Isaiah 33:7-12

33:7 Look, ambassadors cry out in the streets;

messengers sent to make peace weep bitterly.

33:8 Highways are empty,

there are no travelers.

Treaties are broken,

witnesses are despised,

human life is treated with disrespect.

33:9 The land dries up and withers away;

the forest of Lebanon shrivels up 10  and decays.

Sharon 11  is like the desert; 12 

Bashan and Carmel 13  are parched. 14 

33:10 “Now I will rise up,” says the Lord.

“Now I will exalt myself;

now I will magnify myself. 15 

33:11 You conceive straw, 16 

you give birth to chaff;

your breath is a fire that destroys you. 17 

33:12 The nations will be burned to ashes; 18 

like thorn bushes that have been cut down, they will be set on fire.


tn The meaning of the Hebrew word is unknown. Proposals include “heroes” (cf. KJV, ASV “valiant ones”; NASB, NIV “brave men”); “priests,” “residents [of Jerusalem].” The present translation assumes that the term is synonymous with “messengers of peace,” with which it corresponds in the parallel structure of the verse.

tn Heb “messengers of peace,” apparently those responsible for negotiating the agreements that have been broken (see v. 8).

tn Or “desolate” (NAB, NASB); NIV, NRSV, NLT “deserted.”

tn Heb “the one passing by on the road ceases.”

tn Heb “one breaks a treaty”; NAB “Covenants are broken.”

tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “he despises cities.” The term עָרִים (’arim, “cities”) is probably a corruption of an original עֵדִים (’edim, “[legal] witnesses”), a reading that is preserved in the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa. Confusion of dalet (ד) and resh (ר) is a well-attested scribal error.

tn Heb “he does not regard human beings.”

tn Or “earth” (KJV); NAB “the country.”

tn Or “mourns” (BDB 5 s.v. I אָבַל). HALOT 6-7 lists homonyms I אבל (“mourn”) and II אבל (“dry up”). They propose the second here on the basis of parallelism. See 24:4.

10 tn Heb “Lebanon is ashamed.” The Hiphil is exhibitive, expressing the idea, “exhibits shame.” In this context the statement alludes to the withering of vegetation.

11 sn Sharon was a fertile plain along the Mediterranean coast. See 35:2.

12 tn Or “the Arabah” (NIV). See 35:1.

13 sn Both of these areas were known for their trees and vegetation. See 2:13; 35:2.

14 tn Heb “shake off [their leaves]” (so ASV, NRSV); NAB “are stripped bare.”

15 tn Or “lift myself up” (KJV); NLT “show my power and might.”

16 tn The second person verb and pronominal forms in this verse are plural. The hostile nations are the addressed, as the next verse makes clear.

17 sn The hostile nations’ plans to destroy God’s people will come to nothing; their hostility will end up being self-destructive.

18 tn Heb “will be a burning to lime.” See Amos 2:1.