Isaiah 33:1

The destroyer is as good as dead, ¹  you who have not been destroyed! The deceitful one is as good as dead, ²  the one whom others have not deceived! When you are through destroying, you will be destroyed; when you finish ³  deceiving, others will deceive you!

Jud 1:7; 2Ki 18:13-17; 2Ch 28:16-21; Isa 10:5,6; Isa 10:12; Isa 17:14; Isa 21:2; Isa 24:16; Isa 37:36-38; Jer 25:12-14; Ob 1:10-16; Hab 2:5-8; Zec 14:1-3; Mt 7:2; Re 13:10; Re 16:6; Re 17:12-14,17

¹ tn Heb “Woe [to] the destroyer.”

sn In this context “the destroyer” appears to refer collectively to the hostile nations (vv. 3-4). Assyria would probably have been primary in the minds of the prophet and his audience.

² tn Heb “and the deceitful one”; NAB, NIV “O traitor”; NRSV “you treacherous one.” In the parallel structure הוֹי (hoy, “woe [to]”) does double duty.

³ tc The form in the Hebrew text appears to derive from an otherwise unattested verb נָלָה (nalah). The translation follows the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a in reading ככלתך, a Piel infinitival form from the verbal root כָּלָה (kalah), meaning “finish.”