is a God that judges in the earth, but that he is God over all, and higher than the highest. "Now will I lift up myself, will prepare for action, will act vigorously, and will be glorified in it." God's time to appear for his people is when their affairs are reduced to the lowest ebb, when their strength is gone and there is none shut up nor left, Deu 32:36. When all other helpers fail, then is God's time to help. 2. He will bring down the Assyrian: "You, O Assyrians! are big with hopes that you shall have all the wealth of Jerusalem for your own, and are in pain till it be so; but all your hopes shall come to nothing: You shall conceive chaff, and bring forth stubble, which is not only worthless and good for nothing, but combustible and proper fuel for the fire, which it cannot escape, when your own breath as fire shall devour you, that is, the breath of God's wrath, provoked against you by the breath of your sins - your malignant breath, the threatenings and slaughter you breathe out against the people of God, this shall devour you, and your blasphemous breath against God and his name." God would make their own tongues to fall upon them, and their own breath to blow the fire that should consume them; and then no wonder that the people are as the burnings of lime in a lime-kiln, all on fire together, and as thorns cut up, which are dried and withered, and therefore easily take fire and are soon burnt up. Such was the destruction of the Assyrian army; it was like the burning up of thorns, which can well be spared, or the burning of lime, which makes it good for something. The burning of that army enlightened the world with the knowledge of God's power and made his name shine brightly.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not…
Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled,.... Which some understand of Nebuchadnezzar; others of Sennacherib, which is more probable; it seems best to interpret it of the Romish antichrist. Kimchi thinks that, if it respects the times of Hezekiah, Sennacherib is meant; but if the times of the Messiah, then the king of nations that shall be in those days; and he adds, this is the kingdom of Persia, in the vision of Daniel. Vatringa applies this to Antiochus Epiphanes, and the whole prophecy to the times of the Maccabees; but it best agrees with the beast of Rome, to whom power has been given over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations, the Apollyon, the spoiler and destroyer of the earth, especially of the saints, whom he has made war with and overcome; see Rev 9:11 now this spoiler of man, of their substance by confiscation, of their bodies by imprisonment and death, and of their societies and families by his violent persecutions, and of the souls of others by his false doctrine; though he may continue long in prosperity and glory, and not be spoiled, or destroyed, yet not always. The Vulgate Latin version renders the last clause interrogatively, and perhaps not amiss, "shall thou not be spoiled?" verily thou shalt; the same measure he has meted to others shall be measured to him again; the spoiler of others shall be stripped of all himself; he that destroyed the earth shall be destroyed from off the earth; he that leads into captivity shall go into it; and he that kills with the sword shall be slain by it, Rev 11:18,
and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee; or, "shall they not deal treacherously with thee?" so the above version renders it with an interrogation; and both this and the preceding clause are thus paraphrased by the Targum,
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"woe to thee that comest to spoil, and shall they not spoil thee? and who comest to oppress, and shall they not oppress thee?''
truly they shall; the kings of the earth that were in confederacy with the beast, and gave their kingdoms to him, shall hate the whore, eat her flesh, and burn her with fire, Rev 17:16,
when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shall be spoiled; when the time is come that antichrist shall be suffered no longer to ravage in the earth, and spoil the bodies, souls, and substance of men, then shall he himself be spoiled of his power and authority, riches and grandeur; his plagues shall come upon him at once, fire, famine, and death; for his cessation from spoiling will not be his own option, nor the fruit and effect of repentance and reformation, but will be owing to the sovereign power of God in restraining him:
and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee; for the coming of antichrist was with lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness; he has the appearance of a lamb, but speaks like a dragon; has used many wiles, arts, and stratagems, and treacherous methods to deceive and impose on men, and to ensnare and entrap them; and when the time is come that he will not be permitted to proceed any further and longer in his deceitful practices, the kings of the earth, who have been deceived by him, and brought in subjection to him, will pay him in his own coin; see Th2 2:9.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The destruction of the enemies of the church, who…
The destruction of the enemies of the church, who are derided, ver. 1-13. Which terrifies the sinners in Zion, ver. 14. The safety and privileges of the godly, ver. 23, 24.
To thee - Sennacherib, who wasted the land of Judah.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain This chapter contains the sequel of the prophecy respecting
CHAPTER XXXIII
This chapter contains the sequel of the prophecy respecting
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Sennacherib. The prophet addresses himself to the Assyrian
monarch, 1-4.
The mercy and power of God acknowledged by the Jews, 5, 6.
Distress and despair of the Jews at the approach of
Sennacherib, 7-9.
Gracious promise of deliverance, 10-13.
Dreadful apprehensions of the wicked, and security of the
righteous, 14-17.
The security of the Jews under the reign of Hezekiah, and the
wretched condition of Sennacherib and his army, 18-24.
The plan of the prophecy continued in this chapter, and which is manifestly distinct from the foregoing, is peculiarly elegant. To set it in a proper light, it will be necessary to mark the transitions from one part of it to another.
In Isa 33:1, the prophet addresses himself to Sennacherib, briefly, but strongly and elegantly, expressing the injustice of his ambitious designs, and the sudden disappointments of them.
In Isa 33:2, the Jews are introduced offering up their earnest supplications to God in their present distressful condition; with expressions of their trust and confidence in his protection.
In Isa 33:3-4 the prophet in the name of God, or rather God himself, is introduced addressing himself to Sennacherib, and threatening him that, notwithstanding the terror which he had occasioned in the invaded countries, yet he should fall, and become an easy prey to those whom he had intended to subdue.
In Isa 33:5-6, a chorus of Jews is introduced, acknowledging the mercy and power of God, who had undertaken to protect them; extolling it with direct opposition to the boasted power of their enemies, and celebrating the wisdom and piety of their king Hezekiah, who had placed his confidence in the favour of God.
Then follows, in Isa 33:7-9, a description of the distress and despair of the Jews, upon the king of Assyria's marching against Jerusalem, and sending his summons to them to surrender, after the treaty he had made with Hezekiah on the conditions of his paying, as he actually did pay to him, three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. 2Kg 18:14-16.
In Isa 33:10, God himself is again introduced, declaring that he will interpose in this critical situation of affairs, and disappoint the vain designs of the enemies of his people, by discomfiting and utterly consuming them.
Then follows, Isa 33:11-22, still in the person of God, which however falls at last into that of the prophet, a description of the dreadful apprehensions of the wicked in those times of distress and imminent danger; finely contrasted with the confidence and security of the righteous, and their trust in the promises of God that he will be their never-failing strength and protector.
The whole concludes, in the person of the prophet, with a description of the security of the Jews under the protection of God, and of the wretched state of Sennacherib and his army, wholly discomfited, and exposed to be plundered even by the weakest of the enemy.
Much of the beauty of this passage depends on the explanation above given of Isa 33:3-4, as addressed by the prophet, or by God himself, to Sennacherib; not as it is usually taken, as addressed by the Jews to God, Isa 33:3, and then Isa 33:4, as addressed to the Assyrians. To set this in a clear light, it may be of use to compare it with a passage of the Prophet Joel; where, speaking of the destruction caused by the locusts, he sets in the same strong light of opposition as Isaiah does here, the power of the enemy, and the power of JEHOVAH, who would destroy that enemy. Thus Isaiah to Sennacherib: -
"When thou didst raise thyself up, the nations were dispersed" -
Isa 33:3.
"But now will I arise, saith JEHOVAH; Now will I be exalted."
Isa 33:10.
And thus Joel, Joe 2:20-21: -
"His stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall ascend;
Though he hath done great things.
Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice;
For JEHOVAH will do great things." - L.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXXIII
Verse 1. And dealest treacherously - "Thou plunderer"] See Clarke on Isa 21:2.
When thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously - "When thou art weary of plundering"] "כנלתך cannelothecha, alibi non extat in s. s. nisi f. Job 15:29 - simplicius est legere ככלתך kechallothecha. Vid. Capell.; nec repugnat Vitringa. Vid. Da 9:24. כלה calah התים hatim." - Secker.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Isa 33:1. Wo to thee that spoilest — To…
Isa 33:1. Wo to thee that spoilest — To Sennacherib, who wasted the land of Judah. The prophet speaks “as if he had found this great spoiler,” to whom he addresses himself, “in the very act of spoiling, and was face to face denouncing the divine judgment upon him.” And thou wast not spoiled — Hadst not received the like injuries. “It is the practice of the great oppressors of the world to make war upon their neighbours without any just provocation, or having received any real injury from them; and it is against such practices that this wo is denounced.” — Lowth. And dealest treacherously — So Sennacherib dealt with Hezekiah, 2Ki 18:14; 2Ki 18:17. And, or when, they dealt not treacherously with thee — Hezekiah and the Jews did not. “We read, indeed, (2Ki 18:7,) that Hezekiah rebelled against the king of Assyria; but the meaning is no more than that he would not stand to those dishonourable terms of slavery, to which his father Ahaz had submitted, when he professed himself the servant of the king of Assyria,” (2Ki 16:7,) begging his assistance against the Syrians and Ephraimites, for which he paid him well; but the king of Assyria did not keep his agreement with him, for he distressed him, but strengthened him not, 2Ch 28:20. When thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled — When thou hast performed the work of chastising my people, to which I have sent thee, thou also shalt be spoiled by thine enemies. The further meaning of this prediction may be, that when the Assyrians, glutted, as it were, with their conquests, should cease to make any further conquests, and give themselves up to luxury and pleasure, then other nations, either mindful of the injuries which they had received from them, or out of rapacity, would attack them in their turn, and spoil them, as they had spoiled others: which came to pass accordingly. Their calamities seem to have begun from the times that Dejoces, king of the Medes, shook off their yoke, about seven hundred years before Christ: for other nations soon followed his example.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Wo to thee that spoilest - This description accords…
Wo to thee that spoilest - This description accords entirely with Sennacherib and his army, who had plundered the cities and countries which they had invaded, and who were about to advance to Jerusalem for the same purpose (compare Isa 29:7-8; Isa 37:11).
And thou wast not spoiled - That is, thou hadst not been plundered by the Jews against whom thou art coming. It was because the war was so unprovoked and unjust, that God would bring so signal vengeance on them.
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And dealest treacherously - (See the note at Isa 21:2). The treachery of the Assyrians consisted in the fact that when their assistance was asked by the Jews, in order to aid them against the combined forces of Syria and Samaria (see Isa 7:1-2), they had taken occasion from that invitation to bring desolation on Judah (see Isa 7:17, Isa 7:20; Isa 8:6-8, note; Isa 10:6, note). Hezekiah also gave to Sennacherib thirty talents of gold and three hundred talents of silver, evidently with an understanding that this was all that he demanded, and that if this was paid, he would leave the nation in peace. But this implied promise he perfidiously disregarded (see 2Ki 18:14-15).
When thou shalt cease to spoil - This does not relier to his having voluntarily ceased to plunder, but to the fact that God would put an end to it.
Thou shalt be spoiled - This was literally fulfilled. The Assyrian monarchy lost its splendor and power, and was finally merged in the more mighty empire of Babylon. The nation was, of course, subject to the depredation of the conquerors, and compelled to submit to them. “When thou shalt make an end.” The idea is, that there would be a completion, or a finishing of his acts of treachery toward the Jews, and that would be when God should overthrow him and his army.
They shall deal treacherously with thee - The words ‘they shall,’ are here equivalent to, ‘thou shalt be dealt With in a treacherous manner.’ The result was, that Sennacherib was treacherously slain by his own sons as he was ‘worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god’ Isa 37:38, and thus the prophecy was literally fulfilled. The sense of the whole is, that God would reward their desire of plundering a nation that had not injured them by the desolation of their own land; and would recompense the perfidiousness of the kings of Assyria that had sought to subject Jerusalem to their power, by perfidiousness in the royal family itself.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Spoilest. This is particularly directed to Sennacherib. (Challoner) ---…
Spoilest. This is particularly directed to Sennacherib. (Challoner) --- He was a figure of persecutors of the Church, to which many passages here allude. (Calmet) --- Remota justitia quid sunt regna nisi magna latrocinia? (St. Augustine, City of God iv. 4.) --- Sennacherib plundered Samaria and Juda, and despising God, was himself contemned. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain Isaiah 33
V.—THE FIFTH WOE
Isaiah 33
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1. THE GLORIUS TURNING POINT: THE WOE UPON ISRAEL BECOMES A WOE UPON ASSYRIA
Isa_33:1
1 Woe to thee that spoilest and thou wast not spoiled;
And dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee!
When thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled;
And when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
שׁודד and בוגד conjoined as in Isa_21:2.—The primary meaning of בָּגַד is “to cover;” hence בֶּגֶד “the cover, garment.” Hence the secondary meaning of perfidious, treacherous doing [like the secondary meaning of the English word “to cloak.”—Tr.].—On the inf. כהתמך see Ewald, § 114 a, Green, § 141, 3.—כַּנְּלֹתְךָ stands for כְּהַנְלֹתְךָ, comp. Isa_3:8; the Dag. f. in the נ is because of the Masorets assuming a synkope, whereas, properly, there Is an elision.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The season of preparation for withstanding the Assyrian foe, that Israel has spent in so perverse a fashion, is past. The enemy is at hand (comp. Isa_33:7). But now, too, is the time when God will fulfil His word that He would smite the Assyrian (Isa_30:18 sqq.; 31 sqq.; Isa_31:8 sq.). Now, therefore, the Prophet turns the woe against Assyria. This power, hitherto unconquered, will be overthrown (Isa_33:1). This is the principal thought of the chapter, which the Prophet puts at the head Isa_33:1, as a theme. But as a stone thrown into the water makes wave-lines that extend in concentric circles wider and wider, so the Prophet joins on to this primary theme three declarations which, enlarging in extent and contents, state the particulars of the condition, the completion and consequence of that act of deliverance. This woe follows as a fifth those of Isa_28:1; Isa_29:1; Isa_30:1; Isa_31:1. But unlike the preceding, which are directed against Israel, this is against Assyria (comp. Isa_10:1; Isa_10:5). For, according to the contents of the chapter, none but Assyria can be the desolater. This announcement of its destruction is opposed to that audacious presumption that regarded itself as invincible (Isa_10:5-14).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1. The enemy is described by epithets which recur…
1. The enemy is described by epithets which recur in ch. Isa_21:2, Isa_24:16. The obscurity of the reference is somewhat unlike Isaiah, who is usually perfectly explicit in his references to the Assyrian.
when thou shalt make an end] The Heb. verb used is supposed to mean “attain”; but it occurs nowhere else, and the reading is probably at fault. The substitution of a Kaph for the Nun gives the common verb killâh, “finish,” which is the exact sense given by the E.V.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) Woe to thee that spoilest . . .—No…
XXXIII.
(1) Woe to thee that spoilest . . .—No chapter in the prophet’s writings presents so little traceable connection. A thought is expressed in one, or it may be two, verses, and then another follows without anything to link it on. This may be, perhaps, explained either by the strong emotion which filled the prophet’s mind as he looked on the coming perils of his country, or, as I think, more probably, on the assumption that we have a series of rough notes, memoranda for a long discourse, which was afterwards delivered in a more continuous form. They would, perhaps, be more intelligible if they were printed separately, as we print Pascal’s Pensées, the verse arrangement giving a fictitious semblance of continuity. The opening words are addressed to Sennacherib when he entered on his second campaign against Judah, as it seemed to Isaiah, without the slightest provocation. Hezekiah had submitted, and had paid an enormous indemnity for the costs of the war (2Ki_18:13-16) at the close of the first campaign, and had, in the meantime, taken no aggressive action. The invasion was one of undisguised spoliation and rapacity. (For “treacherously,” read rapaciously.) Upon such aggressiveness there was sure to come a righteous retribution, and in that thought the prophet finds comfort.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 1-6. THE JUDGMENT ON ASSYRIA AND DELIVERANCE OF…
Vers. 1-6. THE JUDGMENT ON ASSYRIA AND DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM, STATED GENERALLY. Events had progressed since the preceding prophecies were delivered. The negotiations carried on with Sennacherib had been futile (ver. 7), the heavy fine imposed and paid (2Ki_18:14) had been of no avail (ver. 18); the Assyrian monarch was still dissatisfied, and threatened a second siege. Already he was upon his march, spoiling and ravaging (ver. 1). The people of the country districts had removed into the town (ver. 8) in a little time the vast host might be expected to appear before the walls. All was terror, grief, and confusion. Under these circumstances, Isaiah is once more commissioned to declare the approaching discomfiture of the mighty conqueror, and deliverance of Jerusalem out of his hand (vers. 3, 4). The deliverance ushers in a reign of righteousness (Vers. 5, 6).
Woe to thee that spoilest. The "spoiler" is here, evidently, Assyria the world-power of this entire group of prophecies (see especially Isa_30:31 Isa_31:8), and the greatest "spoiler" of Isaiah"s time. Thou wast not spoiled ; i.e. "that hast not yet been spoiled thyself." A covert threat is conveyed in the words. And dealest treacherously; rather, usest violence (compare the comment on Isa_21:2). When thou shalt cease to spoil, etc. Conquering nations cannot with safety pause on their career. Their aggressions have roused so many enmities that, let them cease to attack, and at once they are attacked in their turn. Every man"s baud is against the spoiler whose hand has been against every man.
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HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-6. Jehovah a Refuge.
It is "Israel"s extremity, but God"s opportunity." Retribution is about to fall on Assyria; salvation and every resource is to be found in Jehovah.
I WOE TO ASSYRIA. This land appears under the image of a rapacious spoiler. The time is about B.C. 700, and the allusion is to Sennacherib and his army, who had advanced on a plundering and destroying course. The tables are to be turned, and the greedy conqueror (of 2Ki_18:14, 2Ki_18:15) was to become the object of other"s greed in turn. Whether the words imply a complaint of unprovoked aggression and of perfidy is not clear. But to the prophetic eye in every age it is clear that empires founded upon force, fraud, and rapacity cannot endure; that they who take the sword will perish by the sword. It was the fate of Assyria to fall beneath the mightier powers of Media and Babylon.
II THE ATTITUDE OF PRAYER AND TRUST. "O Jehovah, be gracious unto us! For thee have we waited." It is the attitude of calm confidence; it is the mood in which things distant and unseen are realized. Here the prophet sees what is improbable to the eye of worldly calculation the downfall of the proudest power of the time. It is not less an energetic attitude all the endeavor of the spirit straining after that highest point of view, where the confusions of the time fall into the unity of the Divine purpose. It is a seeming weak, yet really powerful, attitude; the foe trembles when he sees us on our knees. The arm of Jehovah is the symbol of strength, put forth in time of danger, interposing and delivering. (Exo_15:16 Job_40:9 Psa_44:3 Psa_77:15 Psa_89:21 Psa_98:1) Not only in particular emergencies, but "every morning," i.e. constantly and evermore, may that arm be ours to lean upon, and we shall be strong and know no fear. And such is the effect of this act of prayer and contemplation, that already the symptoms of change are heard in the air. There is a confused sound in the distance, as of the roll of many waters; the people are rushing in flight. Jehovah is seen lifting himself up, (cf. Num_10:35 Psa_68:1) and a great rout of the nations ensues; and the conquerors are seen swarming down upon the spoils, as the caterpillars on their food.
III THE ATTRIBUTES OF JEHOVAH AS THEY ARE REVEALED IN PROPHETIC THOUGHT, AS THEY ARE CONFIRMED BY HISTORIC EVENT.
1. His inviolable strength. He is secure; he is One who dwells in the height. (Psa_97:9) The heavens shall rather fall than he be dethroned, his dynasty over all nations come to an end.
2. His abundant resources of good. A chorus seems here to break forth in his praise. He has filled Zion with spiritual treasures, these being ever united with temporal blessings in the theocracy. Justice and righteousness. The effect of the temporal deliverance will be that men will turn to the Deliverer, and will walk in his ways and according to his laws. (cf. Isa_30:22, etc.; Isa_31:6 Isa_32:15, etc.) Amidst the vicissitudes of these times, the people will have a principle of constancy. There will be "store of salvations" for every time of need in the religious "wisdom and knowledge" diffused among the people. Compare with this the picture of Hezekiah"s reign. (2Ki 18) In one word, the "treasure" of the nation wilt be the fear of Jehovah, i.e. true religion in distinction from successful wars or commercial prosperity. Perhaps the love of material treasured on the part of the kings of Judah is indirectly rebuked. The true wealth of a people, as of an individual, must ever be the mass of its available wisdom and piety. J.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Ver. 1. Aggravated evil.
I THAT SIN IS OFTEN FOUND IN AN AGGRAVATED FORM. It may take the forms of which the prophet here complains.
1. Unprovoked aggression. "Thou spoilest, and (though) thou wast not spoiled." Men may go so far as to assail their fellow-men without the slightest justification; this may be in the shape of open war, or of brutal individual assault, or of unlawful appropriation, or of shameful slander.
2. Inexcusable treachery. "And dealeth treacherously, and (though) they dealt not," etc. Men will go so far in iniquity as to deceive, entrap, and even ruin and that not only in a pecuniary, but even in a moral sense those who are guileless and unsuspicious; they will take a mean and execrable advantage of the innocence which should not appeal in vain for the protection of the strong. Those thus wantonly and heinously guilty may beguile others from the paths of
1. faith and piety;
2. virtue;
3. the practical wisdom on which depend the maintenance and comfort of the home.
II THAT WHEN THUS FOUND IT EXCITES GOD"S DEEP DISPLEASURE. The Divine "woe" is pronounced against it. And this woe" is only one note in a large and full outpouring of Divine indignation in all parts of the sacred Scriptures. Prophet and psalmist and apostle, yes, and the Lord of love himself (see especially Matthew 23), unite to utter the awful anger of God "against them who commit such things." It includes:
1. His holy indignation directed against the evil-doers themselves; not the sin, but the sinner. (Psa_7:11 Rom_2:8, Rom_2:9)
2. His boundless hatred of the evil deed; not the agent, but the act. (Jer_44:4 Hab_1:13) All sin is a leprous, a loathsome, thing in God"s sight: how much more so those aggravated forms of it in which man wantonly injures and ruins his fellow-man!
III THAT IT IS CERTAIN TO MEET WITH RETRIBUTION ANSWERING TO THE OFFENSE. We know:
1. That impenitent sin will be followed by the judgments of a righteous God. The Divine "woe" points to severe punishment to loss, sorrow, ruin, death. (Exo_34:7 Pro_11:21 Rom_2:6, etc.)
2. That retribution will be proportionate to the magnitude of the offence. (Luk_12:47, 48 Joh_9:41 Joh_15:22 Rom_2:12)
3. That retribution is likely to take a form which corresponds to the offence. "When thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled," etc.
(1) Violence provokes violence; they that take the sword do commonly perish with the sword. (Mat_26:52)
(2) Craft will be undermined; against the subtle schemer men will combine and use their ingenuity to overturn him.
(3) Avarice finds its own wealth an insupportable burden.
(4) The rejection of the supernatural ends in the acceptance of the superstitious, etc. "With what measure we mete, it is measured to us again. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Woe to thee that spoilest
Isa_33:1
Woe to thee that spoilest
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Isa_33:1-24
The most beautiful of Isaiahs discourse [in which] the long conflict of Israels sin with Jehovahs righteousness is left behind, and the dark colours of present and past distress serve only as a foil to the assured felicity that is ready to dawn on Jehovahs land.
(W. Robertson Smith, D. D.)
Treacherous Assyria
The course of Assyria was that of a treacherous dealer--no confidence whatever could be reposed in this people. They were born to spoil, and the moment they ceased spoiling they would be spoiled in turn. (B. Blake, B. D.)
Aggravated sin
The less provocation we have from men to do an ill thing, the more provocation we give to God by it. (M. Henry.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain
CHAPTER XXI
OUR GOD A CONSUMING FIRE
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701 B.C.
Isaiah 33
WE have seen how the sense of forgiveness and the exultant confidence, which fill chapter 33, were brought about within a few months after the sentence of death, that cast so deep a gloom on chapter 22. We have expounded some of the contents of chapter 33, but have not exhausted the chapter; and in particular we have not touched one of Isaiahs principles, which there finds perhaps its finest expression: the consuming righteousness of God.
There is no doubt that chapter 33, refers to the sudden disappearance of the Assyrian from the walls of Jerusalem. It was written, part perhaps on the eve of that deliverance, part immediately after morning broke upon the vanished host. Before those verses which picture the disappearance of the investing army, we ought in strict chronological order to take the narrative in chapters 36 and 37-the return of the besiegers, the insolence of the Rabshakeh, the prostration of Hezekiah, Isaiahs solitary faith, and the sudden disappearance of the Assyrian. It will be more convenient, however, since we have already entered chapter 33, to finish it, and then to take the narrative of the events which led up to it.
The opening verses of chapter 33, fit the very moment of the crisis, as if Isaiah had flung them across the walls in the teeth of the Rabshakeh and the second embassy from Sennacherib, who had returned to demand the surrender of the city in spite of Hezekiahs tribute for her integrity: "Woe to thee, thou spoiler, and thou wast not spoiled, thou treacherous dealer, and they did not deal treacherously with thee! When thou ceasest to spoil thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou makest an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee." Then follows the prayer, as already quoted, and the confidence in the security of Jerusalem (Isa_33:2). A new paragraph (Isa_33:7-12) describes Rabshakeh and his company demanding the surrender of the city; the disappointment of the ambassadors who had been sent to treat with Sennacherib (Isa_33:7); the perfidy of the great king, who had broken the covenant they had made with him and swept his armies back upon Judah (Isa_33:8); the disheartening of the land under this new shock (Isa_33:9); and the resolution of the Lord now to rise and scatter the invaders: "Now will I arise, saith Jehovah; now will I lift up Myself; now will I be exalted. Ye shall conceive chaff; ye shall bring forth stubble; your breath is a fire, that shall devour you. And the peoples shall be as the burnings of lime, as thorns cut down that are burned in the fire" (Isa_33:10-12).
After an application of this same fire of Gods righteousness to the sinners within Jerusalem, to which we shall presently return, the rest of the chapter pictures the stunned populace awaking to the fact that they are free. Is the Assyrian really gone, or do the Jews dream as they crowd the walls, and see no trace of him? Have they all vanished-the Rabshakeh, "by the conduit of the upper pool, with his loud voice" and insults; the scribes to whom they handed the tribute, and who prolonged the agony by counting it under their eyes; the scouts and engineers insolently walking about Zion and mapping out her walls for the assault; the close investment of barbarian hordes, with their awesome speech and uncouth looks! "Where is he that counted? where is he that weighed the tribute? where is he that counted the towers? Thou shalt not see the fierce people, a people of a deep speech that thou canst not perceive, of a strange tongue that thou canst not understand." They have vanished. Hezekiah may lift his head again. O people-sore at heart to see thy king in sackcloth and ashes (chapter 37) as the enemy devoured province after province of thy land and cooped thee up within the narrow walls, thou scarcely didst dare to peep across-take courage, the terror is gone! "A king in his beauty thine eyes shall see; they shall behold the land spreading very far forth" (Isa_33:17). We had thought to die in the restlessness and horror of war, never again to know what stable life and regular worship were, our Temple services interrupted, our home a battlefield. But "look upon Zion"; behold again "she is the city of our solemn diets; thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tent that shall not be removed, the stakes whereof shall never be plucked up, neither shall the cords thereof be broken. But there Jehovah," whom we have known only for affliction, "shall be in majesty for us." Other peoples have their natural defences, Assyria and Egypt their Euphrates and Nile; but God Himself shall be for us "a place of rivers, streams, broad on both hands, on which never a galley shall go, nor gallant ship shall pass upon it." Without sign of battle, God shall be our refuge and our strength. It was that marvellous deliverance of Jerusalem by the hand of God, with no effort of human war, which caused Isaiah to invest with such majesty the meagre rock, its squalid surroundings and paltry defences. The insignificant and waterless city was glorious to the prophet because God was in her. One of the richest imaginations which patriot ever poured upon his fatherland was inspired by the simplest faith saint ever breathed. Isaiah strikes again the old keynote (chapter 8) about the waterlessness of Jerusalem. We have to keep in mind the Jews complaints of this, in order to understand what the forty-sixth Psalm means when it says, "There is a river the streams whereof make glad the city of our God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High"-or what Isaiah means when he says, "Glorious shall Jehovah be unto us, a place of broad rivers and streams." Yea, he adds, Jehovah is everything to us: "Jehovah is our Judge; Jehovah is our Lawgiver; Jehovah is our King: He will save us."
Such were the feelings aroused in Jerusalem by the sudden relief of the city. Some of the verses, which we have scarcely touched, we will now consider more fully as the expression of a doctrine which runs throughout Isaiah, and indeed is one of his two or three fundamental truths-that the righteousness of God is an all-pervading atmosphere, an atmosphere that wears and burns.
For forty years the prophet had been preaching to the Jews his gospel, "God-with-us"; but they never awakened to the reality of the Divine presence till they saw it in the dispersion of the Assyrian army. Then God became real to them (Isa_33:14). The justice of God, preached so long by Isaiah, had always seemed something abstract. Now they saw how concrete it was. It was not only a doctrine: it was a fact. It was a fact that was a fire. Isaiah had often called it a fire; they thought this was rhetoric. But now they saw the actual burning-"the peoples as the burning of lime, as thorns cut down that are burned in the fire." And when they felt the fire so near, each sinner of them awoke to the fact that he had something burnable in himself, something which could as little stand the fire as the Assyrians could. There was no difference in this fire outside and inside the walls. What it burned there it would burn here. Nay, was not Jerusalem the dwelling-place of God, and Ariel the very hearth and furnace of the fire which they saw consume the Assyrians? "Who," they cried in their terror-"Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?"
We are familiar with Isaiahs fundamental God-with-us, and how it was spoken not for mercy only, but for judgment (chapter 8). If "God-with-us" meant love with us, salvation with us, it meant also holiness with us, judgment with us, the jealousy of God breathing upon what is impure, false, and proud. Isaiah felt this so hotly that his sense of it has broken out into some of the fieriest words in all prophecy. In his younger days he told the citizens not "to provoke the eyes of Gods glory," as if Heaven had fastened on their life two gleaming orbs, not only to pierce them with its vision, but to consume them with its wrath. Again, in the lowering cloud of calamity he had seen "lips of indignation, a tongue as a devouring fire," and in the overflowing stream which finally issued from it the hot "breath of the Almighty." These are unforgettable descriptions of the ceaseless activity of Divine righteousness in the life of man. They set our, imaginations on fire with the prophets burning belief in this. But they are excelled by another, more frequently used by Isaiah, wherein he likens the holiness of God to a universal and constant fire. To Isaiah life was so penetrated by the active justice of God, that he described it as bathed in fire, as blown through with fire. Righteousness was no mere doctrine to this prophet: it was the most real thing in history; it was the presence which pervaded and explained all phenomena. We shall understand the difference between Isaiah and his people if we have ever for our eyes sake looked at a great conflagration through a coloured glass which allowed us to see the solid materials-stone, wood, and iron-but prevented us from perceiving the flames and shimmering heat. To look thus is to see pillars, lintels, and crossbeams twist and fall, crumble and fade; but how inexplicable the process seems! Take away the glass, and everything is clear. The fiery element is filling all the interstices, that were blank to us before, and beating upon the solid material. The heat becomes visible, shimmering even where there is no flame. Just so had it been with the sinners in Judah these forty years. Their society and politics, individual fortunes and careers, personal and national habits-the home, the Church, the State-common outlines and shapes of life-were patent to every eye, but no man could explain the constant decay and diminution, because all were looking at life through a glass darkly. Isaiah alone faced life with open vision, which filled up for him the interstices of experience and gave terrible explanation to fate. It was a vision that nearly scorched the eyes out of him. Life as he saw it was steeped in flame-the glowing righteousness of God. Jerusalem was full "of the spirit of justice, the spirit of burning. The light of Israel is for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame." The Assyrian empire, that vast erection which the strong hands of kings had reared, was simply their pyre, made ready for the burning. "For a Topheth is prepared of old; yea, for the king it is made ready; He hath made it deep and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle." {Isa_4:4; Isa_30:33} So Isaiah saw life, and flashed it on his countrymen. At last the glass fell from their eyes also, and they cried aloud, "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" Isaiah replied that there is one thing which can survive the universal flame, and that is character: "He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of fraud, that shaketh his hands from the holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from the hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from looking on evil, he shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the monitions of rocks: his bread shall be given him: his water shall be sure."
Isaiahs Vision of Fire suggests two thoughts to us.
1. Have we done well to confine our horror of the consuming fires of righteousness to the next life? If we would but use the eyes which Scripture lends us, the rifts of prophetic vision and awakened conscience by which the fogs of this world and of our own hearts are rent, we should see fires as fierce, a consumption as pitiless, about us here as ever the conscience of a startled sinner fearfully looked for across the grave. Nay, have not the fires, with which the darkness of eternity has been made lurid, themselves been kindled at the burnings of this life? Is it not because men have felt how hot this world was being made for sin that they have had a "certain fearful expectation of judgment and the fierceness of fire?" We shudder at the horrible pictures of hell which some older theologians and poets have painted for us; but it was not morbid fancy, nor the barbarism of their age, nor their own hearts cruelty that inspired these men. It was their hot honour for the Divine holiness; it was their experience of how pitiless to sin Providence is already in this life; it was their own scorched senses and affections-brands, as many honest men among them felt themselves, plucked from the burning. Our God is a consuming fire-here as well as yonder. Hell has borrowed her glare from the imagination of men aflame with the real fieriness of life, and may be-more truly than of old-pictured as the dead and hollow cinder left by. those fires, of which, as every true mans conscience is aware, this life is full. It was not hell that created conscience; it was conscience that created hell, and conscience was fired by the vision which fired Isaiah-of all life aglow with the righteousness of God-"God with us," as He was with Jerusalem, "a spirit of burning and a spirit of justice." This is the pantheism of conscience, and it stands to reason. God is the one power of life. What can exist beside Him except what is like Him? Nothing-sooner or later nothing but what is like Him. The will that is as His will, the heart that is pure, the character that is transparent-only these dwell with the everlasting fire, and burning with God, as the bush which Moses saw, are nevertheless not consumed. Let us lay it to heart-Isaiah has nothing to tell us about hell-fire, but a great deal about the pitiless justice of God in this life.
2. The second thought suggested by Isaiahs Vision of Life is a comparison of it with the theory of life which is fashionable today. Isaiahs figure for life was a burning. Ours is a battle, and at first sight ours looks the truer. Seen through a formula which has become everywhere fashionable, life is a fierce and fascinating warfare. Civilised thought, when asked to describe any form of life or to account for a death or survival, most monotonously replies, "The struggle for existence." The sociologist has borrowed the phrase from the biologist, and it is on everybodys lips to describe their idea of human life. It is uttered by the historian when he would explain the disappearance of this national type, the prevalence of that one. The economist traces depression and failures, the fatal fevers of speculation, the cruelties and bad humours of commercial life, to the same source. A merchant with profits lessening and failure before him relieves his despair and apologises to his pride with the words, "It is all due to competition." Even character and the spiritual graces are sometimes set down as results of the same material process. Some have sought to deduce from it all intelligence, others more audaciously all ethics; and it is certain that in the silence of mens hearts after a moral defeat there is no excuse more frequently offered to conscience by will than that the battle was too hot.
But fascinating as life is-when seen through this formula, does not the formula act on our vision precisely as the glass we supposed, which: when we look through it on a conflagration shows us the solid matter and the changes through which this passes, but hides from us the real agent? One need not deny the reality of the struggle for existence, or that its results are enormous. We struggle with each other, and affect each other for good and for evil, sometimes past all calculation. But we do not fight a vacuum. Let Isaiahs vision be the complement of our own feeling. We fight in an atmosphere that affects every one of us far more powerfully than the opposing wits or wills of our fellow-men. Around us and through us, within and without as we fight, is the all-pervading righteousness of God; and it is far oftener the effects of this which we see in the falls and the changes of life than the effects of our struggle with each other, enormous though these may be. On this point there is an exact parallel between our days and the days of Isaiah. Then the politicians of Judah, looking through their darkened glass at life, said, Life is simply a war in which the strongest prevail, a game which the most cunning win. So they made fast their alliances, and were ready to meet the Assyrian, or they fled in panic before him, according as Egypt or he seemed the stronger. Isaiah saw that with Assyrian and Jew another Power was present-the real reason of every change in politics, collapse or crash in either of the empires-the active righteousness of God. Assyrian and Jew had not only to contend with each other. They were at strife with Him. We now see plainly that Isaiah was right. Far more operative then the intrigues of politicians or the pride of Assyria, because it used these simply as its mines and its fuel, was the law of righteousness, the spiritual force which is as impalpable the atmosphere, yet strong to burn and try as a furnace seven times heated. And Isaiah is equally right for today. As we look at life through our fashionable formula it does seem a mass of struggle, in which we catch only now and then a glimpse of the decisions of righteousness, but the prevailing lawlessness of which we do not hesitate to make the reason of all that happens, and in particular the excuse of our own defeats. We are wrong. Righteousness is not an occasional spark; righteousness is the atmosphere. Though our dull eyes see it only now and then strike into flame in the battle of life, and take for granted that it is but the flash of meeting wits or of steel, Gods justice is everywhere, pervasive and pitiless, affecting the combatants far more than they have power to affect one another.
We shall best learn the truth of this in the way the sinners in Jerusalem learned it-each man first looking into himself. "Who among us shall dwell with the everlasting burnings?" Can we attribute all our defeats to the opposition that was upon us at the moment they occurred? When our temper failed, when our charity relaxed, when our resoluteness gave way, was it the hotness of debate, was it the pressure of the crowd, was it the sneer of the scorner, that was to blame? We all know that these were only the occasions of our defeats. Conscience tells us that the cause lay in a slothful or self-indulgent heart, which the corrosive atmosphere of Divine righteousness had been consuming, and which, sapped and hollow by its effect, gave way at every material shock.
With the knowledge that conscience gives us, let us now look at a kind of figure which must be within the horizon of all of us. Once it was the most commanding stature among its fellows, the straight back and broad brow of a king of men. But now what is the last sight of him that will remain with us, flung out there against the evening skies of his life? A bent back (we speak of character), a stooping face, the shrinking outlines of a man ready to collapse. It was not the struggle for existence that killed him, for he was born to prevail in it. It was the atmosphere that told on him. He carried in him that on which the atmosphere could not but tell. A low selfishness or passion inhabited him, and became the predominant part of him, so that his outward life was only its shell; and when the fire of God at last pierced this, he was as thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.
We can explain much with the outward eye, but the most of the explanation lies beyond. Where our knowledge of a mans life ends, the great meaning of it often only begins. All the vacancy beyond the outline we see is full of that meaning. God is there, and "God is a consuming fire." Let us not seek to explain lives only by what we see of them, the visible strife of man with man and nature. It is the invisible that contains the secret of what is seen. We see the shoulders stoop, but not the burden upon them; the face darken, but look in vain for what casts the shadow; the light sparkle in the eye, but cannot tell what star of hope its glance has caught. And even so, when we behold fortune and character go down in the warfare of this world, we ought, to remember that it is not always the things we see that are to blame for the fall, but that awful flame which, unseen by common man, has been revealed to the prophets of God.
Righteousness and retribution, then, are an atmosphere-not lines or laws that we may happen to stumble upon, not explosives, that, being touched, burst out on us, but the atmosphere-always about us and always at work, invisible and yet more mighty than aught we see. "God, in whom we live and move and have our being, is a consuming fire."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Isa_33:1. Woe to thee that spoilest, &c.
PROVIDENCE
Isa_33:1. Woe to thee that spoilest, &c.
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Dr. Geikie says: As a nation the Assyrians are branded as treacherous, untruthful, and lawless (Nah_3:1; Jon_3:8). No treaty could bind them; might was right; and when interest seemed to demand it, they “regarded no man” (Isa_33:8). Their pride was that of a race which looked on all others as their natural inferiors (Zep_2:15; Eze_31:10-11; Isa_10:7-14; Isa_37:24-28). [1213]
[1213] Some time before the return of the Assyrians, Hezekiah had sought to deprecate the wrath of Sennacherib, of which terrible rumours had reached him from Lachish. For this end he had sent ambassadors, in the hope that they might possibly convince the great king that no treachery was intended, and save the country from a second invasion, or possibly even obtain favourable terms for Lachish itself. The embassy had found him at the city, which was soon after taken by storm, and delivered to the tender mercies of the soldiery. A slab from his palace at Nineveh, now in the British Museum, shows him in state “receiving plunder of the town of Lachish.” He sits on a throne before his tent, two arrows in one hand and his bow in the other, while prisoners are being brought before him, an officer, attended by a guard, stating the facts respecting them. Two eunuchs stand with feather flaps to wave over him for coolness, and to keep away the flies. Two horses, ready for his use, are behind, soldiers with tall lances attending them. The front rank of prisoners before him kneel to implore mercy, and behind them is a long file of their unfortunate companions. Some whose fate has already been decided have been led a short way off and killed; others may be spared as slaves. A chariot with two horses stands near—perhaps that of Sennacherib—and numerous fruit-trees over the whole slab show the fruitfulness of the country. A strong force of horse and foot on the right of the picture guards the king.—Geikie.
The text brings before us the doctrine of an overruling Providence.
We see an overruling Providence at work—
1. In meting out punishment to the wicked (H. E. I. 4604, 4612).
2. In accomplishing a just retribution. The Assyrian is paid back by the Babylonian (Rev_13:10); Jacob’s treachery is returned to him in his son’s deceit (1Ti_5:24; P. D. 2995).
3. In bringing good out of evil. Wicked men overreach themselves; the devil is outwitted. The short-sighted vengeance of man becomes an instrument of perfecting the higher nature of the people of God, whom they oppress; the fire of man’s wrath is transformed into the refining fire of Divine purification (Mal_3:3).—J. Macrae Simcock.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain I. It is a pity, and a thing greatly…
Isa 33:6
I. It is a pity, and a thing greatly to be regretted, that the tree of which Adam and Eve were ordered not to eat, and did eat, is so often called "the tree of knowledge." It is not its scriptural name. It was not knowledge at all, as we generally use the word "knowledge." It was moral or rather immoral knowledge,—"the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." God would not have made "knowledge" a part of the prophecy of the future good and happiness of Jerusalem, if knowledge were not a great national as well as a great personal blessing.
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II. But right knowledge may be put in wrong proportions, or knowledge may be separated from wisdom. If that divorce takes place between two things which God has joined together, no wonder if it brings a curse and not a blessing. Knowledge which has not the fear of the Lord is not knowledge at all. And here lies the error of the day, which says "knowledge," leaving out wisdom. "Knowledge is the stability of the times."
III. But what is wisdom? Either you must take it thus, which is the right application "to use knowledge;" or it is when a sound judgment sits at the helm of the feelings; or; better still, it is a great principle ruling the intellect,—the Eternal in His proper place among the things of time; or, truer still, as we learn from the Proverbs, it is the Lord Jesus Christ, the fountain, the embodiment, the concentration, the essence of wisdom. The degree of a man’s union with Christ is the real measure of his wisdom. Wisdom is the preparative; it is a state of mind preceding knowledge; therefore the order, wisdom first, knowledge next;—"wisdom and knowledge."
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 10th series, p. 197.
Isa 33:14-15
(with 1Jn 4:16)
I. The world’s question. I need only remind you how frequently in the Old Testament the emblem of fire is employed to express the Divine nature. (1) In many places the prominent idea in the emblem is that of the purity of the Divine nature, which flashes and flames as against all that is evil and sinful. (2) The fire, which is the destructive fire of perfect purity, is also the fire that quickens and blesses. "God is love," says John; and love is fire, too. God’s wrath is a form of God’s love; God hates because He loves. To "dwell with everlasting burnings" means two things. (1) It means to hold a familiar intercourse and communion with God. (2) It means to bear the action of the fire, the judgment of the present and the judgment of the future. The question for each of us is, can we face that judicial and punitive action of that Divine providence which works even here? and how can we face the judicial and punitive action in the future?
II. Look next at the prophet’s answer. It is simple. He says that if a man is to hold fellowship with, or to face the judgment of, the pure and righteous God, the plainest dictates of reason and common sense are that he himself must be pure and righteous to match. The details into which his answer to the question runs out are all very homely, prosaic, pedestrian kind of virtues, nothing at all out of the way, nothing that people would call splendid or heroic. Righteous action, righteous speech, inward hatred of possessions gotten at my neighbour’s cost, and a vehement resistance to all the seductions of sense,—there is the outline of a homely, everyday sort of morality, which is to mark the man who, as Isaiah says, can "dwell amongst the everlasting fires."
III. Let us take the Apostle’s answer. "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God." The declaration of the first text lies at the very foundation of the second. What then is the difference between them? (1) Isaiah tells us that we must be righteousness: John tells us how we may be. Love is the productive germ of all righteousness; it is the fulfilling of the law. (2) Isaiah says "Righteousness:" John says "Love," which makes righteousness. And then he tells us how we may get love. We love Him because He first loved us. We can contemplate the cross on which the great Lover of our souls died, and thereby we can come to love Him. The first step of the ladder is faith; the second, love; the third, righteousness.
A. Maclaren, A Year’s Ministry, 2nd series, p. 87.
References: Isa 33:15, Isa 33:16.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx., No. 1764. Isa 33:16.—Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 316.
Isa 33:17
These words plainly promise to every follower of Christ, if he shall persevere unto the end, that in the resurrection he shall see the Lord Jesus Christ in His beauty, and in the glory of His kingdom. What then is this beauty which shall be revealed to all who attain that world and the resurrection of the holy dead?
I. First, it would seem to be the beauty of His heavenly court. About Him and before Him are the companies of heaven, the hosts and hierarchies of the blessed, the nine orders of seraphic and angelic ministers, and the saintly multitude of God’s new creation. Armies of martyrs, companies of prophets, the majesty of patriarchs, the glory of apostles, each one in the full transfigured beauty of his own perfect spirit, and all revealing the warfare of faith, the triumph of the Church, the power of the Cross, the election of God,—these are the degrees and ascents leading upward to the throne of bliss.
II. But if such be the beauty of the King’s court, what is the beauty of the King Himself? of His glorious person as very God and very man? We shall not be dangerously out of the way, if we believe that He who is the brightness of His Father’s glory and the express image of His person, did take unto Himself our manhood as His revealed presence for ever, in its most perfect image and likeness; that in Him two natures were united and both were perfect, both were beautiful. Our minds are full of lights and hues, with which we array the objects of our hearts. Let each do as he will. Only let us first love Him, and then weigh these thoughts. Till then, it is all too soon. But be this as it may, there is a beauty we know Him to possess in fulness—the beauty of perfect love. In His face will be revealed all the love of His holy incarnation, of His life of sorrow, of His agony and passion, of His cross and death. The wounds of His hands and feet and of His pierced side are eternal seals and countersigns of the love which has redeemed us for Himself. (1) The King whose beauty is the bliss of heaven is ever drawing and preparing us for His presence by all the mysteries of His Church. (2) By a special and particular discipline, varied and measured for the necessities of every faithful soul, He is making us ready for the vision of His presence.
H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. iii., p. 431.
The sensibility of Christ’s character. Sensibility includes sensitiveness. Sensitiveness is the power of receiving impressions, whether from nature or man, vividly, intensely, and yet delicately. Sensibility is this passive quality of sensitiveness with activity of soul in addition exercised upon the impressions received. The more perfect the manhood, the more perfect is this sensibility. When we talk of the perfect manhood of Christ, and never consider this side of His nature, we must be making a grave omission—an omission which removes from our view half of the more subtle beauty of His character.
I. It does not seem wrong to say that there was in Him the sensibility to natural beauty. We know that He had watched the tall lilies arrayed more gloriously than Solomon; that He had marked the reed shaken in the wind, and the tender green of the first shoot of the fig-tree. We find His common teaching employed about the vineyard and the wandering sheep, the whitening corn and the living well, the summer rain and the wintry flood and storm. These and many more would not have been so often connected with His action and so ready on His lips had not He loved them well, and received their impressions vividly.
II. But still higher in Him was that intense sensibility to human feeling, which made Him by instinct know, without the necessity of speech, the feelings of those He met. He saw Nathanael in the early days coming to Him from the garden and the fig-tree. He looked upon the simple and earnest face, and recognised the long effort of the man to be true. In a moment He frankly granted the meed of praise: "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile." A few words more, in which Christ went home to the secret trials of the man, and Nathaneal was His for ever. Men, women, and children, all who were natural, unconventional, simple in love and powerful in faith, ran to Him as a child to its mother. They felt the beauty of character which was born of sensibility to human feeling and spiritual wants, and they were bound to Him for ever.
S. A. Brooke, Christ in Modern Life, p. 89.
I. Consider how the sensibility of Christ to the beauty of nature became active as sympathy with nature. (1) You remember that passage when, as He walked silently along, He suddenly lifted up His eyes and saw the fields whitening already to harvest. He received the impression in a passive mood. It changed the whole current of His thoughts, and the whole state of his soul. Immediately thought seized on the change worked within Him by the impression, and expressed it in words. It marks a beautiful character to be so rapidly and delicately impressed; but the beauty of the character becomes vital beauty when the man, through utter sympathy with and love of what he feels, becomes himself creative of new thought. (2) The poet’s sensibility to nature becomes active as personal sympathy with the living soul of nature. This also we find in the character of Christ [cf. parable of the sower]. All the impressions were carried into the spiritual mould. They were shaped into a picture of human life, with its temptations and its struggle and its end. (3) The true sensibility, becoming sympathy, sympathises with the distinct nature of each thing it feels, divides each thing from all the rest, gives to each a different praise, feels for each a different feeling, and harmonises itself with the tone of each impression. This is to be found in the character of Christ, and it gives to it a peculiar and delicate beauty. We find it suggested (a) in the perfect appositeness of the illustrations He drew from nature to the thoughts He desired to illustrate (b) in the choice of certain places for certain moods of the mind.
II. If it be true that sensibility to natural impressions ceases to be a beautiful thing unless it become active through sympathy, it is still more plainly true of sensibility to human feeling. The extraordinary sensibility of Christ to human feeling became operative at once as sympathy, was at once translated into action. His sympathy was given to all the world; but it was not given in a like manner to all, nor at all times. Christ sanctified distinctiveness in friendship and love.
S. A. Brooke, Christ in Modern Life, p. 102.
There are human lives which are poems, as there are lives which are prose. They give pleasure as poetry gives it, by the expression of the beautiful. Such a life, at its very highest range, was the life of Christ. We seek its poetry today, and we weave our thoughts of it round that profound phrase of Milton’s, that poetry must be simple, sensuous, and passionate.
I. That which is simplicity in art is purity in a perfect character. The beauty of Christ’s purity was (1) in this, that those who saw it saw in it the glory of moral victory. (2) From this purity, so tried and so victorious, arose two other elements of moral beauty—perfect justice and perfect mercy.
II. The word "sensuousness," in Milton’s sense of it, was entirely noble in meaning. Of its representative in a character I have already spoken in speaking of the sensibility of the character of the Saviour to impressions received from nature and from man. But I may add that as the poet produces beautiful work out of the multitudinous world of images and things which he has received, so the exquisiteness of the parables and of the words of Christ, both in form and expression, was the direct result of the knowledge He had gained from this quality of sensibility.
III. The third element of great poetry is passion. We may transfer it directly to a character as an element of beauty. It is best defined as the power of intense feeling capable of perfect expression. It was intense feeling of the weakness and sin of man, and intense joy in His Father’s power to redeem, which produced the story of the "Prodigal Son," where every word is on fire with tender passion. See how it comes home, even now, to men; see how its profound humanity has made it universal! "Come unto Me, all ye that are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." How that goes home to the deepest want of the race; how deep the passion which generalised that want into a single sentence; how intense, yet how pathetic, the expression of it; how noble the temperance which stayed at the single sentence and felt that it was enough!
S. A. Brooke, Christ in Modern Life, p. 117.
Shrinking from Christ’s coming.
Before Christ came, the faithful remnant of Israel were consoled with the promise that their eyes should see Him who was to be their salvation. Yet it is observable that the prophecy, though cheering and encouraging, had with it something of an awful character too. "Who may abide the day of His coming, and who shall stand when He appeareth? "We too are looking out for Christ’s coming,—we are bid look out, we are bid pray for it; and yet it is to be a time of judgment. If it is to be the deliverance of the saints from sin and sorrow for ever, yet they, every one of them, must undergo an awful trial. How then can any look forward to it with joy, not knowing (for no one knows) the certainty of his own salvation? It is a seeming inconsistency how we can pray for Christ’s coming, yet wish then to "work out our own salvation," and "make our calling and election sure." It was a seeming contradiction how good men were to desire His first coming, yet be unable to abide it; how the Apostles feared, yet rejoiced after His resurrection. Such seeming contradictions arise from the want of depth in our minds to master the whole truth. We have not eyes keen enough to follow out the lines of God’s providence and will, which meet at length, though at first sight they seem parallel. Consider how we can pray for the coming of Christ with sincerity.
I. Though we could not at all reconcile our feelings about ourselves with the command given us, still it is our duty to obey the latter on faith. If Abraham could lift up his knife to slay his son, we may well so far subdue our fears as to pray for what nevertheless is terrible.
II. When we pray for the coming of Christ, we do but pray, in the Church’s words, that He would "accomplish the number of His elect, and would hasten His kingdom." When then we pray that He would come, we pray also that we may be ready; that all things may converge and meet in Him; that He may draw us while He draws near us, and make us the holier the closer He comes.
III. You dare not pray for Christ’s presence now;—would you pray for it had you lived Methuselah’s years? I trow not, You will never be good enough to desire it; no one in the whole Church prays for it except on conditions implied. What Christ asks of you is not sinlessness, but diligence.
IV. Consider what you mean by praying, and you will see that at that very time that you are asking for the coming of His kingdom, you are anticipating that coming, and accomplishing the thing you fear. We shall come before Him at last, as now we come to pray—with profound abasement, with awe, with self-renunciation, still as relying upon the spirit He has given us, with our faculties about us, with a collected and determined mind, and with hope. He who cannot pray for Christ’s coming, ought not in consistency to pray at all.
V. In that solemn hour we shall have, if we be His, the inward support of His Spirit, carrying us on towards Him, and "witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God."
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. v., p. 46.
Unreal words.
I. The prophet tells us that, under the Gospel covenant, God’s servants will have the privilege of seeing those heavenly sights which were but shadowed out in the law. Before Christ came was the time of shadows; but when He came He brought truth as welt as grace; and as He who is the truth has come to us, so does He in return require that we should be true and sincere in our dealings with Him. To be true and sincere is really to see with our minds those great wonders which He has wrought in order that we might see them. And yet it need scarcely be said nothing is so rare as honesty and singleness of mind; so much so, that a person who is really honest is already perfect. Insincerity was an evil which sprang up within the Church from the first. Ananias and Simon were not open opposers of the Apostles, but false brethren. And as foreseeing what was to be, our Saviour is remarkable in His ministry for nothing more than the earnestness of the dissuasions which He addressed to those who came to Him, against taking up religion lightly, or making promises which they were likely to break.
II. And what is said of discipleship applies undoubtedly in its degree to all profession. To make professions is to play with edged tools, unless we attend to what we are saying. Words have a meaning, whether we mean that meaning or not; and they are imputed to us in their real meaning, when our not meaning it is our own fault. This consideration needs especially to be pressed upon Christians at this day; for this is especially a day of professions. This is a day in which there is (rightly or wrongly) so much of private judgment, so much of separation and difference, so much of preaching and teaching, so much of authorship, that it involves individual profession, responsibility, and recompense in a way peculiarly its own.
III. The mere fact of our saying more than we feel is not necessarily sinful. We ever promise things greater than we master, and we wait on God to enable us to perform them. Our promising involves a prayer for light and strength. Persons are culpably unreal in their way of speaking, not when they say more than they feel, but when they say things different from what they feel. Be in earnest, and you will speak of religion where and when and how you should. Aim at things, and your words will be right without aiming. Aim at looking at this life as God looks at it. Aim at looking at the life to come and the world unseen as God does. Aim at "seeing the King in His beauty." All things that we see are but shadows to us and delusions, unless we mean what we say.
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. v., p. 29.
Reverence, a belief in God’s presence.
I. It is scarcely too much to say that awe and fear are at the present day all but discarded from religion. There are two classes of men who are deficient in this respect: (1) those who think that they never were greatly under God’s displeasure; (2) those who think that, though they were once, they are not at all now, for all sin has been forgiven them;—those, on the one hand, who consider that sin is no great evil in itself; those, on the other, who consider that it is no great evil in them, because their persons are accepted in Christ for their faith’s sake. What they agree in is this: in considering God as simply a God of love, not of awe and reverence also—the one meaning by love benevolence, and the other mercy; and in consequence neither the one nor the other regard Almighty God with fear.
II. The signs of want of fear in such are the following: (1) They have no scruple or misgiving in speaking freely of Almighty God. (2) They speak boldly of the Holy Trinity and the mystery of the Divine nature. (3) They speak confidently of their having been converted, pardoned, and sanctified, as if they knew their own state as well as God knows it. (4) Another sign of irreverence is the familiarity with which many persons address our Lord in prayer, applying epithets to Him and adopting a strain of language which does not beseem creatures, not to say sinners.
III. In proportion as we believe that God is present, we shall have feelings of awe and fear; and not to have them is not to realise, not to believe, that He is present. There is a peculiar feeling with which we regard the dead. What does this arise from—that he is absent? No; for we do not feel the same towards one who is merely distant, though he be at the other end of the earth. Surely it is the passing into another state which impresses itself upon us, and makes us speak of him as we do,—I mean, with a sort of awe. We cannot tell what he is now—what his relations to us—what he knows of us. We do not understand him; we do not see him. He is passed into the land that is very far off; but it is not at all certain that he has not some mysterious hold over us. Apply this to the subject before us, and you will perceive that there is a sense, and a true sense, in which the invisible presence of God is more awful and overpowering than if we saw it. The thought of our Saviour, absent yet present, is like that of a friend taken from us, but, as it were, in dream returned to us, though in this case not in dreams, but in reality and truth. As some precious fruits of the earth are said to taste like all others at once, not as not being really distinct from all others, but as being thus best described, so the state of mind which they are in who believe that the Son of God is here, yet away—is at the right hand of God, yet in His very flesh and blood among us—is one both of joy and praise, or rather one far above either; a feeling of awe, wonder, and praise, which cannot be more suitably expressed than by the Scripture word "fear."
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. v., p. 13.
Worship, a preparation for Christ’s coming.
I. What may be the destiny of other orders of being we know not; but this we know to be our own fearful lot—that before us lies a time when we must have the sight of our Lord and Maker face to face. We know not what is reserved for other beings; there may be some which, knowing nothing of their Maker, are never to be brought before Him. For what we can tell, this may be the case with the brute creation. It may be the law of their nature that they should live and die, or live on an indefinite period, upon the very outskirts of His government, sustained by Him, but never permitted to know or approach Him. But this is not our case. We are destined to come before Him; nay, and to come before Him in judgment, and that on our first meeting; and suddenly we have to stand before His righteous presence, and that one by one. At present we are in a world of shadows. What we see is not substantial. Suddenly it will be rent in twain and vanish away, and our Maker will appear. And then that first appearance will be nothing less than a personal intercourse between the Creator and every creature. He will look on us, while we look on Him.
II. Surely it is our plain wisdom, our bounden duty, to prepare for this great change; and if so, are any directions, hints, or rules given us how we are to prepare? Scripture tells us that the Gospel covenant is intended, among its other purposes, to prepare us for this future glorious and wonderful destiny—the sight of God; a destiny which, if not most glorious, will be most terrible. And in the worship and service of Almighty God, which Christ and His Apostles have left to us, we are vouchsafed means, both moral and mystical, of approaching God, and gradually learning to bear the sight of Him. Religious service is "going out to meet the Bridegroom," who, if not "seen in His beauty," will appear in consuming fire.
III. When Moses came down from the mount, and the people were dazzled at his countenance, he put a veil over it. That veil is so far removed in the Gospel, that we are in a state of preparation for its being altogether removed. He who is Judge to us prepares us to be judged,—He who is to glorify us prepares us to be glorified, that He may not take us unawares; but that, when the voice of the archangel sounds, and we are called to meet the Bridegroom, we may be ready.
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. v., p. 1.
References: Isa 33:17.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiii., No. 752; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 323. G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 325.
Isa 33:20-21
To our Zion, to the Church of Christ, are promised explicitly such gifts as those of the text—unity, truth, success. Of which of them, it may be asked, can we make our boast?
I. The unity of the Church was to be one chief note of its Divine origin. What is our state? Visible unity seems to be no more a mark of the Church of Christ. Of those whose faces are all turned one way, to the place where Jesus the crucified sits on the right hand of God, the east and west have been rent asunder, so that none can re-knit the torn garment of the Lord. And west and east are again divided, each within itself; and we, that are but a section of the Western Church, are torn and torn again. Where is the one fold, whose sheep in one flock follow the leading footsteps of the one Shepherd into green pastures that never fail? God’s promise cannot have been in vain. Man must have hindered it; God hath not forgotten it.
II. But if unity has been lost, truth has been preserved to us. And this is our consolation. If the Church be not the great ocean—vast, bright, fresh, a counterpart of the blue heaven above it—still she is like the hundred lakes that nestle among the sheltering hills; they know not each other, but every one of them reflects, and truly, the firmament above. So far as salvation by Christ is brought home to men by the teaching of the churches, so long there is an underlying bond of agreement which outward misunderstanding cannot cancel.
III. Humiliating to us are those promises of great success which are a part of our charter. The power of the truth we teach, the presence of the Holy Ghost, to turn the outward word into an inward life, seem to assure us of great success in gathering in souls to Christ. If, instead of conquering evil in the heathen nations round us, our missions are almost standing still, and round about our doors at home much heathen ignorance prevails, here is one more disappointment, one more source of perplexity in understanding the ways of God. But God is very good to us. We are broken; our lips stammer over the truth; we labour feebly for the good of souls. Yet God is with us still. If we have refused to be blessed according to His plan, He has blessed us in another. There is much love amongst us, even with our strife; there is a warm and growing zeal in works of good. Without the presence of the Spirit these things could not be.
Archbishop Thomson, Life in the Light of God’s Word, p. 3.
References: Isa 33:20-23.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix., No. 489. Isa 33:21.—Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 329. Isa 33:22.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xi., p. 330. Isa 33:23.—Forsyth and Hamilton, Pulpit Parables, p. 217.
Isa 33:24
I. First, let us speak of "those ills that flesh is heir to." Wherever man exists in this world, the cry is heard, "I am sick." It is so because, wherever man exists, there is sin. Disease has been sent to reprove the sins of men, and to correct them with salutary pain. We are not competent of ourselves to decide what specific connection there is between disease and sin in the case of our fellow-men. We may know it in our own ease, but we are not to pronounce positively in regard to others. Indeed, the most cursory observation of daily facts may teach us, that while sickness is in the world, because sin is in the world, the measure of sickness which an individual suffers is no index to the measure of sin which he has committed. Endurance of sickness is more often a mark of God’s good will than of his severe displeasure. (1) Pain removes us out of the way of temptation, gives us time for reflection, when we were hastily running into danger. (2) How much a formidable sickness has helped a believer in drawing out his thoughts to the heavenly country and the passage into glory!
II. But these considerations, however soothing and comforting they may be, do not remove this original and humbling fact, that sickness is a disorder in God’s world, and that it is connected with that moral disorder which we call sin. Consider, secondly, the removal of both these. As sickness and sin entered together, so they shall depart together. When the former things are passed away, then come order, health, perfection, blessedness. Our Lord Jesus Christ, as Saviour of men, coped with both moral and physical evils, and bestowed the double blessing of forgiveness and healing. His skill was never baffled by any form or virulence of disease. He healed all that came unto Him: the blind received their sight, the lame man walked, the deaf heard, and to the poor the Gospel was preached. At the same time, our Lord always dealt with sin as the fundamental disease and disorder of the human race. "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." "I am come to call, not the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
D. Fraser, Penny Pulpit, No. 559.
Reference: Isa 33:24.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii., No. 1905.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain 1-12. The deliverance of Jerusalem from the Invader.
1-12. The deliverance of Jerusalem from the Invader.
13-24. The Consequences of the Interposition of Jehovah for those that dwell in the City.
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1. The Assyrian is addressed. That spoilest, etc.] may mean, (1) that the Assyrian attacked Judah without provocation, or (2) that he has so far spoiled other nations unchecked.
2. Their arm] viz. Jerusalem's defenders'.
3. Disaster overtakes the enemy. People.. nations] refer to the various races subject to Sennacherib and serving in his army.
4. As.. upon them] RV 'as locusts leap shall they leap upon it': the people of Jerusalem seizing the spoil compared to insects devastating the fields.
6. Thy times.. his treasure] The pronoun in each clause refers to the people of Judah. In the last clause there may be an implied rebuke of the tendency of Hezekiah to trust in his material treasure (cp. Isa_39:2, etc.).
7. Ambassadors of peace] i.e. sent to obtain peace. The reference is to Hezekiah's ineffectual embassy to Sennacherib at Lachish (2Ki_18:14-16).
8, 9. describe the country ravaged by the invader. Broken the covenant] cp. 2Ki_18:14.
11, 12. set forth figuratively the destruction of the Assyrian army.
14. Jehovah's interposition strikes terror to the unworthy in Zion. Fire.. burnings] i.e. God, who is a consuming fire (Isa_30:33; Isa_31:9).
15, 16. The righteous finds in the manifestation of Jehovah his protection.
17. The king] i.e. the reigning king of Judah, Hezekiah. In his beauty] no longer in sackcloth (Isa_37:1). The land.. off] RV 'a far-stretching land,' no longer hemmed in by foes.
18. Meditate] i.e. muse upon it as something past. Where.. receiver] RV 'where is he that counted, where is he that weighed? 'The Assyrian officials before whom the people had to appear with their tribute will be nomore.
19. The common language of Syria and Assyria was Aramaic, which, though a Semitic tongue, was unintelligible to the ordinary Hebrew-speaking Israelite: cp. Isa_28:11; Isa_36:11.
20. Zion likened to a tent which nothing can root up.
21. The image is changed to that of a city encircled by a protecting stream: cp. Psa_46:4; Nah_3:8.
23. Reverts to the present. Zion is like a shattered ship. Nevertheless the spoil from her foes will be so great that even cripples take their share.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain Sixth Woe Against the Assyrian and What Is to…
CHAPTER 33
Sixth Woe Against the Assyrian and What Is to Follow
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1. The judgment announced (Isa 33:1) 2. The prayer of the faithful remnant (Isa 33:2-6) 3. The judgment executed (Isa 33:7-13) 4. The judge in the midst of Zion (Isa 33:14-16) 5. The King beheld in His beauty (Isa 33:17-23) 6. Healing and forgiveness the result of the coming of the King (Isa 33:24) This is the last mention which is made of the Assyrian apart from the historical chapters. Here again the judgment of the final Assyrian is in view. When the Lord arises and is exalted the judgment of the last great enemy of Israel will be executed. This judgment scene is described in Isa 33:9-13. The prayer of the faithful remnant is recorded in Isa 33:2-6. The remnant is that portion of the nation which holds to Jehovah and His word in the last days. Their prayer will be answered by the King, whom they shall see in His beauty. What Zion will be then and what the Lord will be to His earthly people is seen in the rest of the chapter.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Punishment Strikes the Adversary
The Punishment Strikes the Adversary
v. 1. Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled, the hostility of the Assyrian invader being a type of the world-power’s enmity toward the Church of God; and dealest treacherously, in invading the country for the purpose of robbery, and they dealt not treacherously with thee, the hostile act being altogether unprovoked. When thou shalt cease to spoil, when the measure of damage which the plans of God included had been reached, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee. The text clearly indicates that the punishment of him who had been unpunished would certainly come upon him. The prophet’s threat now turns into a pleading petition to the Lord.
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v. 2. O Lord, be gracious unto us! For the grace and mercy of tile heavenly Father is the believers’ only stay. We have waited for Thee, trustfully expecting the help which He alone can give; be Thou their arm every morning, for the danger is new every day, our salvation also in the time of trouble, bringing deliverance as the severest affliction looms up before the people. This intercessory prayer is made with the proper confidence, and therefore the prophet in spirit sees the fulfillment of his desire.
v. 3. At the noise of the tumult, as Jehovah makes ready to punish the enemy, the people fled, as before the onset of a powerful army; at the lifting up of Thyself the nations were scattered, their armies fleeing in hopeless confusion.
v. 4. And your spoil, so the prophet tells the adversaries, shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar, that is, the treasures which the invaders had robbed would be abandoned by them, to be collected by the Jews with the same eagerness exhibited by the wingless locust as it devours the vegetation; as the running to and fro of locusts shall He run upon them, as when hordes of grasshoppers clear off a harvest-field to the very last blade of grass. The consequence of all this would be that Jehovah is exalted.
v. 5. The Lord is exalted, He who occupies the throne on high is given all glory for His triumph over the world-power, for executing righteousness and justice in the world; for He dwelleth an high, His victory is a glorious exhibition of His divine power; He hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness. Cf. Isa 32:15-16.
v. 6. And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times and strength of salvation, literally, "And there shall be security, a firm and lasting prosperity, of thy times, a treasure of salvation, of wisdom and knowledge"; that is, the times, the period here referred to, will be characterized by an absence of all disturbing and unstable elements, as the effect of the treasure of salvation given to the believers, and by wisdom and knowledge from on high; the fear of the Lord is his treasure, the treasure-trove of Judah, out of it all the other spiritual gifts and graces flow, as they are enumerated in this verse. Cf. Isa 11:2.
v. 7. Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without, namely, the men of rank sent to the Assyrian general at Lachish, to offer presents and sue for peace, 2Ki 18:14-18; the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly, since their proposals were treated with duplicity and scorn.
v. 8. The highways lie waste, travel had been discontinued on account of the desolation spread by the invaders, the wayfaring man ceaseth, for the life of no traveler was safe on the roads; he, the enemy, hath broken the covenant, in accepting the ransom offered, yet refusing to retire to fulfill its stipulations, he hath despised the cities, his superior forces making a mockery of their resistance; he regardeth no man, rather sacrificing human lives without the slightest compunction.
v. 9. The earth mourneth and languisheth, on account of the wickedness committed on its surface and in consequence of the devastation wrought by the invading hordes. Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down, its mighty forests withered; Sharon, the fertile plain along the Mediterranean, south of Mount Carmel, is like a wilderness, for it was through its rich fields that the invaders marched; and Bashan and Carmel, the two fruitful elevations in the eastern and western part of the Promised Land, shake off their fruits, so that their great forests stand bare. This condition, which the Lord had apparently viewed sitting down, as though He were not interested in the devastation, He wants to change with a mighty arm.
v. 10. Now will I rise, saith the Lord, getting up from the throne of His might; now will I be exalted, showing Himself in the might of His greatness; now will I lift up Myself, as a champion preparing for battle. He now addresses the enemies directly.
v. 11. Ye shall conceive chaff, dry grass or hay, since the plans which they laid were not fresh and full of life, but utterly dry, without strength and sap, ye shall bring forth stubble, to which their futile ideas might well be compared; your breath, their own snorting anger, as they fretted and fumed, as fire, shall devour you, so that they would be destroyed as a result of their own foolish counsels.
v. 12. And the people shall be as the burnings of lime, which consumes itself as it comes in contact with water; as thorns cut up, which burn with a bright flame, with loud crackling, and much smoke, shall they be burned in the fire. Thus are the adversaries of the Lord consumed by the fire of His anger, while His salvation shelters those who place their confidence in Him alone.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Isaiah speaks in poetry for Yahweh to the Assyrians. (See: Parallelism)
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who has not been destroyed
This can be stated in active form. AT: "whom others have not destroyed" (See: Active or Passive)
you will be destroyed
This can be stated in active form. AT: "others will destroy you" (See: Active or Passive)
they will betray
"others will betray"
translationWords
woe
betray
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 33:1 This was the sixth threat of woe (see…
33:1 This was the sixth threat of woe (see study note on 28:1–33:24). • Although the Hebrew text does not specifically name Assyria as the object of the prophecy in this chapter, Isaiah undoubtedly had Assyria in mind; they were the destroyer most immediately at hand when the prophecy was written. The prophecy applies, however, to any who seek to destroy God’s people; this included, but was not limited to, the Babylonians (see chs 13–14). • When you are done betraying: Wicked nations often break political agreements with other nations when these contracts are no longer to their own advantage.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.