Bible Strands
Isaiah 33:18
Your mind will ponder the former terror: “Where is he who tallies? Where is he who weighs? Where is he who counts the towers?”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet addresses the people of Judah during a period of military threat, shifting their focus from past fear to the imminent vision of the King. The passage marks a transition from the cessation of terror to the revelation of divine rule.
The words — אֵימָ֑ה ('ei.Mah) = terror; אַיֵּ֤ה ('ai.Yeh) = where? The text uses these terms to frame a rhetorical inquiry into the disappearance of human oppressors and their administrative power.
The thread — The rhetorical "where" question echoes 1 Corinthians 1:20 to dismantle human wisdom, while the concepts of tallying and weighing parallel the transactional language of Genesis 23:16 and the deliverance noted in 1 Samuel 25:33.
Why it lands — The text demands a recalibration of attention from past threats to present reality, requiring the reader to acknowledge that human systems of power and calculation are temporary while divine authority remains.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?
Cross-references
- 1 Corinthians 1:20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
- Genesis 23:16 Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the standard of the merchants.
- 1 Samuel 25:33 Blessed is your discernment, and blessed are you, because today you kept me from bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand.
- 1 Samuel 30:6 And David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of every man grieved for his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God.
- 2 Kings 15:19 Then Pul king of Assyria invaded the land, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver in order to gain his support and strengthen his own grip on the kingdom.
- 2 Kings 18:14 So Hezekiah king of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand from me.” And the king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
- 2 Kings 18:31 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,
- Psalms 31:7 I will be glad and rejoice in Your loving devotion, for You have seen my affliction; You have known the anguish of my soul.
- Psalms 31:22 In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from Your sight!” But You heard my plea for mercy when I called to You for help.
- Psalms 71:20 Though You have shown me many troubles and misfortunes, You will revive me once again. Even from the depths of the earth You will bring me back up.