Yesaya 33:1

The Lord Will Restore Zion

33:1 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!

Yesaya 33:4

33:4 Your plunder ⁴  disappears as if locusts were eating it; ⁵ 

they swarm over it like locusts! ⁶ 

[33:1]  ¹ tn Heb “Woe [to] the destroyer.”

[33:1]  sn In this context “the destroyer” appears to refer collectively to the hostile nations (vv. 3-4). Assyria would probably have been primary in the minds of the prophet and his audience.

[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 1QIsa^a in reading ככלתך, a Piel infinitival form from the verbal root כָּלָה (kalah), meaning “finish.”

[33:4]  ⁴ tn The pronoun is plural; the statement is addressed to the nations who have stockpiled plunder from their conquests of others.

[33:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “and your plunder is gathered, the gathering of the locust.”

[33:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “like a swarm of locusts swarming on it.”