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33. Distress and Help

¹ Woe to you, destroyer,
   you who have not been destroyed!
Woe to you, betrayer,
   you who have not been betrayed!
When you stop destroying,
   you will be destroyed;
when you stop betraying,
   you will be betrayed.

    ² LORD, be gracious to us;
   we long for you.
Be our strength every morning,
   our salvation in time of distress.
³ At the uproar of your army, the peoples flee;
   when you rise up, the nations scatter.
⁴ Your plunder, O nations, is harvested as by young locusts;
   like a swarm of locusts people pounce on it.

    ⁵ The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high;
   he will fill Zion with his justice and righteousness.
⁶ He will be the sure foundation for your times,
   a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge;
   the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure. Or is a treasure from him

    ⁷ Look, their brave men cry aloud in the streets;
   the envoys of peace weep bitterly.
⁸ The highways are deserted,
   no travelers are on the roads.
The treaty is broken,
   its witnesses Dead Sea Scrolls; Masoretic Text / the cities are despised,
   no one is respected.
⁹ The land dries up and wastes away,
   Lebanon is ashamed and withers;
Sharon is like the Arabah,
   and Bashan and Carmel drop their leaves.

    ¹⁰ “Now will I arise,” says the LORD.
   “Now will I be exalted;
   now will I be lifted up.
¹¹ You conceive chaff,
   you give birth to straw;
   your breath is a fire that consumes you.
¹² The peoples will be burned to ashes;
   like cut thornbushes they will be set ablaze.”

    ¹³ You who are far away, hear what I have done;
   you who are near, acknowledge my power!
¹⁴ The sinners in Zion are terrified;
   trembling grips the godless:
“Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire?
   Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?”
¹⁵ Those who walk righteously
   and speak what is right,
who reject gain from extortion
   and keep their hands from accepting bribes,
who stop their ears against plots of murder
   and shut their eyes against contemplating evil—
¹⁶ they are the ones who will dwell on the heights,
   whose refuge will be the mountain fortress.
Their bread will be supplied,
   and water will not fail them.

    ¹⁷ Your eyes will see the king in his beauty
   and view a land that stretches afar.
¹⁸ In your thoughts you will ponder the former terror:
   “Where is that chief officer?
Where is the one who took the revenue?
   Where is the officer in charge of the towers?”
¹⁹ You will see those arrogant people no more,
   people whose speech is obscure,
   whose language is strange and incomprehensible.

    ²⁰ Look on Zion, the city of our festivals;
   your eyes will see Jerusalem,
   a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved;
its stakes will never be pulled up,
   nor any of its ropes broken.
²¹ There the LORD will be our Mighty One.
   It will be like a place of broad rivers and streams.
No galley with oars will ride them,
   no mighty ship will sail them.
²² For the LORD is our judge,
   the LORD is our lawgiver,
the LORD is our king;
   it is he who will save us.

    ²³ Your rigging hangs loose:
   The mast is not held secure,
   the sail is not spread.
Then an abundance of spoils will be divided
   and even the lame will carry off plunder.
²⁴ No one living in Zion will say, “I am ill”;
   and the sins of those who dwell there will be forgiven.

7. Behold, their messengers ⁷⁷ “Their valiant ones, or messengers.” — (Eng. Ver.) “The Targum and some other ancient versions seem to treat אראלם, (erellam,) as a contraction of אראה לם, (ereh lam, or eraeh lam.) Thus Aquila has ὁραθήσομαι αὐτοῖς Symmachus,ὀφθήσομαι; the Vulgate, videntes But there is no example of the form לם (lam) for להם (lahaem). — Alexander. shall cry without. It is difficult to determine whether Isaiah relates historically the fearful perplexity and imminent danger to which the Jews were reduced, in order to exhibit more strikingly the favor of deliverance, or predicted a future calamity, that the hearts of the godly might not soon afterwards faint under it. For my own part, I think it probable that this is not the history of, a past transaction, but that, as a heavy and sore temptation was at hand, it was intended to fortify the hearts of believers to wait patiently for the assistance of God when their affairs were at the worst. However that may be, the sad and lamentable desolation of the Church is here described, that believers may not cease to entertain good hope even in the midst of their perplexity, and that, when they have been rescued from danger; they may know that it was accomplished by the wonderful power of God.

The ambassadors of peace wept bitterly. It is given as a token of despair, that the ambassadors who had been sent to appease the tyrant were unsuccessful; for every way and method of obtaining peace was attempted by Hezekiah, but without any success. Accordingly, “the ambassadors” returned sad and disconsolate, and even on the road could not dissemble their grief, which it was difficult to conceal in their hearts, when matters were in so wretched a condition. He undoubtedly means that Sennacherib has haughtily and disdainfully refused to make peace, so that “the ambassadors,” as; if they had forgotten their rank, are constrained to pour out in public their grief and lamentations, and, ere they have returned to their king and given account of their embassy, openly to proclaim what kind of answer they have obtained from the cruel tyrant, ⁸⁸ “Eliakim, with the rest, who returned to Hezekiah, with their clothes rent, in despair at the rejection of all conditions of peace. Isaiah 36:2, 22.” — Stock. Others think, that by “the ambassadors of peace” are meant those who were wont to announce peace; but that interpretation appears to me to be feeble and farfetched. By “the ambassadors of peace,” therefore, I understand to be meant those who had been sent to pacify the king, that they might purchase peace on some condition.