331 Ho! you who make waste those who did not make you waste; acting falsely to those who were not false to you. When you have come to an end of wasting, you will be made waste, and after your false acts, they will do the same to you. 2 O Lord, have mercy on us; for we have been waiting for your help: be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of trouble. 3 At the loud noise the peoples have gone in flight; at your coming up the nations have gone in all directions. 4 And the goods taken in war will be got together like the massing of young locusts; men will be rushing on them like the rushing of locusts. 5 The Lord is lifted up; his place is on high: he has made Zion full of righteousness and true religion. 6 And she will have no more fear of change, being full of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge: the fear of the Lord is her wealth. 7 See, the men of war are sorrowing outside the town: those who came looking for peace are weeping bitterly. 8 The highways are waste, no man is journeying there: the agreement is broken, he has made sport of the towns, he has no thought for man. 9 The earth is sorrowing and wasting away; Lebanon is put to shame and has become waste; Sharon is like the Arabah; and in Bashan and Carmel the leaves are falling. 10 Now will I come forward, says the Lord; now will I be lifted up; now will my power be seen. 11 Your designs will be without profit, and their effect will be nothing: you will be burned up by the fire of my breath. 12 And the peoples will be like the burning of chalk: as thorns cut down, which are burned in the fire.
13 Give ear, you who are far off, to what I have done: see my power, you who are near. 14 The sinners in Zion are full of fear; the haters of God are shaking with wonder. Who among us may keep his place before the burning fire? who among us may see the eternal burnings?
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Isaiah 33:1-14
Commentary on Isaiah 33:1-14
(Read Isaiah 33:1-14)
Here we have the proud and false destroyer justly reckoned with for all his fraud and violence. The righteous God often pays sinners in their own coin. Those who by faith humbly wait for God, shall find him gracious to them; as the day, so let the strength be. If God leaves us to ourselves any morning, we are undone; we must every morning commit ourselves to him, and go forth in his strength to do the work of the day. When God arises, his enemies are scattered. True wisdom and knowledge lead to strength of salvation, which renders us stedfast in the ways of God; and true piety is the only treasure which can never be plundered or spent. The distress Jerusalem was brought into, is described. God's time to appear for his people, is, when all other helpers fail. Let all who hear what God has done, acknowledge that he can do every thing. Sinners in Zion will have much to answer for, above other sinners. And those that rebel against the commands of the word, cannot take its comforts in time of need. His wrath will burn those everlastingly who make themselves fuel for it. It is a fire that shall never be quenched, nor ever go out of itself; it is the wrath of an ever-living God preying on the conscience of a never-dying soul.