The Siege of Jerusalem
Isa 29:1 Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David settled! Add year to year and let your cycle of festivals go on.
Isa 29:2 Yet I will besiege Ariel; she will mourn and lament, she will be to me like an altar hearth.
Isa 29:3 I will encamp against you on all sides; I will encircle you with towers and set up my siege works against you.
Isa 29:4 Brought low, you will speak from the ground; your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth; out of the dust your speech will whisper.
Isa 29:5 But your many enemies will become like fine dust, the ruthless hordes like blown chaff. Suddenly, in an instant,
Isa 29:6 the LORD Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.
Isa 29:7 Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel, that attack her and her fortress and besiege her, will be as it is with a dream, with a vision in the night—
Isa 29:8 as when a hungry person dreams of eating, but awakens hungry still; as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking, but awakens faint and thirsty still. So will it be with the hordes of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion.
Isa 29:9 Be stunned and amazed, blind yourselves and be sightless; be drunk, but not from wine, stagger, but not from beer.
Isa 29:10 The LORD has brought over you a deep sleep: He has sealed your eyes (the prophets); he has covered your heads (the seers).
Isa 29:11 For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.”
Isa 29:12 Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”
Isa 29:13 The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
Isa 29:14 Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
Isa 29:15 Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, “Who sees us? Who will know?”
Isa 29:16 You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “You did not make me”? Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing”?
Isa 29:17 In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field and the fertile field seem like a forest?
Isa 29:18 In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
Isa 29:19 Once more the humble will rejoice in the LORD; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
Isa 29:20 The ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down—
Isa 29:21 those who with a word make someone out to be guilty, who ensnare the defender in court and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice.
Isa 29:22 Therefore this is what the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, says to the descendants of Jacob: “No longer will Jacob be ashamed; no longer will their faces grow pale.
Isa 29:23 When they see among them their children, the work of my hands, they will keep my name holy; they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
Isa 29:24 Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding; those who complain will accept instruction.”
1 God’s heavy judgment upon Jerusalem. 7 The insatiableness of her enemies. 9 The senselessness, 13 and deep hypocrisy of the Jews. 18 A promise of sanctification to the godly.
The Siege of Jerusalem
Isa 29:1 Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David settled! Add year to year and let your cycle of festivals go on.
Ariel. A symbolic name here applied to Jerusalem or to one section of it. The word is of uncertain derivation and meaning and may have been coined by Isaiah. It may have been a cryptic word comparable to Sheshach (Jer. 25:26), which stood for Babel (see on Jer. 51:41). There is a possibility that the name meant “altar of God” (see Eze. 43:15, 16, where the word is translated “altar”).
Others have suggested the translation “lion of God.” This and the following chapters seem to refer to Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah and his abortive siege of Jerusalem. Before the Assyrian invasion God gave clear warnings of the terrors that lay ahead. The Jews were upbraided for their hypocrisy, stubbornness, and failure to understand the import of coming events.
Add year to year. The people were going about their affairs entirely without concern for the future, as if one year would follow another with no change in the pleasant routine of life. They went through the annual round of feasts and kept worshiping at the Temple, yet all the while engaging in crimes that threatened the nation with destruction (see ch. 1:4, 10–13, 21–23).
Isa 29:2 Yet I will besiege Ariel; she will mourn and lament, she will be to me like an altar hearth.
The Lord has pronounced judgment upon Jerusalem, and the city will be to Him as “Ariel”—perhaps as an “altar” (see on v. 1) on which its inhabitants would be the sacrifice (see Eze. 11:3, 7).
Isa 29:3 I will encamp against you on all sides; I will encircle you with towers and set up my siege works against you.
Jerusalem, pictured as under siege. Scenes such as the one described here often appear depicted on Assyrian sculptures. A ramp was thrown up against the walls of the city, and siege engines were brought up to batter down the defenses (see Jer. 33:4; Eze. 4:2). This is a good description of the method by which Sennacherib planned to take Jerusalem (see 2 Kings 19:32).
Isa 29:4 Brought low, you will speak from the ground; your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth; out of the dust your speech will whisper.
Jerusalem, though not to be taken, was to be humbled in the dust. In abject humility Hezekiah sent his ambassadors to the Assyrian king, acknowledging himself to be in error, bespeaking his favor, and expressing his willingness to accept such demands as might be made of him (2 Kings 18:14). Jerusalem is compared to a captured enemy groveling before his captor with his face in the dust and muttering vows of submission, in the hope of saving his life (see on Lev. 19:31; Deut. 18:11).
Isa 29:5 But your many enemies will become like fine dust, the ruthless hordes like blown chaff. Suddenly, in an instant,
For the sudden and unexpected deliverance of Jerusalem see ch. 37:36.
Isa 29:6 the LORD Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.
Jerusalem was to be visited with the judgments of God. Similar language is frequently employed in describing moments when God reveals Himself (Ex. 19:16; Ps. 77:18; Heb. 12:18, 19; Rev. 8:5; 11:19; 16:18).
Isa 29:7 Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel, that attack her and her fortress and besiege her, will be as it is with a dream, with a vision in the night—
A dream quickly comes and quickly goes. The Assyrian forces would vanish like a dream (Ps. 73:19, 20).
Isa 29:8 as when a hungry person dreams of eating, but awakens hungry still; as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking, but awakens faint and thirsty still. So will it be with the hordes of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion.
In their imagination the Assyrians had already swallowed up Jerusalem. Sennacherib was certain of triumph, but God suddenly disappointed his hopes by wiping out his besieging army and sending him home empty-handed (see ch. 37:36, 37).
Isa 29:9 Be stunned and amazed, blind yourselves and be sightless; be drunk, but not from wine, stagger, but not from beer.
Isaiah invites the people of Jerusalem to pause in their round of activities to consider the true nature of their situation.
Drunk but not with wine. From the Assyrian hosts Isaiah turns once more to the people of Jerusalem. He had delivered them a message that might well have made them tremble, but they were like men in a stupor, unable to sense the solemn import of the warning. Sense and reason had been lost, not because of intoxication, but because they were so engrossed with the affairs of earth that they could not comprehend the message from Heaven (see on v. 1).
Isa 29:10 The LORD has brought over you a deep sleep: He has sealed your eyes (the prophets); he has covered your heads (the seers).
The people of Judah were groping about blindly, as if in a stupor (see on v. 9). The eyes of their understanding were darkened. Their rulers, whose business it was to guide the affairs of state, had lost all sense of direction. Their seers, who divined for money, were utterly blind.
God had sent them message after message, but with each rejection of light from Heaven, they blinded themselves more and more, and their perception of truth became increasingly dull. It was in this sense that the Lord had “closed” their eyes (see on Ex. 4:21).
Isa 29:11 For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.”
In ancient times documents were commonly rolled up and sealed (see on Neh. 9:38;) Isaiah’s solemn messages proved to be of no more value to the people of Jerusalem than if the prophet had written them out and sealed them up so that their message could not be read. Unbelief and disobedience had shut away Heaven’s light as effectively as if it had never been revealed.
To men who refuse to study it or who refuse to believe its solemn warnings, the Bible is a sealed book. The prophets have given the world inspired messages of light and hope, but today, as then, the world walks on in darkness because it refuses to see (see on Hosea 4:6).
Isa 29:12 Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”
A man may be wise in the ways of the world but unlearned in the things of God. At the same time a man may be a mere novice in worldly learning and yet wise in the ways of God. Prejudice and unbelief close the eyes of man’s spiritual understanding to what God has revealed for the enlightenment and blessing of the world.
Isa 29:13 The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
The people of Jerusalem made a laboured pretense of religion, but in their hearts they did not even know God. Thus it was also in the days of Christ (see on Matt. 7:21–23; 15:8, 9; Matt. 23:4; Mark 7:6–9). The people were hypocrites (see on Matt. 6:2). Their worship consisted of ritual utterly devoid of true communion with Heaven (see 2 Tim. 3:5). They looked upon their outward performance as meeting the requirements God had made and thought thereby to merit divine favor (see on Micah 6:6–8).
Isa 29:14 Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
When men leave God out of their reckoning their wisdom turns to folly. Not loving the light, they are left to walk in darkness (see 2 Thess. 2:12; cf. Hosea 4:6). This proved to be the experience of the Jewish leaders. They darkened counsel by “words without knowledge” (Job 38:2), and the light of the nation was doomed to go out in darkness.
Isa 29:15 Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, “Who sees us? Who will know?”
They sought to hide their hypocritical attitude, motives, and actions, in the hope that neither men nor God would detect their true character.
Isa 29:16 You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “You did not make me”? Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing”?
They were attempting, as it were, to have the potter take orders from the clay. They regarded themselves as having wisdom greater than that of the Creator. These spiritual leaders were virtual atheists, who masqueraded under the guise of religion.
Isa 29:17 In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field and the fertile field seem like a forest?
Isaiah was a prophet of hope as well as of doom. He was a true optimist. He saw not only the darkness of the present but also the glorious light of the future (see on ch. 9:2). Though Judah might perish, and its fruitful fields become barren, the time was coming when the earth would again be replenished, when the wilderness would become “a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest” (ch. 32:15; see also chs. 35:1; 41:17–19; 55:13).
Isa 29:18 In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.
Isaiah foresees a time when the conditions of vs. 10–12 would be reversed. Compare Isa. 35:5, 6; 42:7; 52:15; 60:1–5; Luke 1:79; 4:18; John 8:12; Acts 26:17, 18; 2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 1:18.
Isa 29:19 Once more the humble will rejoice in the LORD; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
The time would come when the gospel would go to all peoples of earth, the small as well as the great, and the poor as well as the rich.
Isa 29:20 The ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down—
The truth here stated applies to every enemy who opposes the onward progress of the work of God.
Isa 29:21 those who with a word make someone out to be guilty, who ensnare the defender in court and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice.
Perhaps Isaiah had been accused of a lack of patriotism because of his messages of reproof and warning. Those who are reproved turn against their reprovers and endeavor to devise means, however unfair, of entrapping these representatives of God to bring about their downfall and silence their voice of reproof.
Isa 29:22 Therefore this is what the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, says to the descendants of Jacob: “No longer will Jacob be ashamed; no longer will their faces grow pale.
Abraham and Jacob here represent all the true people of God. As the Lord had delivered the fathers of the nation, so He will deliver their descendants from all enemies. Sennacherib’s attack would bring shame and fear, but Isaiah foresaw a brighter day beyond to which the faithful might look forward.
Isa 29:23 When they see among them their children, the work of my hands, they will keep my name holy; they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
The ultimate triumph of right is here revealed. The “terrible one” (v. 20) has been brought to nought, Jacob is no longer ashamed (v. 22), and his long-lost children have been brought back to the fold. As the faithful of all the earth are brought into the fold, they will join Jacob in worshiping and serving the Lord.
Isa 29:24 Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding; those who complain will accept instruction.”
In Isaiah’s time, as in the wilderness (Ex. 17:2, 7; Num. 14:22; 20:3; Deut. 1:27; 6:16; Ps. 95:10, 11; 106:25). Isaiah proclaims that there is hope for even the most hardened and rebellious.
Many of those who have erred (see chs. 28:7; 29:10–13) will escape the darkness (ch. 29:18) and profit from the experiences through which they have passed. Although most of the people would fail to profit by the messages of counsel and warning repeatedly sent them through the messenger of the Lord, there would be a small “remnant” (see chs. 1:9; 11:11, 16; etc.) whose hearts would respond and turn to the Lord.