Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament · Isaiah Chapter 33

We are now in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign. The threatenings of the first years, which the repentance of the people had delayed, are now so far in force again, and so far actually realized, that the Assyrians are already in Judah, and have not only devastated the land, but are threatening Jerusalem. The element of promise now gains the upper hand, the prophet places himself between Asshur and his own nation with the weapons of prophecy and prayer, and the woe turns from the latter to the former. “Woe, devastator, and thyself not devastated; and thou spoiler, and still not spoiled! Hast thou done with devastating? thou shalt be devastated. Hast thou attained to rob? men rob thee.” Asshur is described as not devastated and not spoiled (which could not be expressed by a participle as with us, since bâgad is construed with Beth, and not with the accusative of the person), because it had not yet been visited by any such misfortune as that which had fallen upon other lands and nations. But it would be repaid with like for the like as soon as כּ indicating simultaneousness, as in Isaiah 30:19 and Isaiah 18:5, for example) its devastating and spoiling had reached the point determined by Jehovah. Instead of ב ך , we find in some codd. and editions the reading בו , which is equally admissible. In כּהתימ ך (from תּמם ) the radical syllable is lengthened, instead of having dagesh. כּנּלת ך is equivalent to כּהנלות ך , a hiphil syncopated for the sake of rhythm (as in Isaiah 3:8; Deuteronomy 1:33, and many other passages), written here with dagesh dirmens, from the verb nâlâh , which is attested also by Job 15:29. The coincidence in meaning with the Arab. verb nâl ( fut. i and u), to acquire or attain (see Comm. on Job, at Job 15:29 and Job 30:24-27), has been admitted by the earliest of the national grammarians, Ben-Koreish, Chayug, etc. The conjecture כּכלּות ך (in addition to which Cappellus proposed כנלאות ך ) is quite unnecessary. The play upon the sound sets forth the punishment of the hitherto unpunished one as the infallible echo of its sin.

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In Isaiah 33:2 the prophet's word of command is changed into a believing prayer: “Jehovah, be gracious to us; we wait for Thee: be their arm with every morning, yea, our salvation in time of need!” “ Their arm,” i.e., the power which shelters and defends them, viz., Thy people and my own. “ Yea,” 'aph , is emphatic. Israel's arm every morning, because the danger is renewed every day; Israel's salvation, i.e., complete deliverance (Isaiah 25:9), because the culminating point of the trouble is still in prospect.

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After the prophet has heard this from Jehovah, he knows how it will fare with them. He therefore cries out to them in triumph (Isaiah 33:11), “Ye are pregnant with hay, ye bring forth stubble! Your snorting is the fire that will devour you.” Their vain purpose to destroy Jerusalem comes to nothing; their burning wrath against Jerusalem becomes the fire of wrath, which consumes them (for chashash and qash , see at Isaiah 5:24).

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The prophet announces this to them, and now tells openly what has been exhibited to him in his mental mirror as the purpose of God. “And nations become as lime burnings, thorns cut off, which are kindled with fire.” The first simile sets forth the totality of the destruction: they will be so completely burned up, that nothing but ashes will be left, like the lump of lime left at the burning of lime. The second contains a figurative description of its suddenness: they have vanished suddenly, like dead brushwood, which is cut down in consequence, and quickly crackles up and is consumed (Isaiah 5:24, cf., Isaiah 9:17): kâsach is the Targum word for zâmar , amputare , whereas in Arabic it has the same meaning as sâchâh , verrere .

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Over this picture the prophet forgets the sinners in Zion, and greets with words of promise the thriving church of the future. “Thine eyes will see the king in his beauty, will see a land that is very far off.” The king of Judah, hitherto so deeply humbled, and, as Micah instances by way of example, “smitten upon the cheeks,” is then glorified by the victory of his God; and the nation, constituted as described in Isaiah 33:15, Isaiah 33:16, will see him in his God-given beauty, and see the land of promise, cleared of enemies as far as the eye can reach and the foot carry, restored to Israel without reserve, and under the dominion of this sovereign enjoying all the blessedness of peace.

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And how will Jerusalem look when Asshur has been dashed to pieces on the strong fortress? The prophet passes over here into the tone of Psalms 48:1-14 (Psalms 48:13, Psalms 48:14). Psalms 46:1-11 and Psalms 48:1-14 probably belong to the time of Jehoshaphat; but they are equally applicable to the deliverance of Jerusalem in the time of Hezekiah. “Look upon Zion, the castle of our festal meeting. Thine eyes will see Jerusalem, a pleasant place, a tent that does not wander about, whose pegs are never drawn, and none of whose cords are ever broken.” Jerusalem stands there unconquered and inviolable, the fortress where the congregation of the whole land celebrates its feasts, a place full of good cheer (Isaiah 32:18), in which everything is now arranged for a continuance. Jerusalem has come out of tribulation stronger than ever - not a nomadic wandering tent ( tsâ‛am , a nomad word, to wander, lit., to pack up = tâ‛an in Genesis 45:17), but one set up for a permanent dwelling.

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