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Thursday, April 9th, 2026
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Read the Bible

Young's Literal Translation

Isaiah 33:4

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

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Locust;   Scofield Reference Index - Kingdom;   Thompson Chain Reference - Agriculture;   Agriculture-Horticulture;   Locusts;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Armies;   Insects;   Locust, the;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Caterpillar;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Gebim;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Caterpillar;   Insects;   Isaiah;   Leaf, Leaves;   Locust;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Jacob;   Locust;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Caterpiller;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Caterpillar;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Fall;   Locust;  

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.
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.
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.
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 Wo, spoiler! and thou not spoiled, And treacherous! and they dealt not treacherously with thee, When thou dost finish, O spoiler, thou art spoiled, When thou dost finish dealing treacherously, They deal treacherously with thee. 2 O Jehovah, favour us, for thee we have waited, Be their arm, in the mornings, Yea, our salvation in time of adversity. 3 From the voice of a multitude fled have peoples, From thine exaltation scattered have been nations. 4 And gathered hath been your spoil, A gathering of the caterpillar, As a running to and fro of locusts is he running on it. 5 Set on high is Jehovah, for He is dwelling on high, He filled Zion [with] judgment and righteousness, 6 And hath been the stedfastness of thy times, The strength of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge, Fear of Jehovah -- it [is] His treasure. 7 Lo, `Their Ariel,' they have cried without, Messengers of peace do weep bitterly. 8 Desolated have been highways, Ceased hath he who passeth along the path, He hath broken covenant, He hath despised enemies, He hath not esteemed a man. 9 Mourned, languished hath the land, Confounded hath been Lebanon, Withered hath been Sharon as a wilderness, And shaking are Bashan and Carmel. 10 Now, do I arise, saith Jehovah, Now I am exalted, now I am lifted up.

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
And he saith, `Thy name is no more called Jacob, but Israel; for thou hast been a prince with God and with men, and dost prevail.'
Genesis 43:30
And Joseph hasteth, for his bowels have been moved for his brother, and he seeketh to weep, and entereth the inner chamber, and weepeth there;
Genesis 43:34
and he lifteth up gifts from before him unto them, and the gift of Benjamin is five hands more than the gifts of all of them; and they drink, yea, they drink abundantly with him.
Genesis 45:2
and he giveth forth his voice in weeping, and the Egyptians hear, and the house of Pharaoh heareth.
Genesis 46:29
and Joseph harnesseth his chariot, and goeth up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen, and appeareth unto him, and falleth on his neck, and weepeth on his neck again;
Nehemiah 1:11
`I beseech Thee, O Lord, let, I pray Thee, Thine ear be attentive unto the prayer of Thy servant, and unto the prayer of Thy servants, those delighting to fear Thy Name; and give prosperity, I pray Thee, to Thy servant to-day, and give him for mercies before this man;' and I have been butler to the king.
Job 2:12
and they lift up their eyes from afar and have not discerned him, and they lift up their voice and weep, and rend each his robe, and sprinkle dust on their heads -- heavenward.
Psalms 34:4
I sought Jehovah, and He answered me, And from all my fears did deliver me.
Proverbs 16:7
When a man's ways please Jehovah, even his enemies, He causeth to be at peace with him.
Proverbs 21:1
Rivulets of waters [is] the heart of a king in the hand of Jehovah, Wherever He pleaseth He inclineth it.

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 châseyl 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.’


 
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