a Cn: Heb And it will hail when the forest comes down
32.1–8 In the future the rule of the ideal king (9.1–7; 11.1–9) and his princes (cf. 1.26) will be marked by righteousness and justice.
32.2 Unlike the former officials who oppressed the people (1.23; 3.14–15), these rulers, like God, will offer relief (cf. 25.4–5; 28.12).
32.3 A reversal of the judgment in 6.9–10.
32.5–8 In those days fools and villains will all be called by their right names (cf. 5.20).
32.9–14 Cf. 3.16–4.1.
32.10 The failure of the vintage will end the former leisurely life of feasting (5.10–12).
32.11–12 Typical mourning rites (Jer 4.8).
32.15–20 The desolation of judgment will only be ended when the pouring out of God’s spirit brings justice and righteousness to the people so that they live in security (see 11.2–9).
ISAIAH 33
A Prophecy of Deliverance from Foes
1Ah, you destroyer,
who yourself have not been destroyed;
you treacherous one,
with whom no one has dealt treacherously!
When you have ceased to destroy,
you will be destroyed;
and when you have stopped dealing treacherously,
you will be dealt with treacherously.
2O LORD, be gracious to us; we wait for you.
Be our arm every morning,
our salvation in the time of trouble.
3At the sound of tumult, peoples fled;
before your majesty, nations scattered.
4Spoil was gathered as the caterpillar gathers;
as locusts leap, they leapeda upon it.
5The LORD is exalted, he dwells on high;
he filled Zion with justice and righteousness;
6he will be the stability of your times,
abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;
the fear of the LORD is Zion’s treasure.b
7Listen! the valiantc cry in the streets;
the envoys of peace weep bitterly.
8The highways are deserted,
travelers have quit the road.
The treaty is broken,
its oathsd are despised,
its obligatione is disregarded.
9The land mourns and languishes;
Lebanon is confounded and withers away;
Sharon is like a desert;
and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
10“Now I will arise,” says the LORD,
“now I will lift myself up;
now I will be exalted.
11You conceive chaff, you bring forth stubble;
your breath is a fire that will consume you.
12And the peoples will be as if burned to lime,
like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.”
13Hear, you who are far away, what I have done;
and you who are near, acknowledge my might.
14The sinners in Zion are afraid;
trembling has seized the godless:
“Who among us can live with the devouring fire?
Who among us can live with everlasting flames?”
15Those who walk righteously and speak uprightly,
who despise the gain of oppression,
who wave away a bribe instead of accepting it,
who stop their ears from hearing of bloodshed
and shut their eyes from looking on evil,
16they will live on the heights;
their refuge will be the fortresses of rocks;
their food will be supplied, their water assured.
The Land of the Majestic King
17Your eyes will see the king in his beauty;
they will behold a land that stretches far away.
18Your mind will muse on the terror:
“Where is the one who counted?
Where is the one who weighed the tribute?
Where is the one who counted the towers?”
19No longer will you see the insolent people,
the people of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend,
stammering in a language that you cannot understand.
20Look on Zion, the city of our appointed festivals!
Your eyes will see Jerusalem,
a quiet habitation, an immovable tent,
whose stakes will never be pulled up,
and none of whose ropes will be broken.
21But there the LORD in majesty will be for us
a place of broad rivers and streams,
where no galley with oars can go,
nor stately ship can pass.
22For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our ruler,
the LORD is our king; he will save us.
23Your rigging hangs loose;
it cannot hold the mast firm in its place,
or keep the sail spread out.
Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided;
even the lame will fall to plundering.
24And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”
the people who live there will be forgiven their iniquity.
* * *
a Meaning of Heb uncertain
b Heb his treasure; meaning of Heb uncertain
c Meaning of Heb uncertain
d Q Ms: MT cities
e Or everyone
33.1–24 An extended prophetic liturgy that includes a communal prayer (vv. 2–9), oracles promising deliverance from the Assyrian oppressor (vv. 1, 10–12), and a call to righteous living in God’s presence (vv. 13–16).
33.1 Warning to the treacherous oppressor that his turn will come (see 10.5–12).
33.2–9 Communal lament praising God as the defender of Zion and describing the treachery of the oppressor.
33.2 Arm, source of strength. Morning, the time of God’s intervention (Ps 46.5).
33.3–4 Traditional imagery from the Zion tradition (see Introduction) for God’s protection of Jerusalem; see Pss 48.4–6; 76.5.
33.5–6 God’s presence in Jerusalem is its treasure, the source of its security (Pss 46.7, 11; 48.1–3; 76.1–3).
33.7–9 The situation of need is described as one of imminent war caused by the treacherous disregard of peace initiatives and earlier treaty commitments. Sennacherib’s continuation of the campaign against Jerusalem despite Hezekiah’s offer of submission provides a possible historical setting (2 Kings 18.13–37).
33.10–12 Oracular response in which God threatens to arise and burn the enemy like thorns (see 10.16–17;30.27–33).
33.13–16 In response to this mighty display of God’s power before the nations, the sinners among his own people are terrified, for only the righteous can live in the presence of such a God (see Pss 15;24.3–5).
33.17–24 In that golden future the righteous will rejoice in the glory of their king and in the security of Jerusalem.
33.18–20 In that day the former terror will seem but a dream (29.7–8); in place of enemy officers speaking an incomprehensible language (28.11–13), it will be Judah itself who counts Jerusalem’s towers in thankful admiration (Ps 48.12–14).
33.21–23 This portrayal of Jerusalem makes use of Canaanite mythological motifs about the abode of the gods. Jerusalem will be well watered (Ezek 47.1–12), but not exposed to attack by sea, for the divine king will smash all such hostile ships (Ps 48.12).
ISAIAH 34
Judgment on the Nations
1Draw near, O nations, to hear;
O peoples, give heed!
Let the earth hear, and all that fills it;
the world, and all that comes from it.
2For the LORD is enraged against all the nations,
and furious against all their hordes;
he has doomed them, has given them over for slaughter.
3Their slain shall be cast out,
and the stench of their corpses shall rise;
the mountains shall flow with their blood.
4All the
host of heaven shall rot away,
and the skies roll up like a scroll.
All their host shall wither
like a leaf withering on a vine,
or fruit withering on a fig tree.
5When my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens,
lo, it will descend upon Edom,
upon the people I have doomed to judgment.
6The LORD has a sword;
it is sated with blood, it is gorged
with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats,
with the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7Wild oxen shall fall with them,
and young steers with the mighty bulls.
Their land shall be soaked with blood,
and their soil made rich with fat.
8For the LORD has a day of vengeance,
a year of vindication by Zion’s cause.a
9And the streams of Edomb shall be turned into pitch,
and her soil into sulfur;
her land shall become burning pitch.
10Night and day it shall not be quenched;
its smoke shall go up forever.
From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
no one shall pass through it forever and ever.
11But the hawkc and the hedgehogd shall possess it;
the owle and the raven shall live in it.
He shall stretch the line of confusion over it,
and the plummet of chaos overf its nobles.
12They shall name it No Kingdom There,
and all its princes shall be nothing.
13Thorns shall grow over its strongholds,
nettles and thistles in its fortresses.
It shall be the haunt of jackals,
an abode for ostriches.
14Wildcats shall meet with hyenas,
goat-demons shall call to each other;
there too Lilith shall repose,
and find a place to rest.
15There shall the owl nest
and lay and hatch and brood in its shadow;
there too the buzzards shall gather,
each one with its mate.
16Seek and read from the book of the LORD:
Not one of these shall be missing;
none shall be without its mate.
For the mouth of the LORD has commanded,
and his spirit has gathered them.
17He has cast the lot for them,
his hand has portioned it out to them with the line;
they shall possess it forever,
from generation to generation they shall live in it.
next chapter
* * *
a Or of recompense by Zion’s defender
b Heb her streams
c Identification uncertain
d Identification uncertain
e Identification uncertain
f Heb lacks over
34.1–17 This is probably a postexilic oracle from the same period as chs. 56–66. For the prominence given to Edom in this judgment, cf. esp. 63.1.
34.4 Host of heaven, the moon, stars, and planets worshiped by other nations and symbolizing the spiritual powers that lay behind their human governments (see 24.21).
34.5 My sword, the sword of the Lord (see Ezek 21.3–32). The judgment on Edom simply illustrates the destruction that will befall all the nations (Ob 15–16).
34.6 Sacrifice. Cf. Jer 46.10; Ezek 39.17–20. Bozrah, an important Edomite city (63.1).
34.8 A day of vengeance, a year of vindication, time for God to save Zion and to punish the nations for their treatment of it (61.2; 63.4).
34.9–10 Edom, like Babylon (13.19–22), will share the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19.24–28).
34.11–15 Edom’s ruins will be overgrown and inhabited by wild creatures and demons.
34.11 Line and plummet were aids used by builders to ensure straight horizontal and vertical lines, but they were also used to decide if a building needed to be torn down (28.16–17; Am 7.7–9).
34.12 No Kingdom There, a mocking name given to the Edomite ruins.
34.14 Goat-demons, Lilith, two varieties of demons thought to inhabit abandoned ruins.
34.16 Book of the LORD, perhaps a reference to an earlier scroll containing the similar judgment against Babylon (13.19–22).
34.17 As the Israelites were assigned their inheritance in the land of Canaan by lot (Josh 14.1–2), these wild creatures have been assigned the ruins of Babylon as their allotted inheritance.
ISAIAH 35
The Return of the Redeemed to Zion
1The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,
the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
like the crocus 2it shall blossom abundantly,
and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the LORD,
the majesty of our God.
3Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
4Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
“Be strong, do not fear!
Here is your God.
He will come with vengeance,
with terrible recompense.
He will come and save you.”
5Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6then the lame shall leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;
7the burning sand shall become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water;
the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp,a
the grass shall become reeds and rushes.
8A highway shall be there,
and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it,b
but it shall be for God’s people;c
no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.
9No lion shall be there,
nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there.
10And the ransomed of the LORD shall return,
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
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a Cn: Heb in the haunt of jackals is her resting place
b Or pass it by
c Cn: Heb for them
35.1–10 This oracle originally belonged to the exilic collection in chs. 40–55.
35.1–2 The wilderness will bloom (41.18–19; 51.3), and all shall see the glory of the LORD (40.5).
35.3–4 An unnamed group, perhaps the angelic members of God’s divine council (cf. 40.1–2), is commissioned to strengthen the disheartened with the good news that God is coming to save them (cf. 40.9–10; 41.10, 13–14; 43.1, 5; 44.2; 51.7; 54.4).
35.5–6a The spiritual disabilities of God’s people (see 6.9–10; 29.9–10; 32.3; 42.18–20) will be corrected.
35.6b–7 Cf. 41.18–19.
35.8 There will be a highway through the wilderness that no one can miss (30.20–21; 40.3–4; 42.16).
35.9 Cf. 11.6–9.
35.10 See 51.11.
ISAIAH 36
Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem
1In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 2The king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army. He stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Fuller’s Field. 3And there came out to him Eliakim son o
f Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder.
4The Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah: Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you base this confidence of yours? 5Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? On whom do you now rely, that you have rebelled against me? 6See, you are relying on Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him. 7But if you say to me, ‘We rely on the LORD our God,’ is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’? 8Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. 9How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master’s servants, when you rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 10Moreover, is it without the LORD that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.”
11Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 12But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the people sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”
13Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 14Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. 15Do not let Hezekiah make you rely on the LORD by saying, The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ 16Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make your peace with me and come out to me; then every one of you will eat from your own vine and your own fig tree and drink water from your own cistern, 17until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18Do not let Hezekiah mislead you by saying, The LORD will save us. Has any of the gods of the nations saved their land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 19Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 20Who among all the gods of these countries have saved their countries out of my hand, that the LORD should save Jerusalem out of my hand?’”
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