Isaiah 33 · Verse 18

Isaiah 33:18

Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?
Isaiah 33:18, King James Version

Isaiah 33:18 in other translations

BSBYour mind will ponder the former terror: “Where is he who tallies? Where is he who weighs? Where is he who counts the towers?”
WEBYour heart will meditate on the terror. Where is he who counted? Where is he who weighed? Where is he who counted the towers?
ASVThy heart shall muse on the terror: Where is he that counted, where is he that weighed the tribute? where is he that counted the towers?
YLTThy heart doth meditate terror, Where is he who is counting? Where is he who is weighing? Where is he who is counting the towers?
DARBYThy heart shall meditate on terror: Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?
BBEYour heart will give thought to the cause of your fear: where is the scribe, where is he who made a record of the payments, where is he by whom the towers were numbered?
WebsterThy heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?

What does Isaiah 33:18 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
18. meditate--on the "terror" caused by the enemy, but now past. where, &c.--the language of the Jews exulting over their escape from danger. scribe--who enrolled the army [Maurer]; or, who prescribed the tribute to be paid [Rosenmuller]; or, who kept an account of the spoil. "The principal scribe of the host" (2Ki 25:19; Jr 52:25). The Assyrian records are free from the exaggerations of Egyptian records. Two scribes are seen in every Assyrian bas-relief, writing down the various objects brought to them, the heads of the slain, prisoners, cattle, sheep, &c. receiver--"weigher," Margin. Layard mentions, among the Assyrian inscriptions, "a pair a scales for weighing the spoils." counted ... towers--he whose duty it was to reconnoitre and report the strength of the city to be besieged.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 18 Where is the scribe? - The person appointed by the king of Assyria to estimate their number and property in reference to their being heavily taxed. Where is the receiver? - Or he who was to have collected this tribute. Where is he that counted the towers? - That is, the commander of the enemy's forces, who surveyed the fortifications of the city, and took an account of the height, strength, and situation of the walls and towers, that he might know where to make the assault with the greatest advantage; as Capaneus before Thebes is represented in a passage of the Phoenissae of Euripides, which Grotius has applied as an illustration of this place: - Εκεινος ἑπτα προσβασεις τεκμαιρεται Πυργων, ανω τε και κατω τειχη μετρων. Ver. 187. "To these seven turrets each approach he marks; The walls from their proud summit to their base Measuring with eager eye." He that counted the towers "Those who were ordered to review the fortified places in Judea, that they might be manned and provisioned for the king of Assyria. So sure was he of gaining Jerusalem and subduing the whole of Judea, that he had already formed all these arrangements." - Dodd's notes.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Isaiah 33:15-24

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 blessing of salvation is freely bestowed on all that ask with humble, believing prayer; and the believer is safe in time and for ever. Those that walk uprightly shall not only have bread given, and their water sure, but they shall…

Read the full comment on Isaiah 33:15-24 →

Isaiah 33:18 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

לִבְּךָ֖li.be.Khaheart yourH3820
יֶהְגֶּ֣הyeh.Gehit will meditate onH1897
אֵימָ֑ה'ei.MahterrorH367
אַיֵּ֤ה'ai.Yehwhere?H346
סֹפֵר֙so.Fer[is one who] countedH5608
אַיֵּ֣ה'ai.Yehwhere?H346
שֹׁקֵ֔לsho.Kel[is one who] weighedH8254
אַיֵּ֖ה'ai.Yehwhere?H346
סֹפֵ֥רso.Fer[is one who] countedH5608
אֶת\־'et-<obj.>H853
הַמִּגְדָּלִֽים\׃ha.mig.da.Limthe towersH4026

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Isaiah 33:18

  • 1 Corinthians 1:20

    Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

  • Psalms 71:20

    Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.

  • Isaiah 17:14

    And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.

  • Psalms 31:7-8

    I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities; And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room.

  • 2 Kings 18:31

    Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me, and then eat ye every man of his own vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his cistern:

  • Isaiah 38:9-22

    The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness: I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years. I said, I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world. Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd’s tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. …

  • 1 Samuel 25:33-36

    And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand. For in very deed, as the Lord God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall. So David received of her hand that which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go up in peace to thine house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person. And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.

  • Psalms 31:22

    For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.

  • Isaiah 10:16-19

    Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day; And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standardbearer fainteth. And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.

  • 2 Kings 15:19

    And Pul the king of Assyria came against the land: and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand.

  • 2 Kings 18:14

    And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

  • Genesis 23:16

    And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
heart.
38:9-22; 1Sa 25:33-36; 30:6; Ps 31:7,8,22; 71:20; 2Co 1:8-10
2Ti 3:11
Where is the scribe.
1Co 1:20
receiver. Heb. weigher.
Ge 23:16; 2Ki 15:19; 18:14,31
where is he.
10:16-19

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Isaiah 33:17

    Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off.

  • Isaiah 33:18

    Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?

  • Isaiah 33:19

    Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand.

Read all of Isaiah 33

Isaiah 33:18 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909
Tu corazón imaginará el espanto, y dirá: ¿Qué es del escriba? ¿qué del pesador? ¿qué del que pone en lista las casas más insignes?
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885
Ton cœur méditera la crainte: Où est l’enregistreur? où est le peseur? où est celui qui compte les tours?
German
Elberfelder 1871
Dein Herz wird des Schreckens gedenken: Wo ist der Schreiber? wo der Wäger? wo, der die Türme zählte?
Latin
Clementine Vulgate
Cor tuum meditabitur timorem: ubi est litteratus? ubi legis verba ponderans? ubi doctor parvulorum?