Isaiah 33
Notes
The third woe in this series (30:1; 31:1; 33:1) closes the second group of three woes. All the woes in this section deal with the Assyrian attack on Jerusalem (704–701 BC) and the Hebrews’ attempt to survive this military crisis. The first two woes focus on Judah’s foolish attempt to solve their problem by making an alliance with Egypt (30:1–7; 31:1–3). Within these oracles there are references to God’s plans to defeat the Assyrians in order to save his people (30:27–33; 31:8–9), but in 33:1 the woe oracle itself applies to the destroyer Assyria.
33:1–16 has many of the characteristics of a psalm of confidence, while 33:17–24 is a salvation oracle announcing the coming of their glorious king.
The exegesis below will attempt to tie chap. 33 primarily to the historical and literary context of its immediate environment in chaps. 28–33.
HISTORICAL SETTING. Since chap. 33 is part of the literary unit of woe oracles extending from chaps. 28–33, the first historical option to investigate would be the events around 704–701 BC. This would suggest that the “destroyer” and “arrogant people” with obscure speech, who will be destroyed in 33:1, 18–19, are the Assyrians who attacked Judah.
They caused distress on “us” (33:2), so the people of Jerusalem are mourning (33:9). The broken treaty in 33:8 must refer to a broken political agreement between Judah and another unidentified nation.
When the Assyrians tried to destroy Jerusalem, it is possible that Hezekiah reached an agreement of peace with Assyria when he paid the tribute that the Assyrian King Sennacherib demanded (
