Discovery BoxIsaiah 33:1-4
Context33:1 The destroyer is as good as dead, 1
you who have not been destroyed!
The deceitful one is as good as dead, 2
the one whom others have not deceived!
When you are through destroying, you will be destroyed;
when you finish 3 deceiving, others will deceive you!
33:2 Lord, be merciful to us! We wait for you.
Give us strength each morning! 4
Deliver us when distress comes. 5
33:3 The nations run away when they hear a loud noise; 6
the nations scatter when you spring into action! 7
33:4 Your plunder 8 disappears as if locusts were eating it; 9
they swarm over it like locusts! 10
[33:1] 1 tn Heb “Woe [to] the destroyer.”
[33:1] 2 tn Heb “and the deceitful one”; NAB, NIV “O traitor”; NRSV “you treacherous one.” In the parallel structure הוֹי (hoy, “woe [to]”) does double duty.
[33:1] 3 tc The form in the Hebrew text appears to derive from an otherwise unattested verb נָלָה (nalah). The translation follows the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa in reading ככלתך, a Piel infinitival form from the verbal root כָּלָה (kalah), meaning “finish.”
[33:2] 4 tn Heb “Be their arm each morning.” “Arm” is a symbol for strength. The mem suffixed to the noun has been traditionally understood as a third person suffix, but this is contrary to the context, where the people speak of themselves in the first person. The mem (מ) is probably enclitic with ellipsis of the pronoun, which can be supplied from the context. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:589, n. 1.
[33:2] 5 tn Heb “[Be] also our deliverance in the time of distress.”
[33:3] 6 tn Heb “at the sound of tumult the nations run away.”
[33:3] 7 tn Heb “because of your exaltation the nations scatter.”
[33:4] 8 tn The pronoun is plural; the statement is addressed to the nations who have stockpiled plunder from their conquests of others.
[33:4] 9 tn Heb “and your plunder is gathered, the gathering of the locust.”
