Isaiah 33:3

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹Woe to you, O destroyer never destroyed, O traitor never betrayed! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed. When you have finished betraying, you will be betrayed. ²O LORD, be gracious to us! We wait for You. Be our strength every morning and our salvation in time of trouble. ³The peoples flee the thunder of Your voice; the nations scatter when You rise.⁴Your spoil will be gathered as if by locusts; like a swarm of locusts men will pounce on it. ⁵The LORD is exalted, for He dwells on high; He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness. ⁶There will be times of security for you-a storehouse of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of the LORD is Zion's treasure. ⁷Behold! Their warriors cry aloud in the streets; the envoys of peace weep bitterly. ⁸The highways are deserted; travel has ceased. The treaty has been broken, the witnesses are despised, and human life is disregarded. ⁹The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is ashamed and decayed. Sharon is like a desert; Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves. ¹⁰"Now I will arise," says the LORD. "Now I will lift Myself up. Now I will be exalted.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Isaiah 10:13, Isaiah 10:14, Isaiah 10:32-34, Isaiah 17:12-14, Isaiah 37:11-18, Isaiah 37:29-36, Psalms 46:6

Reciprocal: Numbers 16:34 - fled Psalms 68:1 - God arise

Cross-References

Genesis 18:2
And Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.

Genesis 33:11
Please take my present that was brought to you, because God has been gracious to me and I have all I need. So Jacob pressed him until he accepted.

Genesis 33:12
Then Esau said, "Let us be on our way, and I will go ahead of you."

Genesis 42:6
Now Joseph was the ruler of the land, who sold grain to all its people. So when his brothers arrived, they bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.

Genesis 43:26
When Joseph came home, they presented him with the gifts they had brought, and they bowed to the ground before him.

1 Samuel 2:5
The well-fed hire themselves out for food, but the starving hunger no more. The barren woman gives birth to seven, but she who has many sons pines away.

Proverbs 6:3
then do this, my son, to free yourself, for you have fallen into your neighbor's hands: Go, humble yourself, and press your plea with your neighbor.

Ecclesiastes 10:4
If the ruler's temper flares against you, do not abandon your post, for calmness lays great offenses to rest.

Luke 14:11
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

John 10:4
When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

At the noise of the tumult the people fled,.... The Vulgate Latin Version renders it, "at the voice of the angel"; and Jerom reports it as the opinion of the Jews, that it was Gabriel; and many interpret the words either of the noise the angel made in the air, or was made in the Assyrian camp, when the angel descended, and smote such a vast number of them, at which the remnant, being frightened, fled, 2 Kings 19:35 but either this is to be understood as expressing what had been done in time past, and therefore the church took encouragement that it might and would be so again; or as a continuance of her prayer, thus, "at the noise of the tumult", or multitude t, "let the people flee" u; or as a prediction, "they shall flee" w; that is, at the noise of the multitude of saints, the faithful, called, and chosen armies of heaven, that follow Christ on white horses, and clothed in white; when he shall go forth to battle with the kings of the earth, beast, and false prophet, let the people under them flee, or they shall flee, and not be able to stand before so puissant a General, and so powerful an army; see Revelation 17:14:

at the lifting up of thyself, the nations were scattered; so it has been in times past, when the Lord has lifted up himself, and appeared on behalf of his people, and has exerted himself, and displayed his power; and so it will be again; or so let it be: "let the nations be scattered"; the antichristian nations, as they will be, when the Lord shall lift up his hand, and pour out the vials of his wrath upon them.

t מקול המון "a voce multitudinis", Pagninus; "a voce turbae", Montanus, Cocceius. u Fugiant, so some in Gataker. w Profugient, Piscator.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

At the noise of the tumult - Lowth supposes that this is addressed by the prophet in the name of God, or rather by God himself to the Assyrian, and that it means that notwithstanding the terror which he had caused the invaded countries, he would himself fall and become an easy prey to those whom he intended to subdue. But probably it should be regarded as a part of the address which the Jews made to Yahweh Isaiah 33:2, and the word ‘tumult’ - המון hâmôn, sound, noise, as of rain 1 Kings 18:41, or of music Ezekiel 26:13; Amos 5:23, or the bustle or tumult of a people 1 Samuel 4:11; 1 Samuel 14:19; Job 39:7 - refers here to the voice of God by which the army was overthrown. Yahweh is often represented as speaking to people in a voice suited to produce consternation and alarm. Thus it is said of the vision which Daniel saw of a man by the side of the river Hiddekel, ‘his words’ were ‘like the voice of a multitude’ (המון hâmôn), Daniel 10:6. And thus, in Revelation 1:10, the voice of Christ is said to have been ‘like the voice of a trulupet;’ and in Isaiah 33:15, ‘like the sound of many waters.’ It wilt be recollected also that it was said that God would send upon the Assyrian army ‘thunder, and an earthquake, and a great noise, with storm and tempest, and a flame of devouring fire’ (Isaiah 29:6; compare Isaiah 30:30); and it is doubtless to this prediction that the prophet refers here. God would come forth with the voice of indignation, and would scatter the combined armies of the Assyrian.

The people fled - The people in the army of the Assyrian. A large part of them Were slain by the angel of the Lord in a single night, but a portion of them with Sennacherib escaped and fled to their own land (Isaiah 37:36-37.

At the lifting up of thyself - Of Yahweh; as when one rouses himself to strike.

The nations - The army of Sennacherib was doubtless made up of levies from the nations that had been subdued, and that composed the Assyrian empire.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 33:3. At the noise of the tumult - "From thy terrible voice"] For המון hamon, "multitude," the Septuagint and Syriac read amica, "terrible," whom I follow.