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Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary

Isaiah 33:21

There, in and about Zion, the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams: though we have nothing but a small and contemptible brook to defend us; yet God will be as sure and strong a defence to us, as if we were surrounded with such great rivers as Nilus or Euphrates, which were a great security to Egypt and Babylon. Wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby; but although they shall have from God the security of a great river, yet they shall be freed from the disadvantage of it; which is, that the enemies may come against them in ships; for no galleys nor ships of the enemy's shall be able to come into this river to annoy them.

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See also Isaiah 33:21 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Isaiah 33:21. _THE GLORIOUS LORD _- "The glorious name of JEHOVAH"] I take שם _shem_ for a noun, with the _Septuagint_ and _Syriac_. See Psalms 20:1; Proverbs 18:10....

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    BUT THERE - In Jersalem; or in his church, of which Jerusalem was the emblem. THE GLORIOUS LORD - Lowth renders it, ‘The glorious name of Yahweh,’ שׁם _shâm_ to be a noun, as if it were pointed שׁם _...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    CHAPTER 33 Sixth Woe Against the Assyrian and What Is to Follow 1. _The judgment announced (Isaiah 33:1)_ 2. _The prayer of the faithful remnant (Isaiah 33:2)_ 3. _The judgment executed (Isaiah 33:7)...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    ISAIAH 33. DENUNCIATION OF THE TREACHEROUS FOE. ZION'S EXTREMITY, YAHWEH'S OPPORTUNITY. If Isaiah's, the date is apparently 701, and the situation presupposed is Sennacherib's demand for unconditional...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    GALLANT. mighty, or noble....

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    The idea of the perfect security of the righteous man leads by an easy transition to more positive features of the golden age....

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    The permanent peace and inviolability of Jerusalem, the centre of the true religion: see ch. Isaiah 32:18....

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    Here Jerusalem is represented like the great cities of the Nile and Euphrates (cf. Nahum 3:8), as surrounded by an expanse of waters, protecting it from the approach of an enemy. The idea of course is...

  • Charles Simeon's Horae Homileticae

    DISCOURSE: 910 THE CHURCH’S SECURITY Isaiah 33:20. Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of...

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    BUT THERE THE GLORIOUS LORD, &C.— _But the glorious name of JEHOVAH_ shall be unto us a place of confluent streams, _of broad waters._ Lowth. Our prophet always rises in his figures: the meaning of th...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    4. SERENITY TEXT: Isaiah 33:13-24 13 Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done; and, ye that are near, acknowledge my might. 14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling hath seized the godless...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    But there the glorious LORD will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. BUT THERE - namely, in Jerusalem. T...

  • Darby's translation notes (1890)

    33:21 of (a-11) or 'the mighty Jehovah will there be for us a place of.'...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    1-12. The deliverance of Jerusalem from the Invader. 13-24. The Consequences of the Interposition of Jehovah for those that dwell in the City....

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    The image is changed to that of a city encircled by a protecting stream: cp. Psalms 46:4; Nahum 3:8....

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    ISAIAH: GOD CONTROLS THE NATIONS GOD DEFENDS *JERUSALEM ISAIAH CHAPTER S 31 TO 39 _NORMAN HILLYER_ CHAPTER 33 A PRAYER FOR HELP V1 *Woe to our enemies! They ruined and cheated other people. Al...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    Perhaps Isaiah is not describing any particular occasion. These verses are to encourage God’s people in any times of trouble. Whatever happens, God does not change. Live rightly. And he will provide a...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    A PLACE OF BROAD RIVERS AND STREAMS... — Better, _rivers and canals._ The bold imagery has its starting-point in what the prophet had heard of the great cities of the Tigris and Euphrates. What those...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    כִּ֣י אִם ־שָׁ֞ם אַדִּ֤יר יְהוָה֙ לָ֔נוּ מְקֹ

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    CHAPTER XXI OUR GOD A CONSUMING FIRE 701 B.C. Isaiah 33:1 WE have seen how the sense of forgiveness and the exultant confidence, which fill chapter 33, were brought about within a few months after...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    THE REWARD OF THE RIGHTEOUS Isaiah 33:13-24 The devouring fire and everlasting burnings of Isaiah 33:14 are clearly the emblems of the divine presence. The righteous dwell in God as the bush which w...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    This chapter celebrates a great victory, and is prophetic of the method of the final triumph. In the first thirteen verses we have the prophet's appeal, in which there are two movements. In the first...

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    But there the glorious LORD [will be] to us a place (z) of broad rivers [and] streams; in which shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass through it. (z) Let us be content with th...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    _Of rivers. He speaks of the rivers of endless joys that flow from the throne of God to water the heavenly Jerusalem, like a deep river. (Calmet)_...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    These precious things are said, to carry off the minds of the people from the terrors of the approaching captivity, to the prospect of gospel times, which should be accomplished by the coming of the L...

  • James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary

    _THE RIVERS OF GOD_ ‘But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.’ Isaiah 33:21 I....

  • John Calvin's Bible Commentary

    21._Because there the mighty Jehovah will be to us. _The two particles כי ים (ki im) often serve the place of a double affirmative, but here a reason is assigned, and they might even be appropriately...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    THE FOLLOWING COMMENTARY COVERS CHAPTER S 33 AND 34. Chapter s 33, 34 announce the last two great acts of judgment. At the moment when God establishes Himself in Zion, and fills it with righteousness,...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    BUT THERE THE GLORIOUS LORD [WILL BE] UNTO US A PLACE OF BROAD RIVERS [AND] STREAMS,.... Egypt had its Nile, and Babylon its Euphrates, but Jerusalem had no such river for its convenience, commerce, a...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    But there the glorious LORD [will be] unto us a place of broad rivers [and] streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. Ver. 21. _But there the glorious Lo...

  • Jonathan Edwards' Notes On The Scriptures

    Isa. 33:21. Jerusalem had no considerable river running by it, as the royal cities in Egypt and Assyria and Chaldea and most great cities had; nothing but the brook Kedron, upon which account their en...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _Look upon Zion_ Contemplate Zion's beauty and safety, and her glorious and peculiar privileges; _the city of our solemnities_ This was the chief part of Zion's glory and happiness, that God was solem...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, that is, by virtue of the indwelling of God in the midst of His people the Church would be like a great city, which is...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    THE SINNERS ALARMED, THE PIOUS COMFORTED...

  • Marginal Notes in the King James Version (1611)

    BROAD RIVERS AND STREAMS: _ Heb._ broad of spaces or hands...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    15-24 The true believer watches against all occasions of sin. The Divine power will keep him safe, and his faith in that power will keep him easy. He shall want nothing needful for him. Every blessin...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Isaiah 33:21 majestic H117 LORD H3068 place H4725 broad H7342 H3027 rivers H5104 streams H2975 no H1077 galley...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    THE PERFECT PARADISE (ISAIAH 33:21). In this chapter His people are to mount level by level into the presence of the Holy One. Firstly it has happened by their response to an awareness of God's holine...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    CHAPTER 33 THE SIXTH WOE AGAINST THOSE WHO DESPOIL OTHERS AND WHO ARE TREACHEROUS. The sixth woe seems in context to be directed against Assyria for some treacherous act. We can compare and contrast h...

  • Sermon Bible Commentary

    Isaiah 33:20 To our Zion, to the Church of Christ, are promised explicitly such gifts as those of the text unity, truth, success. Of which of them, it may be asked, can we make our boast? I. The unit...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: The distress of Judah and Jerusalem because of coming woes. CHARACTERS: God. CONCLUSION: The righteous God pays sinners in their own coin. When they have filled up the measure of their ini...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Isaiah 33:1. _Woe to thee,_ thou spoiler, who hast not been spoiled; _AND THOU PLUNDERER, WHO HAST NOT BEEN PLUNDERED._ When thou hast ceased to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; When thou art weary of...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _The glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams_ THE GLORIOUS LORD, THE ONLY SECURITY AND CONSOLATION TO HIS PEOPLE I. THE LORD HIMSELF IS THE FOUNDATION OR CAUSE OF THE SAINT...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities--_ ISAIAH’S IMAGERY Among the images which crowd the concluding verses of this chapter, we may perhaps, without fancifulness, distinguish an under-current...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    ISAIAH—NOTE ON ISAIAH 33:21 BROAD RIVERS AND STREAMS. Abundant provision (see Isaiah 41:18). WHERE NO GALLEY WITH OARS CAN GO. No attack

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    ENRICHING RIVERS Isaiah 33:21. _But there the glorious Lord shall be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby_. The p...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    SECTION X. A PROPHECY OF JUDGMENT ON ASSYRIA (Isaiah 33:1.). EXPOSITION ISAIAH 33:1 THE JUDGMENT ON ASSYRIA

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    Now chapter 33 begins with a warning to the Assyrians. Woe unto thee that spoilest, and you have not been spoiled; you that deal treacherously, you've not been dealt treacherously with! (Isaiah 33:1)...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    2 Corinthians 4:4; Acts 7:2; Psalms 29:3; Psalms 46:4; Psalms 46:5...

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    There — In and about Zion. Rivers — Tho' we have nothing but a small and contemptible brook to defend us; yet God will be as sure a defence to us, as if we were surrounded with great rivers. No galley...

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