Isaiah 33:4

Easy-to-Read Version

You people stole things in war. Those things will be taken from you. Many will come and take your wealth. It will be like the times when locusts come and eat all your crops.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Your spoil will be gathered as locusts are gathered;people will swarm over it like an infestation of locusts.

Hebrew Names Version
Your spoil shall be gathered as the caterpillar gathers: as locusts leap shall men leap on it.

King James Version
And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpiller: as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them.

English Standard Version
and your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers; as locusts leap, it is leapt upon.

New American Standard Bible
Your plunder is gathered as the caterpillar gathers; Like an infestation of locusts, people storm it.

New Century Version
Like locusts, your enemies will take away the things you stole in war. Like locusts rushing about, they will take your wealth.

Amplified Bible
Your spoil [of Israel's foe] is gathered [by the people of Jerusalem] as the caterpillar gathers; As locusts swarming so people swarm on it.

World English Bible
Your spoil shall be gathered as the caterpillar gathers: as locusts leap shall men leap on it.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And your spoyle shall be gathered like the gathering of caterpillers: and he shall go against him like the leaping of grashoppers.

Legacy Standard Bible
Your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;As locusts rushing about men rush about on it.

Berean Standard Bible
Your spoil will be gathered as if by locusts; like a swarm of locusts men will pounce on it.

Contemporary English Version
We attack our enemies like swarms of locusts; we take everything that belongs to them.

Complete Jewish Bible
Your spoil is gathered as if stripped by shearer-worms; they run over it like a swarm of locusts.

Darby Translation
And your spoil shall be gathered [like] the gathering of the caterpillar: as the running of locusts shall they run upon it.

George Lamsa Translation
Henceforth your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar; as a swarm of locusts when it is gathered together.

Good News Translation
Their belongings are pounced upon and taken as loot.

Lexham English Bible
And your spoil is gathered, as the gathering of the locust, as a swarm of locusts storming on it.

Literal Translation
And Your prey shall be gathered as the stripping locust gathers; as locusts run to and fro, he also runs about on it.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
and that their spoyle maye be gathered, as the greshoppers are comonly gathered together in to the pyt.

American Standard Version
And your spoil shall be gathered as the caterpillar gathereth: as locusts leap shall men leap upon it.

Bible in Basic English
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.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathereth; as locusts leap do they leap upon it.

King James Version (1611)
And your spoile shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpiller: as the running to and fro of Locusts shall he runne vpon them.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And the spoyles shalbe gathered, which shalbe yours, as are the gathetheryng of Bruchus, and the multitude goyng to it shalbe as Locustes, running to and fro.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And now shall the spoils of your small and great be gathered: as if one should gather locusts, so shall they mock you.

English Revised Version
And your spoil shall be gathered as the caterpiller gathereth: as locusts leap shall they leap upon it.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And youre spuylis schulen be gaderid togidere, as a bruke is gaderid togidere, as whanne dichis ben ful therof.

Update Bible Version
And your spoil shall be gathered [as] the caterpillar gathers: as locusts leap shall men leap on it.

Webster's Bible Translation
And your spoil shall be gathered [like] the gathering of the caterpillar: as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them.

New English Translation
Your plunder disappears as if locusts were eating it; they swarm over it like locusts!

New King James Version
And Your plunder shall be gathered Like the gathering of the caterpillar; As the running to and fro of locusts, He shall run upon them.

New Living Translation
Just as caterpillars and locusts strip the fields and vines, so the fallen army of Assyria will be stripped!

New Life Bible
The things taken in war will be gathered as the caterpillar gathers. Men rush upon it like locusts.

New Revised Standard
Spoil was gathered as the caterpillar gathers; as locusts leap, they leaped upon it.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Then shall your spoil be gathered as the gathering of the caterpillar, - As the swift running of locusts, is he about to run upon them.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And your spoils shall be gathered together as the locusts are gathered, as when the ditches are full of them.

Revised Standard Version
and spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers; as locusts leap, men leap upon it.

Young's Literal Translation
And gathered hath been your spoil, A gathering of the caterpillar, As a running to and fro of locusts is he running on it.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers; As locusts rushing about men rush about on it.

Contextual Overview

¹ Look at you. You attack others when you have not been attacked. You turn against others when no one has turned against you. So when you stop your attacks, you will be attacked. When you stop turning against others, they will turn against you. ² Lord , be kind to us. We have waited for your help. Give us strength every morning. Save us when we are in trouble. ³ Your powerful voice makes people run away in fear. Your greatness causes the nations to run away. ⁴ You people stole things in war. Those things will be taken from you. Many will come and take your wealth. It will be like the times when locusts come and eat all your crops. ⁵ The Lord is very great. He lives in a very high place. He fills Zion with justice and goodness. ⁶ Jerusalem, you are rich with wisdom and knowledge of God. You are rich with salvation. You respect the Lord , and that makes you rich. ⁷ But listen! The messengers are crying outside. The messengers who bring peace are crying very hard. ⁸ The roads are empty; there is no one walking along the paths. People don't respect each other. They have broken the agreements they made, and they refuse to believe what witnesses tell them. ⁹ The land is sick and dying. Lebanon is dying and Sharon Valley is dry and empty. Bashan and Carmel once grew beautiful plants—but now those plants have stopped growing. ¹⁰ The Lord says, "Now, I will stand and show people how great and powerful I am.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

your spoil: Isaiah 33:23, 2 Kings 7:15, 2 Kings 7:16, 2 Chronicles 14:13, 2 Chronicles 20:25

the running: Joel 2:9, Joel 2:25

Reciprocal: Psalms 78:46 - the caterpillar Jeremiah 50:10 - all that Joel 1:4 - the caterpillar Amos 7:1 - he Nahum 2:9 - ye Habakkuk 2:8 - thou Revelation 9:3 - locusts

Cross-References

Genesis 32:28
Then the man said, "Your name will not be Jacob. Your name will now be Israel. I give you this name because you have fought with God and with men, and you have won."

Genesis 43:30
Joseph felt a strong desire to show his brother Benjamin that he loved him. He was about to cry and didn't want his brothers to see him, so he ran into his private room and cried there.

Genesis 43:34
Servants were taking food from Joseph's table and bringing it to them. But the servants gave Benjamin five times more than the others. The brothers continued to eat and drink with Joseph until they were drunk.

Genesis 45:2
Joseph continued to cry, and all the Egyptian people in Pharaoh's house heard it.

Genesis 46:29
Joseph learned that his father was coming. So he prepared his chariot and went out to meet his father, Israel, in Goshen. When Joseph saw his father, he hugged his neck and cried for a long time.

Nehemiah 1:11
So, Lord, please listen to my prayer. And listen to the prayers of all your other servants who are happy to honor you. Help me today as I ask the king for help. Make him pleased with me so that he will be kind and give me what I ask for." At that time, I was the king's wine servant.

Job 2:12
But his friends didn't even recognize him when they first saw him in the distance! They began to cry loudly. They tore their clothes and threw dirt in the air over their heads to show how sad they were.

Psalms 34:4
I went to the Lord for help, and he listened. He saved me from all that I fear.

Proverbs 16:7
When people live to please the Lord , even their enemies will be at peace with them.

Proverbs 21:1
To the Lord , a king's mind is like a ditch used to water the fields. He can lead the king wherever he wants him to go.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And your spoil shall be gathered [like] the gathering of the caterpillar,.... This is the answer of the Lord to the prayer of his church, signifying that their enemies should flee, be scattered, and perish, and that they should be victorious, and enjoy the spoils of them; which they should gather as easily as the caterpillar or locust, as some render it, gathers and consumes herbs, and every green thing; or as easily as they are gathered, and laid on heaps, being weak and unable to defend themselves: most understand it of the Jews going into the camp of the Assyrians, after the destruction of them by the angel, and gathering their spoil. The Targum is,

"and the house of Israel shall gather the substance of the people, their enemies, as they gather a locust:''

the antichristian locusts or caterpillars are here meant, whose substance shall fall into the hands of the followers of Christ, when they shall have got the victory of them; this is the flesh of the whore, her worldly substance, which the kings of the earth, the Christian kings, shall eat or enjoy, Revelation 17:16:

as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them: or "upon it"; the spoil; as these locusts, of which see Revelation 9:3 run to and fro, and pillaged them in times past, as the creatures, to whom they are compared, run to and fro and destroy the fruits of the earth, so now everyone of the followers of Christ shall run and seize upon the spoil of the antichristian states.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And your spoil - The booty that the Assyrian army bad gathered in their march toward Jerusalem, and which would now be left by them to be collected by the Jews.

Shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar - The grammatical construction here is such that this may admit of two interpretations. It may either mean, as the caterpillar or the locust is gathered; or it may mean, as the caterpillar gathers its spoil. It often occurred that in countries where the locust was an article of food, they were scraped together in large quantities, and thrown into ditches, or into reservoirs, and retained to be eaten. This is the custom in some parts of Africa. But the meaning here is, undoubtedly, that the plunder of the Assyrian army would be collected by the Jews, as the locust gathered its food. The sense is, that as locusts spread themselves out over a land, as they go to and fro without rule and without molestation, gathering whatever is in their way, and consuming everything, so the Jews in great numbers, and without regular military array, would run to and fro collecting the spoils of the Assyrian army. In a country where such devastation was made by the caterpillar and locust as in Palestine, this was a very striking figure. The word rendered ‘caterpillar’ here חסיל châs^eyl from חסל châsal to cut off, consume), properly denotes the devourer, and is applied usually to a species of locust. So it is understood here by most of the versions. The Septuagint renders it, ‘As if one were gathering locusts, so will they insult you.’