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Isaiah 29

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Woe to Ariel: Jerusalem Under Siege 1–8

1
Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices. ​
2
Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel.
3
And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee. ​
4
And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust. ​
5
Moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.
6
Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.
7
And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision. ​
8
It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion. ​

Spiritual Blindness and Stupor 9–12

9
Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. ​
10
For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. ​
11
And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: ​
12
And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.

Hypocrisy Condemned 13–16

13
Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: ​
14
Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. ​
15
Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us? ​
16
Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding? ​

The Promise of Future Renewal 17–24

17
Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest? ​
18
And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. ​
19
The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20
For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off: ​
21
That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought. ​
22
Therefore thus saith the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale. ​
23
But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel. ​
24
They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Isaiah 29

Verse 1

Woe to Ariel — Ariel is a name for Jerusalem found in Isaiah only here and in vv.2 and 7; v.2 says 'it shall be unto me as Ariel'. 'Dwelt' is chanah, to encamp, the verb of v.3, 'I will camp against thee'. 'Sacrifices' is chag, a feast, and 'kill' (naqaph) is to go round: the feasts keep coming round, year to year.

Verse 3

I will camp against thee — The one who besieges is the LORD: 'Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts' (v.6). 'Camp' is chanah, the verb of 'dwelt' in v.1. 'Mount' (mutstab) is a military post and 'forts' (metsurah) a mound or fortification. Luke 19:43 speaks of Jerusalem in the same terms: 'thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee'.

Verse 4

as of one that hath a familiar spirit — Ob is the spirit of a medium, and 'whisper' (tsaphaph) is the verb of Isa 8:19, 'wizards that peep, and that mutter'. Brought down (shaphal) to the ground, the city's voice comes thin and muffled from the dust. The verb is also Hezekiah's 'Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter' (Isa 38:14).

Verse 7

as a dream of a night vision — The nations that distress Ariel and her 'munition' (metsodah, a stronghold) vanish on waking, as Ps 73:20 says: 'As a dream when one awaketh'. Isa 37:36 shows such a morning: 'when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses'. Compare v.5, where the multitude of the terrible ones is 'as chaff that passeth away'.

Verse 8

an hungry man dreameth — 'Soul' is nephesh, the whole person, in both clauses: his 'soul is empty', and his 'soul hath appetite'. The dream gives food and drink, and waking takes them away. The two pictures, hunger and thirst, describe 'the multitude of all the nations' that fight against 'mount Zion', the city called Ariel.

Verse 9

drunken, but not with wine — Shakar, drunken, and shekar, strong drink, share one root. Isa 51:21 uses the same words of Jerusalem, 'drunken, but not with wine'. The cause is given in v.10: the LORD has poured out a spirit of deep sleep. 'Stagger' (nua) is the reeling of the drunk.

Verse 10

the spirit of deep sleep — Tardemah is the sleep the LORD sent on Adam (Gen 2:21); it occurs seven times in all (also Gen 15:12; 1 Sam 26:12; Job 4:13; 33:15; Prov 19:15). Paul takes up the verse in Rom 11:8, 'God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see'. It covers the prophets, the rulers and the seers.

Verse 11

a book that is sealed — Chatam, sealed, is the word of Dan 12:4, 'shut up the words, and seal the book'. In v.12 the same book goes to one who is 'not learned', who says 'I am not learned', so neither the learned nor the unlearned can read it. In Rev 5:1 a book 'sealed with seven seals' is opened only by the Lamb (Rev 5:9).

Verse 13

with their mouth, and with their lips — Christ applies the verse to the scribes and Pharisees: 'Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites' (Mark 7:6; Matt 15:8–9). 'Draw near' (nagash) is the word for approaching in worship. 'Precept' (mitsvah) is a commandment, and 'taught' (lamad) is learned by rote.

Verse 14

a marvellous work and a wonder — Pala and pele share a root, to be wonderful. 'Proceed' is yasaph, to add. Paul cites the verse in 1 Cor 1:19: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent'. 'Shall be hid' (sathar) is the verb of v.15, 'to hide their counsel'.

Verse 15

Who seeth us? — 'Seek deep' (amaq) is to go deep, and 'hide' is sathar, as in v.14. The thought is that of Ezek 8:12, 'The LORD seeth us not', and Ps 94:7, answered at Ps 94:9: 'He that formed the eye, shall he not see?' and at Ps 139:12: 'the darkness hideth not from thee'.

Verse 16

the potter's clay — 'Turning of things upside down' (hophek) is perversity, order overturned. 'Potter' and 'framed' share one root, yatsar, to form, the verb of Gen 2:7. Paul sets the same images in Rom 9:20–21, 'Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?'; compare Isa 45:9; 64:8.

Verse 17

Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field — 'Fruitful field' is karmel, a planted field or orchard, the word that names Mount Carmel. The two are exchanged: Lebanon becomes orchard-land and the orchard counts as a forest. Isa 32:15 gives the same turn, 'the wilderness be a fruitful field', after 'the spirit be poured upon us from on high'.

Verse 18

the deaf hear the words of the book — The book of vv.11–12 that none could read is now heard, and the blind see out of 'obscurity' (ophel, gloom) and 'darkness'. Christ's answer to John echoes this and Isa 35:5: 'The blind receive their sight… and the deaf hear' (Matt 11:5).

Verse 20

the scorner is consumed — Latz is a mocker, as in Isa 28:22, 'be ye not mockers'; the 'terrible one' (aritz) is a tyrant. 'Watch' (shaqad) is to be wakeful, the verb of Prov 8:34, 'watching daily at my gates': these are sleepless for iniquity. v.5 already sets 'the multitude of the terrible ones' as chaff.

Verse 21

an offender for a word — The verb is chata, to sin; here it is to have a man pronounced a sinner by a word. 'The gate' is where cases were judged, and Amos names the same wrongs: 'They hate him that rebuketh in the gate' and 'turn aside the poor in the gate from their right' (Amos 5:10, 12). 'Thing of nought' is tohu, emptiness, the word of 'without form' in Gen 1:2.

Verse 22

who redeemed Abraham — Padah is to ransom, used of Israel's rescue from Egypt (Deut 7:8, 'redeemed you out of the house of bondmen'). Of Abraham, Scripture tells the LORD's choosing and bringing him out: 'who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees' (Neh 9:7); 'I called him alone' (Isa 51:2). 'Wax pale' (chavar) is found only here.

Verse 23

the work of mine hands — The phrase is used of Assyria (Isa 19:25) and of 'the branch of my planting' (Isa 60:21). 'Holy One of Jacob' occurs only here in the KJV. 'Fear' is arats, to dread, the word of Isa 8:13: 'Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread'.

Verse 24

erred in spirit — Ta'ah is to wander, as in Isa 28:7 and 53:6, 'All we like sheep have gone astray'. 'Murmured' (ragan) occurs only here, in Deut 1:27 and in Ps 106:25, both of Israel in the wilderness: 'murmured in their tents'. 'Learn' (lamad) is the verb behind 'taught' in v.13: now they learn 'doctrine' (leqach), instruction.