12 The peoples will be burned to ashes; like cut thornbushes they will be set ablaze."
12 And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.
12 And the peoples will be as if burned to lime, like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire."
12 You're good for nothing but fertilizer and fuel. Earth to earth - and the sooner the better.
12 And the people shall be like the burnings of lime; Like thorns cut up they shall be burned in the fire.
12 Your people will be burned up completely, like thornbushes cut down and tossed in a fire.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Isaiah 33:12
Commentary on Isaiah 33:1-14
(Read Isaiah 33:1-14)
Here we have the proud and false destroyer justly reckoned with for all his fraud and violence. The righteous God often pays sinners in their own coin. Those who by faith humbly wait for God, shall find him gracious to them; as the day, so let the strength be. If God leaves us to ourselves any morning, we are undone; we must every morning commit ourselves to him, and go forth in his strength to do the work of the day. When God arises, his enemies are scattered. True wisdom and knowledge lead to strength of salvation, which renders us stedfast in the ways of God; and true piety is the only treasure which can never be plundered or spent. The distress Jerusalem was brought into, is described. God's time to appear for his people, is, when all other helpers fail. Let all who hear what God has done, acknowledge that he can do every thing. Sinners in Zion will have much to answer for, above other sinners. And those that rebel against the commands of the word, cannot take its comforts in time of need. His wrath will burn those everlastingly who make themselves fuel for it. It is a fire that shall never be quenched, nor ever go out of itself; it is the wrath of an ever-living God preying on the conscience of a never-dying soul.