Isaiah 33:1. Woe to thee that spoilest, &c.— The prophet so orders his discourse, as if he had found this great spoiler to whom it is directed, in the very act of spoiling, and face to face denounces the divine judgment upon him. He addresses him therefore with the hateful appellation of perfidious spoiler and robber, and declares to him the decrees of the divine avenging justice, to be inflicted upon him according to the strict laws of retaliation. History abounds with the names of the mighty spoilers, robbers, and murderers of mankind, great heroes and warriors. One of these was Sennacherib, (see chap. Isaiah 37:18.) to whom this denunciation may with great propriety be applied; but with still greater to Antiochus Epiphanes, the most inveterate enemy of the people of God, who brought a much more extensive and fearful desolation upon them than Sennacherib; and the consequences related in the latter part of this chapter seem to refer most properly to the times succeeding his devastation. See Ezekiel 38. Daniel 8:13; Dan 8:24 and Vitringa.

Isaiah 33:4. And your spoil shall be gathered— In this apostrophe to the enemy, we have the consequence of their overthrow; which should be the collection of their spoils, without order or distinction; just as locusts, without order or fear, run over the fields and plunder them, every one of them claiming to itself what it first seizes. There are some who understand the first clause thus, Your spoil shall be gathered, as the caterpillar is gathered; that is to say, as the husbandmen collect them from their plants, &c. to destroy them; but others, and with more propriety, understand them as expressive of the depredations of the caterpillars themselves. Concerning the depredations of locusts we have had occasion to speak heretofore. See Isa 33:23 and 1Ma 4:23.

Isaiah 33:5. The Lord, &c.— JEHOVAH is exalted; yea, he dwelleth on high. Lowth. See Psalms 99.

Isaiah 33:6. And wisdom and knowledge, &c.— And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, the possession of continued salvation: the fear of JEHOVAH, this shall be thy treasure. Lowth. Vitringa supposes this apostrophe to be directed to the prince or head of the nation, wherein the prophet teaches him, and consequently the people, in what manner that prosperity and felicity are to be preserved which the Lord had conferred upon them. He shews, that the only way to preserve the state in prosperity is by wisdom, and knowledge, and the fear of the Lord; these are the support of a state, the stability of prosperous times, the strength and riches of perfect salvation, and the hidden good, the treasure to be preferred to all others; which when found in a state, that state is rich and stable. See Proverbs 8:18. Though this is to be understood of the times of the Maccabees, yet the blessings of those times are to be considered as having their full completion only in the spiritual blessings of the day of grace. Nothing is more true, than that this is commended as the chief prerogative in the kingdom of grace, where nothing is of equal estimation with wisdom, knowledge, the faith and fear of God: on these depend all other blessings; these are the only true treasures enriching mankind. See Vitringa.

Isaiah 33:19. Thou shalt not see a fierce people— While the people of God should see the king in his beauty, while they should see their land widely extending itself, they should no more see a barbarous enemy, or one of a stammering tongue and foreign speech, which they could not understand. They should be freed from a cruel and troublesome enemy, whose aspect and commerce had been a terror to them. Compare Dan 8:23 where Antiochus Epiphanes is called a king of fierce countenance; and see Jeremiah 5:15. This, likewise, though primarily referring to the times of the Maccabees, has, mystically, its full completion only in the oeconomy of the Gospel.

Isaiah 33:20. Look upon Zion— The prophet here, representing the chorus of teachers comforting the people of God, commands this people to turn their attention to Jerusalem, after its restoration flourishing greatly; and promises to them the durable stability of that state, under the metaphor of a tent sustaining itself by stakes and cords against winds and storms, and affording a safe and secure shelter to those within it. In this passage he is generally thought to refer to the spiritual Jerusalem; that is to say, to the church of the New Testament, which should be the last dispensation of grace. At least, if the state of Jerusalem under the Maccabees be referred to in the letter, there can be no doubt of its secondary and typical reference to the church of Jesus Christ, founded on the day of Pentecost.