Isaiah 29:1

That it is Jerusalem which is here called Ariel is agreed, for that was the city where David dwelt; that part of it which was called Zion was in a particular manner the city of David, in which both the temple and the palace were. But why it is so called is very uncertain: probably the name and the reason were then well known. Cities, as well as persons, get surnames and nicknames. Ariel signifies the lion of God, or the strong lion: as the lion is king among beasts, so was Jerusalem among the cities, giving law to all about her; it was the city of the great King (Psa 48:1, Psa 48:2); it was the head-city of Judah, who is called a lion's whelp (Gen 49:9) and whose ensign was a lion; and he that is the lion of the tribe of Judah was the glory of it. Jerusalem was a terror sometimes to the neighbouring nations, and, while she was a righteous city, was bold as a lion. Some make Ariel to signify the altar of burnt-offerings, which devoured the beasts offered in sacrifice as the lion does his prey. Woe to that altar in the city where David dwelt; that was destroyed with the temple by the Chaldeans. I rather take it as a woe to Jerusalem, Jerusalem; it is repeated here, as it is Mat 23:37, that it might be the more awakening. Here is,

I. The distress of Jerusalem foretold. Though Jerusalem be a strong city, as a lion, though a holy city, as a lion of God, yet, if iniquity be found there, woe be to it. It was the city where David dwelt; it was he that brought that to it which was its glory, and which made it a type of the gospel church, and his dwelling in it was typical of Christ's residence in his church. This mentioned as an aggravation of Jerusalem's sin, that in it were set both the testimony of Israel and the thrones of the house of David. 1. Let Jerusalem know that her external performance of religious services will not serve as an exemption from the judgments of God (Isa 29:1): "Add year to year; go on in the road of your annual feasts, let all your males appear there three times a year before the Lord, and none empty, according to the law and custom, and let them never miss any of these solemnities: let them kill the sacrifices, as they used to do; but, as long as their lives are unreformed and their hearts unhumbled, let them not think thus to pacify an offended God and to turn away his wrath." Note, Hypocrites may be found in a constant track of devout exercises, and treading around in them, and with these they may flatter themselves, but can never please God nor make their peace with him. 2. Let her know that God is coming forth against her in displeasure, that she shall be visited of the Lord of hosts (Isa 29:6); her sins shall be enquired into and punished: God will reckon for them with terrible judgments, with the frightful alarms and rueful desolations of war, which shall be like thunder and earthquakes, storms and tempests, and devouring fire, especially upon the account of the great noise. When a foreign enemy was not in the borders, but in the bowels of their country, roaring and ravaging, and laying all waste (especially such an army as that of the Assyrians, whose commanders being so very insolent, as appears by the conduct of Rabshakeh, the common soldiers, no doubt, were much more rude), they might see the Lord of those hosts visiting them with thunder and storm. Yet, this being here said to be a great noise, perhaps it is intimated that they shall be worse frightened than hurt. Particularly, (1.) Jerusalem shall be besieged, straitly besieged. He does not say, I will destroy Ariel, but I will distress Ariel; and she is therefore brought into distress, that, being thereby awakened to repent and reform, she may not be brought to destruction. I will (Isa 29:3) encamp against thee round about. It was the enemy's army that encamped against it; but God says that he will do it, for they are his hand, he does it by them. God had often and long, by a host of angels, encamped for them round about them for their protection and deliverance; but now he was turned to be their enemy and fought against them. The siege laid against them was of his laying, and the forts raised against them were of his raising. Note, When men fight against us we must, in them, see God contending with us. (2.) She shall be in grief to see the country laid waste and all the fenced cities of Judah in the enemies' hand: There shall be heaviness and sorrow (Isa 29:2), mourning and lamentation - so these two words are sometimes rendered. Those that are most merry and jovial are commonly, when they come to be in distress, most overwhelmed with heaviness and sorrow; their laughter is then turned into mourning. "All Jerusalem shall then be unto me as Ariel, as the altar, with fire upon it and slain victims about it:" so it was when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Chaldeans; and many, no doubt, were slain when it was besieged by the Assyrians. "the whole city shall be an altar, in which sinners, falling by the judgments that are abroad, shall be as victims to divine justice." Or thus: - "There shall be heaviness and sorrow; they shall repent, and reform, and return to God, and then it shall be to me as Ariel. Jerusalem shall be like itself, shall become to me a Jerusalem again, a holy city," Isa 1:26. (3.) She shall be humbled, and mortified, and made submissive (Isa 29:4): "Thou shalt be brought down from the height of arrogancy and insolence to which thou hast arrived: the proud looks and the proud language shall be brought down by one humbling providence after another." Those that despise God's judgments shall be humbled by them; for the proudest sinners shall either bend or break before him. They had talked big, had lifted up the horn on high, and had spoken with a stiff neck (Psa 75:5); but now thou shalt speak out of the ground, out of the dust, as one that has a familiar spirit, whispering out of the dust. This intimates, [1.] That they should be faint and feeble, not able to speak up, nor to say all they would say; but as those who are sick, or whose spirits are ready to fail, their speech shall be low and interrupted. [2.] That they should be fearful, and in consternation, forced to speak low as being afraid lest their enemies should overhear them and take advantage against them. [3.] That they should be tame, and obliged to submit to the conquerors. When Hezekiah submitted to the king of Assyria, saying, I have offended, that which thou puttest on me I will bear (Kg2 18:14), then his speech was low, out of the dust. God can make those to crouch that have been most daring, and quite dispirit them.

II. The destruction of Jerusalem's enemies is foretold, for the comfort of all that were her friends and well-wishers in this distress (Isa 29:5, Isa 29:7): "Thou shalt be brought down (Isa 29:4), to speak out of the dust; so low thou shalt be reduced. But" (so it may be rendered) "the multitude of thy strangers and thy terrible ones, the numerous armies of the enemy, shall themselves be like small dust, not able to speak at all, or as much as whisper, but as chaff that passes away. Thou shalt be abased, but they shall be quite dispersed, smitten and slain after another manner (Isa 27:7); they shall pass away, yea it shall be in an instant, suddenly: the enemy shall be surprised with the destruction, and you with the salvation." The army of the Assyrians was by an angel laid dead upon the spot, in an instant, suddenly. Such will be the destruction of the enemies of the gospel Jerusalem. In one hour shall their judgment come, Rev 18:10. Again (Isa 29:6), "Thou shalt be visited, or (as it used to be rendered) She shall be visited with thunder and a great noise. Thou shalt be put into a fright which thou shalt soon recover. But (Isa 29:7) the multitude of the nations that fight against her shall be as a dream of a night-vision; they and their prosperity and success shall soon vanish past recall." The multitude of the nations that fight against Zion shall be as a hungry man who dreams that he eats, but still is hungry; that is, 1. Whereas they hoped to make a prey of Jerusalem, and to enrich themselves with the plunder of that opulent city, their hopes shall prove vain dreams, with which their fancies may please and sport themselves for a while, but they shall be disappointed. They fancied themselves masters of Jerusalem, but shall never be so. 2. They themselves, and all their pomp, and power, and prosperity, shall vanish like a dream when one awakes, shall be of as little value and as short continuance. Psa 73:20. He shall fly away as a dream Job 20:8. The army of Sennacherib vanished and was gone quickly, though it had filled the country as a dream fills a man's head, especially as a dream of meat fills the head of him that went to bed hungry. Many understand these verses as part of the threatening of wrath, when God comes to distress Jerusalem, and lay siege to her. (1.) The multitude of her friends, whom she relies upon for help shall do her no good; for, though they are terrible ones, they shall be like the small dust, and shall pass away. (2.) The multitude of her enemies shall never think they can do her mischief enough; but, when they have devoured her much, still they shall be but like a man who dreams he eats, hungry, and greedy to devour her more.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1. Jerusalem’s time of joyous security shall speedily come to an end. Ho Ariel, Ariel, city where David encamped! (R.V.). Of the word “Ariel” two explanations (both ancient) are given. (a) That which renders it “Lion of God” is undoubtedly the one most naturally suggested by the form of the word. It is also thought to be confirmed by the proper name ’ar’çlî in Gen_46:16; Num_26:17; and the “lion-like men” (’ǎrîçl) of 2Sa_23:20; 1Ch_11:22; although all these analogies are very doubtful (cf. ch. Isa_33:7). But is it suitable in the present context? Hardly, unless we take Isa_29:2 to mean that Jerusalem when driven to bay, will exhibit a prowess worthy of her mystic appellation; which is not at all the idea of the passage. The name is in any case a strange one for a city, and it would be difficult to account for its selection by Isaiah. (b) The other (and preferable) explanation is given by the Targum, and is supported by a word which occurs in two forms (har’çl and ’ǎrî’êl) in Eze_43:15 f. It appears to mean “altar-hearth”; and occurs, probably in the same sense, in the inscription of the Moabite Stone. The translation here will be either “hearth of God” or (better) simply “altar-hearth.” How Isaiah was led to such a designation we shall see from Isa_29:2.

where David dwelt] R.V. encamped. Not “against which” David encamped, as the LXX. fancied (see on Isa_29:3), but which he occupied and fortified.

add ye year to year] i.e. “let a year or two more come and go”: cf. Isa_32:10. The discourse was probably delivered at the leading festival, the Feast of Tabernacles, which was the “turn of the year” (Exo_34:22) in ancient Israel.

let them kill sacrifices] R.V. has the true rendering: let the feasts come round; “run their round”—but only a few times more.

ch. Isa_29:1-14. The announcement of Jehovah’s wonderful purpose regarding Jerusalem, and its reception on the part of the people

Under the second “Woe” (Isa_29:1) are grouped two oracles, which may have been originally independent; or they may be intimately connected, the second describing the effect of the first on the minds of Isaiah’s hearers.

i. Isa_29:1-8. The impending humiliation and deliverance of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, apostrophised by the mystic name of “Ariel,” is at present gay and careless and secure, the festal calendar follows its accustomed course, and this state of things may endure for a short time longer (1). But already in vision the prophet sees her beset by hosts of enemies, and reduced to the lowest depths of despair (2–4) when suddenly the Lord Himself, arrayed in the terrors of earthquake and tempest, appears in judgment (6), and in a moment the scene is changed. In the very hour of their triumph, the enemies of Zion are disappointed of their expectation, and vanish like a vision of the night (7, 8).

ii. Isa_29:9-14. A rebuke of the spiritual blindness and unbelief, and the hollow formal religion prevalent amongst all classes of the people.

(1) Isa_29:9-12. Jehovah has visited the leaders of the people with judicial blindness (9 f.); the consequence is that neither among the cultured nor the unlettered can the word of the Lord find entrance (11 f.).

(2) Isa_29:13-14. Because the popular religion has degenerated into a mechanical routine of traditional observances (13) it is necessary for Jehovah to adopt startling measures, transcending all human calculation and insight (14).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Isa 29:1 Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city [where] David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices.

Ver. 1. Woe to Ariel, to Ariel,] i.e., To the brazen altar, {Eze 43:15-16} called here Ariel, or God’s lion, because it seemed as a lion to devour the sacrifices daily burnt upon it. Here it is put for the whole temple, {a} which, together with the city wherein it stood, is threatened with destruction.

The city where David dwelt.] Both Mount Moriah, whereon stood the temple, and Mount Zion, whereon stood the palace. Both Church and State are menaced with judgments, temporal in the eight first verses, and spiritual in the eight next. The rest of the chapter is no less consolatory than this is comminatory.

Add ye year to year,] i.e., Feed yourselves on with these vain hopes, that years shall run on always in the same manner. See 2Pe 2:4 Eze 12:22.

Let them kill sacrifices.] And thereby think, but falsely and foolishly, to demerit God to themselves, as that emperor did, who, marching against his enemy, sacrificed, and then said, Non sic Deos coluimus ut ille nos vinceret, {b} We have not so served God that he should serve us no better than to give our enemies the better of us. See Isa 58:3 Jer 7:21 Hos 9:1.

{a} Metonymiae adiuncta synecdochica.

{b} Antonin., Philosop.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Isa_29:1

Woe to Ariel

Ariel

The simplest meaning of Ariel is lion of God; but it also signifies hearth of God when derived from another root.

In the former sense it comes to mean a hero, as in 2Sa_23:20; Isa_33:7;and in the latter it occurs in Eze_43:15-16 for the brazen hearth of the great altar of burnt offerings, thence commonly called the brazen, though the rest of it was of stone. There is no doubt that Jerusalem is pointed out by this enigmatical name; and the immediate context, as well as the expression in Isa_31:9 --Jehovah, whose fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem--makes it probable that Isaiah intended to involve both meanings in the word, as though he had said, Woe to the city of heroes, woe to the city of sacrifices: it shall now be put to the test what God and what man think as to both. (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)

Jerusalem, the lion of God

David, that lion of God, had first encamped against Jerusalem, and then made it the abode of his royal house, and the capital of his kingdom; so that it became itself an Ariel, the lion of God, in the land (Gen_49:9-10). (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)

Jerusalem, the hearth of God

By Davids pitching his camp and then bringing the sacred ark there, Jerusalem became Gods hearth. (F. Delitzsch.)

Ariel

The Rabbins combine the two explanations of the Hebrew word by supposing that the altar was itself called the lion of God, because it devoured the victims like a lion, or because the fire on it had the appearance of a lion, or because the altar (or the temple) was in shape like a lion, that is, narrow behind and broad in front. (J. A. Alexander.)

Ariel

In either case applied as a symbol of hope. But she shall be unto Me as an Ariel, i.e., in the extremity of her need I will enable her to verify her name (Cheyne). (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)

Woe to Ariel

After the vicissitudes of 300 years, and in the midst of present dangers, the people of Jerusalem were still confident in the strength of their lion of God, and year by year came up to the public festivals to lay their accustomed offerings on the altar of God; though with little remembrance that it was not in the altar and the city, but in Jehovah Himself, that David put trust, and found his strength. Therefore Jehovah will bring Ariel low; the proud roar of the lion shall be changed for the weak, stridulous voice, which the art of the ventriloquising necromancer brings out of the ground; and the enemies of Jehovah shall be sacrificed and consumed on the hearth of this altar. First, His spiritual enemies among the Jews themselves, but afterwards the heathen oppressors of His people; and the lion shall recover his God-derived strength; and thus, both in adversity and in success, it shall be unto Me as Ariel. (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)

Woe to Ariel

The prophet has a very startling message to deliver: that God will besiege His own city, the city of David! Before God can make her in truth His own, make her verify her name, He will have to beleaguer and reduce her. For so novel and startling an intimation the prophet pleads a precedent: City which David himself beleaguered. Once before in thy history, ere the first time thou wast made Gods own hearth, thou hadst to be besieged. As then, so now. Before thou canst again be a true Ari-El I must beleaguer thee like David. This reading and interpretation gives to the enigma a reason and a force which it does not otherwise possess. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)

The city where David dwelt

We consider it every way remarkable that David should be mentioned in connection with the woe about to be uttered. If it had been, Woe unto Ariel, the city where flagrant sins are committed, the city which is overrun with idols, and filled with all kinds of abomination, we should have seen at once the force of the sentence, and must have felt the wrath warranted by the alleged crimes. But why bring it as a chief accusation against Jerusalem--indeed, as the only charge that was to justify God in pouring out His vengeance--that it was the city where David had dwelt? We can hardly think that the definition is meant as nothing more than a statement of fact. David had long been dead; strange changes had occurred, and it would be making the essential term too insignificant to suppose it to contain only a historical reference to an assertion that no one doubted, but which is quite unconnected with the present message from God. We must rather believe that the city is characterised, where David dwelt, in order to show that it deserved the woe about to be denounced. This is evidently mentioned as aggravating the guiltiness of the city. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

Good men increase the responsibility of a community

We seem warranted in concluding that, its having been made eminent by the piety of the servants of God, by their zeal for God, and by their earnestness in preserving the purity of their worship, entails a weighty responsibility on a city or country; so that if, in any after time, that city or country degenerate in godliness, and become, by its sins, obnoxious to vengeance, it will be one of the heaviest items in the charge brought against it, that it was dwelt in by saints so distinguished. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

National mercies

I. THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE WOE OF JERUSALEM AND JERUSALEM BEING THE CITY WHERE DAVID DWELT. There are other considerations, over and above the general one of the responsibility fastened on a people by the having had a king of extraordinary piety, which go to the explaining why the woe upon Jerusalem should be followed by a reference to David. David was eminent as a prophet of the Lord; he had been commissioned to announce, in sundry most remarkable predictions, the Messiah, of whom, in many respects, he was, moreover, an illustrious type. It was true, there had been others of whom the prophet might think. There is a peculiar appositeness in the reference to David, because his writings were the very best adapted to the fixing themselves on the popular mind. These writings were the national anthems; they were the songs to be chanted in those daily and annual solemnities which belonged to the Jews in their political as much as in their religious capacity, in which the princes were associated with the priests, so that the civil was hardly to be distinguished from the ecclesiastic. So beloved as David was of God, he must have bequeathed a blessing to the nation: for righteous kings, like righteous fathers, entail good on a nation. Indeed, it is evident, from other parts of Isaiah, that the memory of David was still a tower of strength at Jerusalem, so that, for his sake, was evil averted from the city. When Sennacherib and his hosts encamped against the city, and the heart of Hezekiah was dismayed, it was in terms such as these that God addressed Israel, I will defend this city, to save it for Mine own sake, and for My servant Davids sake. Was it not like telling the Jews that they were no longer to be borne with for the sake of David, to pronounce, Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt? Was it not declaring, that the period was drawing to a close, during which the conservatism of the monarchs piety could be felt? The prophet might be considered as showing both how just and how terrible those judgments would be. He showed their justice, because the having had amongst them such a king and prophet as David, made the Jews inexcusable in their wickedness: he showed their severity, because it was the city of David which God was about to punish.

II. MAKE AN APPLICATION OF THE SUBJECT. We pass at once to the Reformation, and substitute the reformers for David, and England for Ariel. We must consider what it was that the reformers did for us; from what they delivered us; and in what they instructed us. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

Ariel

It will be to Me as an Ariel (Isa_29:2), i.e., through My help it will prove itself a hearth of God, consuming its enemies like a fiery furnace, or these enemies finding destruction in Jerusalem, like wood heaped on an altar and set ablaze. (F. Delitzsch.)

Love and chastisement

The Lord has never spared the elect. Election gives Him rights of discipline. We may inflict punishment upon those who are ours, when we may not lay the hand of chastisement upon those who do not belong to us. Love has its own law court. (J. Parker, D. D.)

Add ye year to year; let the feasts come round (R.V.)

Links in a golden chain (from R.V.)

Speaking of the gay temper of the Greeks, Quinet describes them as a people who count their years by their games. In a more serious spirit the Jews counted their years by their religious festivals, We have a Christian year whose festivals celebrate the great events in the life of our Lord. We are adding year to year, the feasts come and go, and it behoves us to inquire what we are doing with them, what they are doing for us.

I. THERE IS AN UNSATISFACTORY WAY OF SPENDING THE YEARS. The implied complaint of the text is that the inhabitants of Jerusalem failed to benefit by their recurring privileges, and that the lapse of time brought them nearer to destruction. The trumpet of the new year in vain called them to a new life; the day of atonement passed leaving them with uncancelled sin; the Feast of Tabernacles and that of Pentecost awoke in them no love, constrained them to no obedience to the Giver of the harvest. Is this not true of thousands of those over whom pass the festivals of the Christian year? They are, indeed, all the worse for the lengthening days and multiplying Opportunities.

II. THERE IS A TRUE WAY OF SPENDING THE YEARS, and that is in enjoying and improving this life in the fear of God and in the light of eternity. Victor Hugo speaks of an old man as a thinking ruin. Paul the aged was such a ruin, and he had something grand to think about. (W. L. Watkinson.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Isa 29:1. Wo to Ariel — This word signifies a strong lion, or the lion of God, and is used concerning lion-like men, as it is rendered 1Ch 11:22; and of God’s altar, as it is translated Eze 43:15-16; which seems to be thus called, because it devoured and consumed the sacrifices put upon it, as greedily and as irresistibly as the lion doth his prey. “That Jerusalem is here called by this name,” says Bishop Lowth, “is very certain; but the reason of this name, and the meaning of it, as applied to Jerusalem, are very obscure and doubtful. Some, with the Chaldee, suppose it to be taken from the hearth of the great altar of burnt-offerings, which Ezekiel plainly calls by the same name; and that Jerusalem is here considered as the seat of the fire of God, אור אל, which should issue from thence to consume his enemies: compare Isa 31:9. Some, according to the common derivation of the word, suppose that it is called the lion of God, or the strong lion, on account of the strength of the place, by which it was enabled to resist and overcome all its enemies. There are other explanations of this name given, but none that seems to be perfectly satisfactory.” The city where David dwelt — The royal city, and seat of David and his posterity, which is probably here mentioned, because this was the ground of their confidence, and also to intimate that their relation to David, and their supposed interest in the promises made to him and to his seed, should not secure them from the destruction here threatened. Add ye year to year, &c. — The prophet speaks ironically: Go on year after year, and kill sacrifices at the appointed times, whereby you think to appease me; but all shall be in vain. For know, that God will punish you for your hypocritical worship, consisting of mere form, destitute of true piety. As the latter clause, חגים ינקפו, is literally, Let the feasts go round, it is probable this discourse was delivered at the time of some great feast.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ARIEL

Isa_29:1. Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt.

The word “Ariel” properly means “the Lion of God,” and is elsewhere used of the great brazen altar on which the sacred fire blazed, and which might be said to devour as a lion the sacrifices presented on it to God. In our text, however, “Ariel” is used as a name of Jerusalem. The fact that David had dwelt in it is mentioned, not by way of historical reference, but as aggravating the guiltiness of the city, and as in some way proving that it might expect to be visited with more than common vengeance. In what way is the fact that Jerusalem could be described as “the city where David dwelt” a justification of the woes which the prophet was about to denounce against it? The answer is easy: We are answerable to God for every blessing received at His hands, so that we cannot possess a single privilege which will not, if neglected or abused, be brought against us as a charge and heighten our condemnation. This is as true of communities as of individuals; and the fact that Jerusalem had profited so little, morally and spiritually, from David’s residence in it was a clear aggravation of its guilt.—

1. David had dwelt in Jerusalem as a king. As such, his authority and his example might have been expected to have made a deep impression on the religious life of the people. Consider how powerful is the example of men in exalted stations.—

2. David had dwelt in Jerusalem as a poet. Consider how powerful is the influence of song on national character, and how truly David’s psalms were national songs. As every English child is taught loyalty by the notes of “God save the Queen,” every Jewish child was instructed in piety by the well-known strains of the sweet singer of Israel. Surely if anything could have kept religion alive in Jerusalem, it would have been this writing it into the poetry, this weaving it into the music of the nation. It was like taking possession of the strings of a nation’s heart, and providing that their vibrations should respond only to truth.—

3. The memory of David had long been a blessing to Jerusalem. For his sake evil had been averted from it (2Ki_19:34). To pronounce a woe upon the Jerusalem or the city where David had dwelt was to tell the Jews that the conservative influence of that monarch’s piety would no longer be of any avail for them; that even as children, though long spared in recompense of the righteousness of their fathers, may reach a point at which they have filled the measure of their guilt, and at which, therefore, they can receive no further favour as the offspring of those whom God hath loved; so their iniquity had reached such a height that forbearance, long manifested for the sake of the most pious of kings, was at length wearied out, and there remained no further place for intercession.

The principle involved in this passage is applicable alike to communities and individuals.

1. It is made the charge against Jerusalem that it was the city where David had dwelt—the plain inference from this being that it was a great aggravation of the national wickedness that so righteous a prince, so zealous a supporter of true religion as David, had sat for years upon the throne of Judah. By parity of reasoning, if there have been raised up in our own country men mighty in the exhibiting and establishing truth, and if in the lapse of time we grow indifferent to the truth, and perhaps even half inclined to the errors which were exposed and expelled, will it not be made a matter of accusation against us that ours is the land in which those worthies dwelt? Suppose, for example, we were to undervalue the Reformation, suppose we were to think lightly of the errors of Popery, then might our text be regarded as denouncing special woe on ourselves—woe to England—to England, the country where Wickliffe, and Cranmer, and Ridley dwelt! For it is not to be questioned that we shall have much to answer for if, after God had raised up Reformers, and they, with incalculable labour and at incalculable cost, had cleansed our Church from the abominations of Popery, we should in any measure let go the truth and make alliance or truce with the tenets or practices of Rome. The same principle is applicable

(2.) to many a parish in which some devoted minister of Christ has laboured, and

(3.) to many a household in which the example and teaching of godly parents have been set at nought.—H. Melvill, B.D.: Sermons Preached during the Latter Years of his Life, vol. i. pp. 125–140.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

The prophecy here passes from the fall of Samaria, the crown of flowers (Isa 28:1-4), to its formal parallel. Jerusalem takes its place by the side of Samaria, the crown of flowers, and under the emblem of a hearth of God. 'Arı̄'ēl might, indeed, mean a lion of God. It occurs in this sense as the name of certain Moabitish heroes (Sa2 23:20; Ch1 11:22), and Isaiah himself used the shorter form אראל for the heroes of Judah (Isa 33:7). But as אריאל (God's heart, interchanged with הראל htiw degna, God's height) is the name given in Eze 43:15-16, to the altar of burnt-offering in the new temple, and as Isaiah could not say anything more characteristic of Jerusalem, than that Jehovah had a fire and hearth there (Isa 31:9); and, moreover, as Jerusalem the city and community within the city would have been compared to a lioness rather than a lion, we take אריאל in the sense of ara Dei (from ארה, to burn). The prophet commences in his own peculiar way with a grand summary introduction, which passes in a few gigantic strides over the whole course from threatening to promise. Isa 29:1 "Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the castle where David pitched his tent! Add year to year, let the feasts revolve: then I distress Ariel, and there is groaning and moaning; and so she proves herself to me as Ariel." By the fact that David fixed his headquarters in Jerusalem, and then brought the sacred ark thither, Jerusalem became a hearth of God. Within a single year, after only one more round of feasts (to be interpreted according to Isa 32:10, and probably spoken at the passover), Jehovah would make Jerusalem a besieged city, full of sighs (vahătsı̄qōthı̄, perf. cons., with the tone upon the ultimate); but "she becomes to me like an Arı̄el," i.e., being qualified through me, she will prove herself a hearth of God, by consuming the foes like a furnace, or by their meeting with their destruction at Jerusalem, like wood piled up on the altar and then consumed in flame. The prophecy has thus passed over the whole ground in a few majestic words. It now starts from the very beginning again, and first of all expands the hoi. Isa 29:3, Isa 29:4 "And I encamp in a circle round about thee, and surround thee with watch-posts, and erect tortoises against thee. And when brought down thou wilt speak from out of the ground, and thy speaking will sound low out of the dust; and thy voice cometh up like that of a demon from the ground, and thy speaking will whisper out of the dust." It would have to go so far with Ariel first of all, that it would be besieged by a hostile force, and would lie upon the ground in the greatest extremity, and then would whisper with a ghostlike softness, like a dying man, or like a spirit without flesh and bones. Kaddūr signifies sphaera, orbis, as in Isa 22:18 and in the Talmud (from kâdar = kâthar; cf., kudur in the name Nabu-kudur-ussur, Nebo protect the crown, κίδαριν), and is used here poetically for סביב. Jerome renders it quasi sphaeram (from dūr, orbis). מצּב (from נצב, יצב) might signify "firmly planted" (Luzzatto, immobilmente; compare shūth, Isa 2:7); but according to the parallel it signifies a military post, like מצּב, נציב. Metsurōth (from mâtsōr, Deu 20:20) are instruments of siege, the nature of which can only be determined conjecturally. On 'ōbh, see Isa 8:19;

(Note: The 'akkuubh mentioned there is equivalent to anbûb, Arab. a knot on a reed stalk, then that part of such a reed which comes between two knots, then the reed stalk itself; root נב, to rise up, swell, or become convex without and concave within (Fl.). It is possible that it would be better to trace 'ōbh back to this radical and primary meaning of what is hollow (and therefore has a dull sound), whether used in the sense of a leather-bag, or applied to a spirit of incantation, and the possessor of such a spirit.)

there is no necessity to take it as standing for ba‛al 'ōbh.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

II.—THE SECOND WOE

Isaiah 29

1. THE FOURFOLD ARIEL.

Isa_29:1-12

1          Woe 1to Ariel, to Ariel,

2The city where David dwelt!

Add ye year to year;

3Let them 4kill sacrifices.

2     5Yet 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 6mount,

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 7of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground,

And thy speech shall 8whisper out of the dust.

5     9Moreover 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     10Thou 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.

9     Stay yourselves, and wonder;

11 12Cry 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 13rulers, the seers hath he covered.

11     And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a 14book that is sealed,

Which men deliver to one that 15is 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.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isa_29:1. By comparing Isa_30:1 we see that סְפוּ is not from יָסַף, but from ספה (Jer_7:21, et saepe). נקף (Kal only here, Hiphil further in Isa_15:8) is circuire circulare. This meaning belongs to תְּקוּפָה Exo_34:22; 2Ch_24:23.

Isa_29:7. צֹבֶיהָ, is used for the sake of variety instead of צֹבְאֶיהָ comp. ואניה תאניה Isa_29:2, לבּתע בּתאם Isa_29:5. The construction of the suffix is to be explained as in קָמַי Psa_18:40; Psa_18:49. מְצוֹדָה is found also in Eze_19:9, where the king of Judah is spoken of who was caught by means of net and pit, placed in a cage by means of hooks, and brought to Babylon into מְצֹדוֹת. The whole connection there renders it probable that מְצדֹוֹת denotes a place for wild animals that have been captured—a prison or something of that kind—whereas in Ecc_9:12, where only the word again occurs, the meaning “net” is undoubted. When then מְצֹדָה, and not מְצוּדָה is in the text, and when, moreover, I consider that the grammatical co-ordination of מצדתה with the suffix in צביה (all her assailants and of her מצדה) would be very abnormal, because we cannot, e.g., say בָּנֶיהָ וַֽאֲחוֹתָהּ instead of בָּנֶיהָ וּבְנֵי אֲחוֹתָהּ,—it seems to me much more probable that מְצֹדָה is intended to denote here not the fortress Zion, but the siege entrenchments set up against Zion, the מְצֻרֹת verse 3, which enclose the city as a net, and can therefore be called its net. And this net of bulwarks, together with those who by means of it distress Zion (מציקים comp. on הציקותי Isa_29:2), shall disappear as a vision of a dream. Moreover the conjecture of Boettcher (Aehrenlese p. 32) that we should read צִבְיָהּ instead of צֹבֶיהָ seems to me not unworthy of attention. For the difficulty still remains to give a specific meaning to צֹבֶיהָ, if it is to stand for צֹבְאֶיהָ. Boettcher not unjustly remarks, too, that the צְבִי, the splendor of the city (Isa_23:9; Isa_28:1 sqq.; Isa_32:13 sq.) certainly formed a prominent point in the vanishing vision as “the refreshment which they desire, and imagine they will receive.” Whoever is inclined to adopt this conjecture of Boettcher, which even Knobel accepts, will have no difficulty in connecting ומצדתה with what precedes it.

Isa_29:8. We should expect a pronomen separatum (הוּא) along with the participles אוֹבֵל and שֹׁתֶה, and the adjective עָיֵף. But it is well known that this pronoun is frequently omitted.

Isa_29:11. Instead of יוֹדֵעַ הַסֵּפֶר we find in the K’ri סֵפֶד without the article, as in Isa_29:12. But the alteration is needless. For in this connection הַסֵּפֶר can also be said, if only we take the article as the generic. Respecting וְאָמַר, vers.11 and 12, comp. on Isa_40:6.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. The Prophet sets forth in vers.1 and 2 the theme of his discourse. For he announces to Ariel, i.e., to the city of God, Jerusalem, that he will cause her after a time great distress, notwithstanding that she is Ariel, i.e., lion of God; that she, however, in this distress will prove herself to be Ariel, i.e., the hearth of God. This thought! is further developed in what follows. The Lord causes Jerusalem to be told that He will besiege and afflict her greatly (Isa_29:3), so that she, bowed low in the dust, will let her voice sound faintly as the spirit of one dead (Isa_29:4). But the comforting promise is immediately annexed, that the enemies of Jerusalem will suddenly become as fine dust or as flying chaff (Isa_29:5). For Jehovah will come against them as with thunder, and tempest, and devouring fire (Isa_29:6). The whole force, therefore, of the enemies that fight against Ariel, i. e., here the mount of God, will pass away as a vision of a dream in the night (Isa_29:7); these enemies will be in the condition of one who in a dream thinks that he has eaten and drunk, and only on awaking perceives that he has been dreaming (Isa_29:8). In Isa_29:9-12 the Prophet himself depicts the effect of his words on the obdurate people. They build on other aid. They therefore hear the word of the Prophet in fixed amazement (Isa_29:9). For they are as blind (Isa_29:10), and in relation to the prophecy they are as one who has to read a sealed document, or as one who has an unsealed writing given him to read, but he cannot read (Isa_29:11-12).

2. Woe to Ariel—as Ariel.

Isa_29:1-2. This paragraph begins with הוֹי as Isa_28:1; Isa_29:15; Isa_30:1; Isa_31:1; Isa_33:1. The name אריאל occurs 2Sa_23:20 (1Ch_11:22) as the name of Moabite heroes; Ezr_8:16 as the name of a Levite; Eze_43:15-16 the altar is called הַרְאֵל and אֲרִיאֵל (K’ri, Kethibh אֲרִאֵיל); Isa_33:7אֶרְאֵל is found in the signification “hero.” Interpreters take the word as often as it occurs in the passage before us, namely, Isa_29:1 (bis), Isa_29:2 (bis), and Isa_29:7, either in the signification of “lion of God,” or in that of “hearth of God.” Only Hitzig, who is on this account censured, assumes a play on the word, and takes it in ver.1 as ara Dei, and Isa_29:2 as lion of God. I am of opinion that Hitzig has not gone far enough. For it seems to me that the Prophet has each time used the word in a different signification according to the connection, and that it is taken in four different meanings [?]. First of all, Ariel appears as an enigmatical, significant name which the Prophet attributes to the city of Jerusalem in a manner unusual and fitted to excite inquiry. That Jerusalem is meant by it is clear from the connection, especially from קרית חנה דוד Isa_29:1, and from הר־ציוז in Isa_29:8. But we mark from the connection in each instance, that the Prophet intends each time a different allusion while employing the same word. In adding in Isa_29:1קרית חנה דוד he gives us to understand that under אריאל he alludes to עָר אֵלcity of God. The word עָר is used besides only of the Moabite capital Ar-Moab: Num_21:15; Num_21:28; Deu_2:9; Isa_15:1. עָר אֵל may accordingly involve an antithesis to עָר מוֹאָב—Moab, as in Isa_25:10 sq., being thought of as the representative of all opposition to God. The Septuagint translator has referred אריאל to Moab, while he takes this word to designate the Moabite city; for he renders ον̓αὶ πόλις ’Αριήλ, ῆν Δανὶδ ἐπολέμησεν,” whereby he certainly had in his eye the victory achieved by David over the Moabites, 2Sa_8:2. But what led him to think of Moab in connection with אריאל, was either the recollection of the Moabite heroes mentioned 2Sa_23:20, or the similarity in sound to the name of the city Ar (Greek ’́ΑρNum_21:15; Deu_2:9) which lies in Ar-iel. That the resemblance could have been thought of by the Prophet appears from the manifold permutations which occur between א and ע in Hebrew, and in the cognate dialects (comp. Isa_29:5פתע and פתאם, אגם and אזל ענם, and תאב ,עזל and תעב, גאל and געלetc. Comp. Ewald,Gr., § 58, a, note 1 and c; Gesen.Thes. p. 2). The yod in אריאל does not militate against our exposition. For, apart from the fact that a mere similarity in sound is the matter in question, the “i” would not grammatically stand in the way of the explanation “City of God,” as this “i” occurs not rarely as an antique connecting vowel especially in proper names (comp. Gabriel, Abdiel, etc., Ewald,Gr., § 211, b). Accordingly I consider the words קרית חנה דוד as explanatory of the word Ariel, or as a hint to intimate in what signification the Prophet would have us understand the word here. For Jerusalem, a holy city from a high antiquity (Gen_14:18 sqq.), became, the city of God (Isa_60:14; Psa_46:5; Psa_48:2; Psa_48:9; Psa_87:3; Psa_101:8), and the centre of the theocracy from the day when David, chosen king, by all Israel, took up in it his royal residence, (2Sa_5:6 sqq.). With the words סבּי שׁנה וג׳ to ואניה the Prophet confirms the woe which he had pronounced. First of all, the question presents itself, whether the words ספו … ינקפו contain an indefinite or a definite statement of time. If the declaration of time be indefinite, the occurrence of the calamity would be placed in prospect at a point of time incalculably remote. For nothing would indicate how long this adding year to year, and this revolution of the festivals should last. Thereby, however, the effect of the prophecy on those living at the time of its delivery would be neutralized. For they could indulge the hope that the catastrophe would not affect them. The design of the Prophet could not be to produce such an impression.

We must therefore assume that the Prophet wishes to indicate by these words an interval at least approximately defined, and a point of time not very remote, but rather relatively near (as Isa_32:10). The meaning then would be: Add to the present year another year, and let another annual revolution of festivals be completed. This would be tantamount to saying, that from the end of the present year another year would run its course, and then the catastrophe announced in what follows would take place. The addition חגים ינקפו is intended to intimate that a full sacred year has yet to run its course. If the time when the Prophet spoke this prophecy was coincident with the beginning of the sacred year, then the addition was really superfluous. But if this coincidence did not exist, then the addition had the meaning that the complete year is not to be reckoned from the day when the Prophet spoke the words, but from the beginning of the next sacred year. It is therefore not probable that the Prophet made the utterance at the time of the Passover festival, which formed the commencement of the theocratic year (Exo_7:2). But the Prophet must have spoken the words a considerable time before the Passover. [“Many of the older writers, and the E. V., take the last words of the verse in the sense, let them kill (or more specifically, cut off the heads) the sacrificial victims; but it is more in accordance both with the usage of the words and with the context to give חַגִּים its usual sense of feasts or festivals, and נָקַף that of moving in a circle or revolving, which it has in Hiphil. The phrase then exactly corresponds to the one preceding, “add year to year.” Alexander.—D. M.] Isa_29:2 tells what shall happen at the point of time indicated. Then the Lord will cause Ariel difficulty and distress (Isa_29:7; Isa_51:13); and there shall arise sighing and groaning (besides only Lam_2:5 borrowed from this place; the verb אָנָהIsa_3:26; Isa_19:8, comp. the related תַּֽאֲנָה of the snorting of the female camel [wild she-ass.—D.M.] in heat, Jer_2:24). Here Ariel is represented as on all sides oppressed, which extorts pitiable groaning. The name Ariel seems therefore to involve here an antithesis to הציקותי: The strong is oppressed, and in this his distress he sighs and groans. When then in this connection the idea of strength is prominent in אריאל, we shall have to take the word here in its common signification=lion of God. But this distress does not last forever. The Prophet in this statement passes hastily over the whole field of vision from the bad beginning to the glorious end: Jerusalem (for this is the subject of והיתה) shall yet be to the Lord as אריאל. It is manifest that the word must be taken here as a word of good meaning. In such a signification we find it used Eze_43:15 sq. For there the altar of burnt offering is so designated. The same altar is also called there הַרְאֵל. But this designation seems to be given to the altar as a whole. When therefore אריאל along with הראל is an altar-name, we may assume that both words have a signification referring to the nature of the altar. In the case of הראל this is at once evident; the high place of God is put in opposition to the high places (בָּמוֹת) of the false gods. It is true that אֲרִי is found elsewhere only in the signification lion. But the radix אָרָה denotes carpere (Psa_80:13; Son_5:1), and can, like בָעַר, be used of fire. If further we compare the Arabic ’irâ, focus, caminus, and consider that in Isa_31:9, it is said of the Lord that אוּר לוֹ בְצִיּוֹן, it follows that the Prophets were justified, in a connection in which a manifold playing on a word is ingeniously practised, in finding in the word ארי an allusion to the place of fire, to the altar. It is particularly to be observed that the Prophet in our place says כַּֽאֲרִיאֵלas Ariel. He does not say לַֽאֲרִיאֵל. Jerusalem is not therefore to become an altar, but it is to prove itself as a holy hearth, which it has long been. It shall be treated as such by the Lord, it shall therefore be again delivered out of distress.

3. And I will camp——the dust.

Isa_29:3-4. What was stated in Isa_29:1-2 with the brevity of a theme is now set forth more fully. And, first, it is shown how the Lord will afflict the strong lion, and compel him to utter lamentable sounds of distress. חנה, which is employed by Isaiah only in this chapter, denotes here encamping with a view to besieging. The word stands frequently in the historical books in this sense in conjunction with עַל: Jos_10:5; Jos_10:31; Jos_10:34; 2Sa_12:28 et saepe.כַּדּוּד (besides only Isa_22:18)=as in a circle. דּוּר (related to דּוֹרperiodus) is to be regarded as standing in the accus. localis.צוּר (in Isaiah besides only Isa_21:2) stands frequently with עַל in the sense of pressing upon: Deu_20:12; Deu_20:19;2Ki_6:25; 2Ki_24:11; Jer_32:2 et saepe.מֻצָּב (ἅπ. λεγ.), is synonymous with מַצָּב ,מַצָּנָה ,נְצִיב = Statio, excubiae praeaidium, post. As to construction the word is to be regarded as in the accusative (accus. instrum.). מְצוּרָה, which occurs in Isaiah only here, is a very general term, which is most frequently equivalent to מָצוֹר in the expression עָרֵי מְצוּרַה (2Ch_11:10; 2Ch_11:23; 2Ch_12:4; 2Ch_14:5; 2Ch_21:3). It manifestly denotes not instruments for attacking a place, but fortifications, entrenchments employed by a besieging army, among which are סֹלְלָה(2Sa_20:15; Jer_6:6, et saepe) and דָּיֵקּ (2Ki_25:1). The plural then denotes the various parts of the works thrown up by the besiegers. As the fortifications for defence are also called מְצוּרוֹת2Ch_11:11. The expression והקימתי is not opposed to what has been said. For the machines used in a siege, the כָּרִים, as is clear from Eze_4:2, belong to the מצורים. Isa_29:4 illustrates the words in Isa_29:2, and there shall be sighing and groaning [E. V., heaviness and sorrow]. The construction ושׁפלת תדברי is the well-known one, according to which an adverbial notion is expressed by the verb that is placed first. Jerusalem will lie so low that her voice will be only heard as if it proceeded from the dust, yea, from under the earth. There is here a climax descendens. The voice comes from a female sitting on the ground, out of the dust, from under the earth. In the clause ומעפרו׳ we mark a pregnant construction. שָׁחַח is used by Isaiah with tolerable frequency: Isa_2:9; Isa_2:11; Isa_2:17; Isa_5:15; Isa_25:12; Isa_26:5. The word is used especially of a suppressed voice Ecc_12:4. Regarding אוֹב and צפצף comp. on Isa_7:19. The voice will, like that of the spirit of one dead, come forth out of the earth.

4. Moreover the multitude——Mount Zion.

Isa_29:5-8. These words expand the short promise at the close of Isa_29:2. The distress of Jerusalem shall not last long. The supplication of her who has been brought so low shall be heard; her enemies shall be brought still lower; they shall be crushed even to dust. אָבָק comp. Isa_5:24. דַּק besides Isa_40:15. הָמוֹן is used by the Prophet four times in this passage: Isa_29:5 bis, Isa_29:7 and Isa_29:8. Regarding זָר comp. on Isa_1:7. The image of chaff carried away by the wind is frequent: Isa_17:13; Isa_41:15; Psa_1:4; Psa_35:5; Job_21:18; Zep_2:2. עריצים comp. Isa_13:11. The crushing of the enemies shall be not only complete, but also sudden. It will be thereby all the more terrible. פֶּתַע is substantive=the opening of the eyes, a moment; but פִּתְאֹם is an adverb (comp. יוֹמָם ,הֲלֹם). In regard to the permutation of ע and א see on Isa_29:1. The two words stand together Num_6:9, where, however, we find בפתע פתאם, and Isa_30:13. לְ denotes the measure (momentaneo modo, comp. לְאַט ,לְצֶדֶק ,לָבֶטַח, etc). Isa_29:6 describes the means, by which the Lord crushes the enemy of Jerusalem. תפקד is taken by Gesenius, Hitzig, Knobel, Delitzsch impersonally: A visitation shall be made. But it seems to me that this would require the passive of the causative conjugation, namely Hophal. (Comp. on Isa_38:10). The reference to Jerusalem is suggested by Isa_29:2; Isa_29:7-8. The Prophet says therefore, that Jerusalem will be graciously visited, i. e., delivered (Isa_24:22) [According to this interpretation we must translate “and she shall be visited, etc.” If we use the second person as in the E. V., “thou shalt be visited,” then the enemy must be addressed, and not the city Jerusalem, which would require the verb to be in the feminine form of the second person.—D. M.]. ברעם וגו׳, observe here the similarity of sound in these words. רַעַם, the cracking, roaring (of thunder Psa_104:7; Psa_77:19), is found only here in Isaiah. רעשׁconquassatio, σεισμός (hence earthquake 1Ki_19:11; Amo_1:1), is further used by Isa_9:4. סופה from סוּף (אָסַף, סָפָה) auferre, rapere, is rather the whirlwind, turbo, comp. Isa_5:28; Isa_17:13; Isa_21:1; Isa_66:15. סערה tempest, hurricane, comp. Isa_40:24; Isa_41:6. Both words are found in conjunction elsewhere only in Amo_1:14. The flame of devouring fire, comp. Isa_30:30. The plural להבים13:8; Isa_66:15. Besides לֶהָבָה4:5; Isa_5:24; Isa_10:17; Isa_43:2; Isa_47:14. אשׁ אכלה comp. Isa_30:27; Isa_30:30; Isa_33:14. Vitringa thinks that we ought to take these words literally, and find in them an intimation that the Lord destroyed the Assyrians in that night (Isa_37:36) by a frightful thunderstorm. But this is a manifest misconception of the Prophetic style. In Isa_29:7-8 the Prophet depicts at the close the disappointment which the enemy will feel. This is expressed by a simple image. The Assyrians, so far as they had really seen Jerusalem before them, and had it in reach of their power, will, after their overthrow, have the impression that they had seen Jerusalem only in a dream, in a vision of the night: and in so far as they had hoped to be able easily to conquer Jerusalem, they will be as if they had eaten in a dream, but on awaking, should feel themselves as hungry as before. By the two images the Prophet expresses very emphatically the thought that the whole attempt of Assyria upon Jerusalem should be as if it had not been; should be in fact as empty and unreal as the fabric of a dream. The subject of Isa_29:7 is המןו־ו׳ and וכל־צביה וגו׳. The expression חלום חזון לילה is found besides only Job_33:15, where we read בַּ‍ֽחֲלוֹם חֶזְיוֹן לַיְלָה (comp. Job_4:13; Job_20:8). They who fight against Ariel will be as a vision of a dream (צבא as a verb in Isaiah besides only Isa_31:4). In what sense we have to take Ariel here, is evident from Isa_29:8. For there the whole phrase “the multitude of all the nations that fight against” is repeated, but instead of “Ariel” we read “Mount Zion.” This makes it clear that the Prophet would have us take אֲרִיאֵל here in the sense of הַרְאֵל Mount of God [?]. א and ה are interchanged just as frequently as א and ע, comp. אֵיךְ and הָמוֹן ,הֵיךְ and אַדֹּרָם ,אָמוֹן1Ki_12:18 and הַדֹּרָם2Ch_10:18; (See Gesen.Thes. p. 2). Ezekiel too has in Isa_43:15 got from our אֲרִיאֵל his הַרְאֵל. In Isa_29:8 the Prophet compares the departure of the Assyrians from Jerusalem to the awaking of a hungry or thirsty man who perceives that he has only dreamt that he has been eating or drinking. The term נֶפֶשׁ as in Isa_5:14; Isa_32:6. שׁוֹקֵקָה (Psa_107:9) has the signification “panting for, hungry” as a derivative meaning from the radical notion “to run to and fro,” (Isa_33:4). The concluding words of this verse “the multitude of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion,” which correspond exactly to what we find in Isa_29:7, except that there instead of “Mount Zion” the name “Ariel” occurs, furnish the key to the understanding of the enigmatical word Ariel. Can it be deemed accidental that the Prophet in Isa_29:8 repeats those words of Isa_29:7 with the sole change of substituting for “Ariel” the words “Mount Zion?” Is not this a hint which the Prophet at the close gives to assist in understanding his meaning? And the first who understood this hint was Ezekiel (Isa_43:15).

5. Stay yourselves——not learned.

Isa_29:9-12. The prediction contained in Isa_29:1-8, must have been received by the hearers of the Prophet with very mingled feelings, because it holds out to them the prospect of deliverance, but deliverance in a way not agreeable to them. For the saying מעם יהוה תפקד Isa_29:6 did not please them. Although then the Prophet is aware that he does not say what corresponds to their wishes, still they must just hear it for their punishment. Yes, stop and wonder, whether it please you or not, whether you comprehend it or not; it is so as I have said to you. The Hithpael התמהמה (to stand questioning, refusing, delaying Gen_43:10; Psa_119:60 et saepe) is found only here in Isaiah. תמה to be astonished, to wonder (conjoined with התמהמה in Hab_1:5 as here) occurs further in Isa_8:8. Both verbs denote amazement at what is offered, with unwillingness to receive it. The Hithpael השׁתעשׁע stands Psa_119:16; Psa_119:47 undoubtedly in the signification oblectari, delectari. Many expositors would take the word here too in this meaning, while they consider the two imperatives as marking an antithesis (be joyous and yet blind). But we do not perceive from the context why they should be joyful. It is better therefore to take השׁתעשׁע in the original signification of Kal which is “permulsum, oblitum esse” (comp. Isa_6:10). Hence the significations “oblectari” (Isa_11:8; Isa_66:12) and “to become blind” are equally derived. Kal occurs only in this passage where it has this last signification. The threatening of a punishment, which should first affect the spirit, is here announced to the Israelites. But this punishment will also produce its outward and visible effects. Because these effects follow in the way of punishment, the Prophet speaks of them no more in the imperative, but in the perfect. He sees the people reel and stagger like drunken men, although this intoxication does not proceed from wine. יין with שׁכרו is the accusative of the instrument. Where a capacity to receive the divine word is wanting, there it works an effect the very opposite of what it should properly produce; it hardens, blinds, stupefies. It is as if the spirit of understanding had become in those who do not desire the knowledge of the truth, a spirit of stupefaction, of stupidity. תרדמה, which is found only here in Isaiah, has here this spiritual sense. עָצַם is used Isa_33:15 of the binding up of the eyes, but in Isa_31:1 in its usual signification of being strong. That these two significations are closely connected in other cases also is well known. Compare חָזַק ,חוּל (Isa_22:21) קָשַׁר (Gen_30:42), ἴσχω, ἰσχύω. The Piel עִצֵּם, which is used by Jeremiah (Jer 50:17) as a denominative in the sense of “to break the bones, to bone,” occurs only here in Isaiah. The words prophets and seers, if omitted, would not be missed in Isa_29:10. For this reason it is utterly improbable that they are an interpolation of a glossator. They obscure the meaning, instead of making it more apparent. We might almost conjecture that there were Prophets of a first, and of a second rank. The latter would have been the interpreters of the former, as in the New Testament the speech of those who spoke with tongues was explained by interpreters (1Co_12:10; 1Co_12:30; 1Co_14:5; 1Co_14:13). Not as if these prophets of the second rank or interpreters had an official position. For there is no trace of this. But there were persons who, when the meaning of the prophetic utterances was the subject of conversation among the people, pushed themselves in the foreground, claiming to be specially endowed with the capacity of explaining what the prophets had spoken; and perhaps they acquired as such here and there a certain authority. The prophetic word of the great Isaiah may have been often thus interpreted to the people by such prophets. But these subordinate prophets, although perhaps their possession of a certain physical gift of prophecy was not to be disputed, (comp. Saul, 1Sa_10:10 et saepe) stood yet in a nearer relation to the people than to the Lord. Therefore their prophetic gift was often not sufficient; often it was even abused by them (comp. 1Co_14:32; 1Ki_22:6 sqq.). Isaiah alludes here to this state of matters. The people were often puzzled by the prophecy of Isaiah, and even their prophets who were wont to be their eyes for such things, had as it were bound-up eyes or covered heads. נָבִיא and חֹזֶה, comp. נביא and רֹאֶה1Sa_9:9. The figure employed in Isa_29:11-12 suits very well to the explanation proposed. Reading was an art which was not understood by every one. He who could not himself read, must request another to read to him. Thus was it too with the prophecy of Isaiah. The people must apply to their prophets to interpret it for them. But it happened then, says Isaiah, as it often happens to one who applies to another in order to have a writing read to him. It can be the case that the person asked is able to read, but yet cannot read the document reached to him, because it is sealed. But what can this mean? If any one reaches me a sealed paper, in order that I may read it to him, he must unite with his request the permission to unseal it. Or, were there seals which could not be removed by every one? It appears to me, that the comparison here made use of is purely imaginary. It is very unlikely that any one could not comply with the request to read a document, because it was sealed. The Prophet only imagines such a case. But what he meant to intimate thereby was most real. The words of Isaiah were to many among those prophets of the people sealed words, i.e., intelligible as to their verbal meaning, but incomprehensible as to their inner signification. To others, or partially perhaps even to all, they were not intelligible even in their verbal meaning. They did not know what to make of them. They stood before them as one who cannot read stands before what is written. It seems that this prophecy regarding Ariel proved to be one of the most obscure prophecies of Isaiah. This gives occasion to the Prophet’s expressing himself in this manner regarding the reception and understanding of his prophecies. חזות הכל denotes not merely the immediately preceding prediction, but the prophecy of Isaiah in general. For why should it have happened thus with only those words that immediately precede? חזות (comp. Isa_21:2; Isa_28:18) is synonymous with חָזוֹן Isa_1:1.

Footnotes:

[1]Or, O Ariel, that is, the lion of God.

[2]Or, of the city.

[3]let the feasts complete a revolution.

[4]Heb. cut off the heads.

[5]then.

[6]post.

[7]of the spirit of one dead.

[8]Heb. peep, or, chirp.

[9]But.

[10]she shall be visited (delivered).

[11]Or, take your pleasure and riot.

[12]blind yourselves and be blind.

[13]Heb. heads.

[14]Or, letter.

[15]knows writing.

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CHAPTER 29

The Second Woe Against Ariel and the Third Woe

1. The fall of Ariel (Jerusalem) predicted (Isa 29:1-4) 2. Their enemies dealt with by Jehovah (Isa 29:5-8) 3. The people’s condition: Blinded and religious formalists (Isa 29:9-14) 4. The third woe (Isa 29:15-16) 5. In that Day: joy and blessing for the meek and iniquity punished (Isa 29:17-24) Ariel means “the lion of God.” It is one of the names of Jerusalem. A great siege of Jerusalem is predicted. Neither Sennacherib’s invasion nor the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans accomplished this prophecy. At the end of this age the King of the North (Assyrian) and confederate nations with him will besiege Jerusalem. Of this the chapter gives us the history. Sennacherib’s army is a type of the King of the North. Read again chapter 10 and study with this chapter before us Zec 12:1-14; Zec 13:1-9;Zec 14:1-21;Mic 4:11; Mic 5:4-15, and especially the last part of Dan 11:1-45. After that last siege of Jerusalem “that day” will bring blessing for the faithful and punishment for the wicked.

Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CHAPTER XII

ARIEL, ARIEL

ABOUT 703 B.C.

Isaiah 29

IN 705 Sargon, King of Assyria, was murdered, and Sennacherib, his second son, succeeded him. Before the new ruler mounted the throne, the vast empire, which his father had consolidated, broke into rebellion, and down to the borders of Egypt cities and tribes declared themselves again independent. Sennacherib attacked his problem with Assyrian promptitude. There were two forces, to subdue which at the beginning made the reduction of the rest certain: Assyrias vassal kingdom and future rival for the supremacy of the world, Babylon; and her present rival, Egypt. Sennacherib marched on Babylon first.

While he did so the smaller States prepared to resist him. Too small to rely on their own resources, they looked to Egypt, and among others who sought help in that quarter was Judah. There had always been, as we have seen, an Egyptian party among the politicians of Jerusalem; and Assyrias difficulties now naturally increased its influence. Most of the prophecies in chapters 29-32 are forward to condemn the alliance with Egypt and the irreligious politics of which it was the fruit.

At the beginning, however, other facts claim Isaiahs attention. After the first excitement, consequent on the threats of Sennacherib, the politicians do not seem to have been specially active. Sennacherib found the reduction of Babylon a harder task than he expected, and in the end it turned out to be three years before he was free to march upon Syria. As one winter after another left the work of the Assyrian army in Mesopotamia still unfinished, the political tension in Judah must have relaxed. The Government-for King Hezekiah seems at last to have been brought round to believe in Egypt-pursued their negotiations no longer with that decision and real patriotism, which the sense of near danger rouses in even the most selfish and mistaken of politicians, but rather with the heedlessness of principle, the desire to show their own cleverness, and the passion for intrigue which run riot among statesmen, when danger is near enough to give an excuse for doing something, but too far away to oblige anything to be done in earnest. Into this false ease, and the meaningless, faithless politics, which swarmed in it, Isaiah hurled his strong prophecy of chapter 29. Before he exposes in chapters 30 and 31 the folly of trusting to Egypt in the hour of danger, he has here the prior task of proving that hour to be near and very terrible. It is but one instance of the ignorance and fickleness of the people, that their prophet has first to rouse them to a sense of their peril, and then to restrain their excitement under it from rushing headlong for help to Egypt.

Chapter 29 is an obscure oracle, but its obscurity is designed. Isaiah was dealing with a people in whom political security and religious formalism had stifled both reason and conscience. He sought to rouse them by a startling message in a mysterious form. He addressed the city by an enigma:-

"Ho! Ari-El, Ari-El! City David beleaguered! Add year to a year, let the feasts run their round, then will I bring straitness upon Ari-El, and there shall be moaning and bemoaning, and yet she shall be unto Me as art Ari-El"

The general bearing of this enigma became plain enough after the sore siege and sudden deliverance of Jerusalem in 701. But we are unable to make out one or two of its points. "Ari-El" may mean either "The Lion" of 2Sa_23:20, or "The Hearth of God". {Eze_43:15-16} If the same sense is to be given to the four utterances of the name, then "Gods-Lion" suits better the description of Isa_29:4 : but "Gods-Hearth" seems suggested by the feminine pronoun in Isa_29:1, and is a conception to which Isaiah returns in this same group of prophecies. {Isa_31:9} It is possible that this ambiguity was part of the prophets design: but if he uses the name in both senses, some of the force of his enigma is lost to us. In any case, however, we get a picturesque form for a plain meaning. In a year after the present year is out, says Isaiah, God Himself will straiten the city, whose inhabitants are now so careless, and she shall be full of mourning and lamentation. Nevertheless in the end she shall be a true Ari-El: be it a true "Gods-Lion," victor and hero; or a true "Gods-Hearth," His own inviolable shrine and sanctuary.

The next few verses (Isa_29:3-8) expand this warning. In plain words, Jerusalem is to undergo a siege. God Himself shall "encamp against thee-round about" reads our English version, but more probably, as with the change of a letter, the Septuagint reads it-"like David." If we take this second reading, the reference to David in the enigma itself (Isa_29:1) becomes clear. The prophet has a very startling message to deliver: that God will besiege His own city, the city of David! Before God can make her in truth His own, make her verify her name, He will have to beleaguer and reduce her. For so novel and startling an intimation the prophet pleads a precedent: "City which David himself beleaguered! Once before in thy history, ere the first time thou wast made Gods own hearth, thou hadst to be besieged. As then, so now. Be-before thou canst again be a true Ari-El I must beleaguer thee like David." This reading and interpretation gives to the enigma a reason and a force which it does not otherwise possess.

Jerusalem, then, shall be reduced to the very dust, and whine and whimper in it (like a sick lion, if this be the figure the prophet is pursuing), when suddenly it is "the surge of" her foes-literally "thy strangers"-whom the prophet sees as "small dust, and as passing chaff shall the surge of tyrants be; yea, it shall be in the twinkling of an eye, suddenly. From Jehovah of hosts shall she be visited with thunder and with earthquake and a great, noise, -storm-wind, and tempest and the flame of fire devouring. And it shall be as a dream, a vision of the night, the surge of all the nations that war against Ariel, yea all that war against her and her stronghold, and they that press in upon her. And it shall be as if the hungry had been dreaming, and lo! he was eating; but he hath awaked, and his soul is empty; and as if the thirsty had been dreaming, and lo! he was drinking; but he hath awaked, and lo! he is faint, and his soul is ravenous: thus shall be the surge of all the nations that war against Mount Zion." Now that is a very definite prediction, and in its essentials was fulfilled. In the end Jerusalem was invested by Sennacherib, and reduced to sore straits, when very suddenly-it would appear from other records, in a single night-the beleaguering force disappeared. This actually happened; and although the main business of a prophet, as we now clearly understand, was not to predict definite events, yet, since the result here predicted was one on which Isaiah staked his prophetic reputation and pledged the honour of Jehovah and the continuance of the true religion among men, it will be profitable for us to look at it for a little.

Isaiah foretells a great event and some details. The event is a double one: the reduction of Jerusalem to the direst straits by siege and her deliverance by the sudden disappearance of the besieging army. The details are that the siege will take place after a year (though the prophets statement of time is perhaps too vague to be treated as a prediction), and that the deliverance will come as a great natural convulsion-thunder, earthquake, and fire-which it certainly did not do. The double event, however, stripped of these details, did essentially happen.

Now it is plain that any one with a considerable knowledge of the world at that day must easily have been able to assert the probability of a siege of Jerusalem by the mixed nations who composed Sennacheribs armies. Isaiahs orations are full of proofs of his close acquaintance with the peoples of the world, and Assyria, who was above them. Moreover, his political advice, given at certain crises of Judahs history, was conspicuous not only for its religiousness, but for what eve should call its "worldly wisdom": it was vindicated by events. Isaiah, however, would not have understood the distinction we have just made. To him political prudence was part of religion. "The Lord of hosts is for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn back the battle to the gate." Knowledge of men, experience of nations, the mental strength which never forgets history, and is quick to mark new movements as they rise, Isaiah would have called the direct inspiration of God. And it was certainly these qualities in this Hebrew, which provided him with the materials for his prediction of the siege of Jerusalem.

But it has not been found that such talents by themselves enable statesmen calmly to face the future, or clearly to predict it. Such knowledge of the past, such vigilance for the present, by themselves only embarrass, and often deceive. They are the materials for prediction, but a ruling principle is required to arrange them. A general may have a strong and well-drilled force under him, and a miserably weak foe in front; but if the sun is not going to rise tomorrow, if the laws of nature are not going to hold, his familiarity with his soldiers and expertness in handling them will not give him confidence to offer battle. He takes certain principles for granted, and on these his soldiers become of use to him, and he makes his venture Even so Isaiah handled his mass of information by the grasp which he had of certain principles, and his facts fell clear into order before his confident eyes. He believed in the real government of God. "I also saw the Lord sitting, high and; lifted up." He felt that God had even this Assyria in His hands. He knew that all Gods ends were righteousness, and he was still of the conviction that Judah for her wickedness required punishment at the Lords hands. Grant these convictions to him in the superhuman strength in which he tells us he was conscious of receiving them from God, and it is easy to see how Isaiah could not help predicting a speedy siege of Jerusalem, how he already beheld the valleys around her bristling with barbarian spears.

The prediction of the sudden raising of this siege was the equally natural corollary to another religious conviction, which held the prophet with as much intensity as that which possessed him with the need of Judahs punishment. Isaiah never slacked his hold on the truth that in the end God would save Zion, and keep her for Himself. Through whatever destruction, a root and remnant of the Jewish people must survive. Zion is impregnable because God is in her, and because her inviolateness is necessary for the continuance of true religion in the world. Therefore as confident as his prediction of the siege of Jerusalem is Isaiahs prediction of her delivery. And while the prophet wraps the fact in vague circumstance, while he masks, as it were, his ignorance of how in detail it will actually take place by calling up a great natural convulsion; yet he makes it abundantly clear - as, with his religious convictions and his knowledge of the Assyrian power, he cannot help doing-that the deliverance will be unexpected and unexplainable by the natural circumstances of the Jews themselves, that it will be evident as the immediate deed of God.

It is well for us to understand this. We shall get rid of the mechanical idea of prophecy, according to which prophets made exact predictions of fact by some particular and purely official endowment. We shall feel that prediction of this kind was due to the most unmistakable inspiration, the influence upon the prophets knowledge of affairs of two powerful religious convictions, for which he himself was strongly sure that he had the warrant of the Spirit of God.

Into the easy, selfish politics of Jerusalem, then, Isaiah sent this thunderbolt, this definite prediction: that in a year or more Jerusalem would be besieged and reduced to the direst straits. He tells us that it simply dazed the people. They were like men suddenly startled from sleep, who are too stupid to read a message pushed into their hands (Isa_29:9-12).

Then Isaiah gives Gods own explanation of this stupidity. The cause of it is simply religious formalism. "This people draw nigh unto Me with their mouth, and with their lips do they honour Me, but their heart is far from Me, and their fear of Me is a mere commandment of men, a thing learned by rote." This was what Israel called religion-bare ritual and doctrine, a round of sacrifices and prayers in adherence to the tradition of the fathers. But in life they never thought of God. It did not occur to these citizens of Jerusalem that He cared about their politics, their conduct of justice, or their discussions and bargains with one another. Of these they said, taking their own way, "Who seeth us, and who knoweth us?" Only in the Temple did they feel Gods fear, and there merely in imitation of one another. None had an original vision of God in real life; they learned other mens thoughts about Him, and took other mens words upon their lips, while their heart was far away. In fact, speaking words and listening to words had wearied the spirit and stifled the conscience of them.

For such a disposition Isaiah says there is only one cure. It is a new edition of his old gospel, that God speaks to us in facts, not forms. Worship and a lifeless doctrine have demoralised this people. God shall make Himself so felt in real life that even their dull senses shall not be able to mistake Him. "Therefore, behold, I am proceeding to work marvellously upon this people, a marvellous work and a wonder! and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the cleverness of their clever ones shall be obscured." This is not the promise of what we call a miracle. It is a historical event on the same theatre as the politicians are showing their cleverness, but it shall put them all to shame, and by its force make the dullest feel that Gods own hand is in it. What the people had ceased to attribute to Jehovah was ordinary intelligence; they had virtually said, "He hath no understanding." The "marvellous work," therefore, which He threatens shall be a work of wisdom, not some convulsion of nature to cow their spirits, but a wonderful political result, that shall shame their conceit of cleverness, and teach them reverence for the will and skill of God. Are the politicians trying to change the surface of the world, thinking that they "are turning things upside down," and supposing that they can keep God out of account: "Who seeth us, and who knoweth us?" God Himself is the real Arranger and Politician. He will turn things upside down! Compared with their attempt, how vast His results shall be! As if the whole surface of the earth were altered, "Lebanon changed into garden-land, and garden-land counted as forest!" But this, of course, is metaphor. The intent of the miracle is to show that God hath understanding; therefore it must be a work, the prudence and intellectual force of which politicians can appreciate, and it shall take place in their politics. But not for mere astonishments sake is the "wonder" to be done. For blessing and morality shall it be: to cure the deaf and blind; to give to the meek and the poor a new joy; to confound the tyrant and the scorner; to make Israel worthy of God and her own great fathers. "Therefore thus saith Jehovah to the house of Jacob, He that redeemed Abraham: Not now ashamed shall Jacob be, and not now shall his countenance blanch." So unworthy hitherto have this stupid people been of so great ancestors! "But now when his (Jacobs) children behold the work of My hand in the midst of him, they shall hallow My name, yea, they shall hallow the Holy One of Jacob, and the God of Israel shall they make their fear. They also that err in spirit shall know understanding, and they that are unsettled shall learn to accept doctrine." Such is the meaning of this strong chapter.

It is instructive in two ways.

First, it very clearly declares Isaiahs view of the method of Gods revelation. Isaiah says nothing of the Temple, the Shechinah, the Altar, or the Scripture; but he points out how much the exclusive confinement of religion to forms and texts has deadened the hearts of his countrymen towards God. In your real life, he says to them, you are to seek, and you shall find, Him. There He is evident in miracles, -not physical interruptions and convulsions, but social mercies and moral providences. The quickening of conscience, the dispersion of ignorance, poor men awakening to the fact that God is with them, the overthrow of the social tyrant, historys plain refutation of the atheist, the growth of civic justice and charity-In these, said the Hebrew prophet to the Old Testament believer, Behold your God!

Wherefore, secondly, we also are to look for God in events and deeds. We are to know that nothing can compensate us for the loss of the open vision of Gods working in history and in life about us, -not ecstasy of worship nor orthodoxy of doctrine. To confine our religion to these latter things is to become dull towards God even in them, and to forget Him everywhere else. And this is a fault of our day, just as it was of Isaiahs. So much of our fear of God is conventional, orthodox, and not original, a trick caught from mens words or fashions, not a part of ourselves, nor won, like all that is real in us, from contact with real life. In our politics, in our conduct with men, in the struggle of our own hearts for knowledge and for temperance, and in service-there we are to learn to fear God. But there, and wherever else we are busy, self comes too much in the way; we are fascinated with our own cleverness; we ignore God, saying, "Who seeth us? Who knoweth us?" We get to expect Him only in the Temple and on the Sabbath, and then only to influence our emotions. But it is in deeds, and where we feel life most real, that we are to look for Him. He makes Himself evident to us by wonderful works.

For these He has given us three theatres-the Bible, our countrys history, and for each man his own life.

We have to take the Bible, and especially the life of Christ, and to tell ourselves that these wonderful events did really take place. In Christ God did dwell; by Christ He spoke to man; man was converted, redeemed, sanctified, beyond all doubt. These were real events. To be convinced of their reality were worth a hundred prayers.

Then let us follow the example of the Hebrew prophets, and search the history of our own people for the realities of God. Carlyle says in a note to Cromwells fourth speech to Parliament, that "the Bible of every nation is its own history." This note is drawn from Carlyle by Cromwells frequent insistence, that we must ever be turning from forms and rituals to study Gods will and ways in history. And that speech of Cromwell is perhaps the best sermon ever delivered on the subject of this chapter. For he said: "What are all our histories but God manifesting Himself, that He hath shaken, and tumbled down and trampled upon everything that He hath not planted!" And again, speaking of our own history, he said to the House of Commons: "We are a people with the stamp of God upon us…whose appearances and providences among us were not to be outmatched by any story." Truly this is national religion:-the reverential acknowledgment of Gods hand in history; the admiration and effort of moral progress; the stirring of conscience when we see wrong; the expectation, when evil abounds, that God will bring justice and purity to us if we labour with Him for them.

But for each man there is the final duty of turning to himself.

"My soul repairs its fault

When, sharpening senses hebetude,

She turns on my own life! So viewed,

No mere motes breadth but teems immense

With witnessings of providence:

And woe to me if when I look

Upon that record, the sole book

Unsealed to me, I take no heed

Of any warning that I read!"

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

29:1-14 This is the second of the six woes (What sorrow . . .).

29:1-8 In the Assyrian siege, the Lord would be fighting against Jerusalem, but he would force the Assyrians to abandon Jerusalem in his own time.

29:1-2 Ariel was another name for Mount Zion (29:8); it probably means altar of God.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Your vain confidence in your sacrifices shall not last long.

The Hebrew word Ariel signifieth the Lion of God, and signifieth the Altar, because the altar seemed to devour the sacrifice that was offered to God, as Ezek. 43:16.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

CHAPTER XXIX

Distress of Ariel, or Jerusalem, on Sennacherib's invasion,

with manifest allusion, however, to the still greater distress

which it suffered from the Romans, 1-4.

Disappointment and fall of Sennacherib described in terms, like

the event, the most awful and terrible, 5-8.

Stupidity and hypocrisy of the Jews, 9-16.

Rejection of the Jews, and calling of the Gentiles, 17.

The chapter concludes by a recurrence to the favourite topics

of the prophet, viz., the great extension of the Messiah's

kingdom in the latter days, and the future restoration of

Israel, 18-24.

The subject of this and the four following chapters is the invasion of Sennacherib; the great distress of the Jews while it continued; their sudden and unexpected deliverance by God's immediate interposition in their favour; the subsequent prosperous state of the kingdom under Hezekiah; interspersed with severe reproofs, and threats of punishment, for their hypocrisy, stupidity, infidelity, their want of trust in God, and their vain reliance on the assistance of Egypt; and with promises of better times, both immediately to succeed, and to be expected in the future age. The whole making, not one continued discourse, but rather a collection of different discourses upon the same subject; which is treated with great elegance and variety. Though the matter is various, and the transitions sudden, yet the prophet seldom goes far from his subject. It is properly enough divided by the chapters in the common translation. - L.

NOTES ON CHAP. XXIX

Verse 1. Ariel] That Jerusalem is here called by this name is very certain: but the reason of this name, and the meaning of it as applied to Jerusalem, is very obscure and doubtful. Some, with the Chaldee, suppose it to be taken from the hearth of the great altar of burnt-offerings, which Ezekiel plainly calls by the same name, and that Jerusalem is here considered as the seat of the fire of God, אור אל ur el which should issue from thence to consume his enemies: compare Isa 31:9. Some, according to the common derivation of the word, ארי אל ari el, the lion of God, or the strong lion, suppose it to signify the strength of the place, by which it was enabled to resist and overcome all its enemies. Τινες δε φασι την πολιν οὑτως ειρησθαι· επει, δια Θεου, λεοντος δικην εσπαραττε τους ανταιροντας Procop. in loc. There are other explanations of this name given: but none that seems to be perfectly satisfactory. - Lowth.

From Eze 43:15, we learn that Ari-el was the name of the altar of burnt-offerings, put here for the city itself in which that altar was. In the second verse it is said, I will distress Ari-el, and it shall be unto me as Ari-el. The first Ari-el here seems to mean Jerusalem, which should be distressed by the Assyrians: the second Ari-el seems to mean the altar of burnt-offerings. But why is it said, "Ari-el shall be unto me as Ari-el?" As the altar of burnt-offerings was surrounded daily by the victims which were offered: so the walls of Jerusalem shall be surrounded by the dead bodies of those who had rebelled against the Lord, and who should be victims to his justice. The translation of Bishop Lowth appears to embrace both meanings: "I will bring distress upon Ari-el; and it shall be to me as the hearth of the great altar."

Add ye year to year] Ironically. Go on year after year, keep your solemn feasts; yet know, that God will punish you for your hypocritical worship, consisting of mere form destitute of true piety. Probably delivered at the time of some great feast, when they were thus employed.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

XXIX.

(1) Woe to Ariel, to Ariel.—The name belongs to the same group of poetic synonyms as Rahab (Psa_87:4; Psa_89:10) and the Valley of Vision (Psa_22:1). It may have been coined by Isaiah himself. It may have been part of the secret language of the prophetic schools, as Sheshach stood for Babel (Jer_25:26), Rahab for Egypt (Isa_51:9), and in the language of later Rabbis, Edom, and in that of the Apocalypse, Babel, for Rome (Rev_17:5). Modern language has, it will be remembered, like names of praise and scorn for England and France, though these (John Bull, the British Lion, Crapaud, and the Gallic Cock) scarcely rise to the level of poetry. “Ariel” has been variously interpreted as “the lion of God,” or “the hearth of God.” The first meaning has in its favour the use of the same word for men of special heroism in 2Sa_23:20 (“ lion-like men,” as in the margin, “lions of God”), and perhaps in Isa_33:7 (see Note). The “lion” was, it may be noted, the traditional symbol of Judah (Rev_5:5). In the words that follow, “the city where David dwelt,” the prophet interprets the mystic name for the benefit of his readers. The verb for “dwelt” conveys the sense of “encamping.” David had dwelt securely in the rock-fortress of Zion.

Add ye year to year.—The word implies the solemn keeping of the New Year festival. The people might keep that festival and offer many sacrifices, but this would not avail to ward off the tribulation which they deserved, and at which the prophet had hinted in the last verse of the preceding chapter.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt,.... Many Jewish writers by "Ariel" understand the altar of burnt offerings; and so the Targum,

"woe, altar, altar, which was built in the city where David dwelt;''

and so it is called in Eze 43:15 it signifies "the lion of God"; and the reason why it is so called, the Jews say (i), is, because the fire lay upon it in the form of a lion; but rather the reason is, because it devoured the sacrifices that were laid upon it, as a lion does its prey; though others of them interpret it of the temple, which they say was built like a lion, narrow behind and broad before (k); but it seems better to understand it of the city of Jerusalem, in which David encamped, as the word (l) signifies; or "encamped against", as some; which he besieged, and took from the Jebusites, and fortified, and dwelt in; and which may be so called from its strength and fortifications, natural and artificial, and from its being the chief city of Judah, called a lion, Gen 49:9 whose standard had a lion on it, and from whence came the Messiah, the Lion of the tribe of Judah; or rather from its cruelty in shedding the blood of the prophets, and was, as the Lord says, as a lion unto him that cried against him, Jer 12:8 and so the words may be considered as of one calling to Jerusalem, and lamenting over it, as Christ did, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets", &c. Mat 23:37 and the mention of David's name, and of his dwelling in it, is not only to point out what city is meant, and the greatness and glory of it; but to show that this would not secure it from ruin and destruction (m):

add ye year to year; which some understand of two precise years, at the end of which Jerusalem should be besieged by the army of Sennacherib; but that is not here meant. Cocceius thinks that large measure of time is meant, that one year is the length of time from David's dwelling in Jerusalem to the Babylonish captivity; and the other year from the time of Zerubbabel and Nehemiah to the destruction by the Romans, which is more likely; but rather the sense is, go on from year to year in your security and vain confidence; or keep your yearly feasts, and offer your yearly sacrifices; as follows:

let them kill sacrifices; the daily and yearly sacrifices; let the people bring them, and the priests offer them, for the time is coming when an end will be put to them; "the feasts shall be cut off": so the words may be rendered; the festivals shall cease, and be no more observed; and so the Targum,

"the festivities shall cease;''

or, feasts being put for lambs, so in Psa 118:27 as Ben Melech observes, the sense is, their heads should be cut off (n).

(i) Yoma apud Jarchi in loc. (k) T. Bab. Middot, fol. 37. 1. (l) "castrametatus est", Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius; "castra habuit", Piscator. (m) The words are rendered by Noldius, "woe to Ariel, to Ariel: to the city in which David encamped"; and he observes, that some supply the copulative "and; woe to Ariel, and to the city", &c.; So making them distinct, which seems best to agree with the accents, and may respect the destruction both of their ecclesiastic and civil state; the temple being designed by "Ariel", and "Jerusalem" by the city. See Concord. Ebr. Part. p. 183. No. 842. (n) "agni excervicabuntur", Montanus; "excidentur", Vatablus; "jugulentur", Munster.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Wo - (compare the note at Isa 18:1).

To Ariel - There can be no doubt that Jerusalem is here intended. The declaration that it was the city where David dwelt, as well as the entire scope of the prophecy, proves this. But still, it is not quiet clear why the city is here called “Ariel.” The margin reads, ‘O Ariel, that is, the lion of God.’ The word (אריאל 'ărı̂y'ēl) is compounded of two words, and is usually supposed to be made up of ארי 'ărı̂y, “a lion,” and אל 'ēl, God; and if this interpretation is correct, it is equivalent to a strong, mighty, fierce lion - where the word ‘God’ is used to denote greatness in the same way as the lofty cedars of Lebanon are called cedars of God; that is, lofty cedars. The “lion” is an emblem of strength, and a strong lion is an emblem of a mighty warrior or hero. 2Sa 23:20 : ‘He slew two “lion-like” אריאל 'ărı̂y'êl men of Moab’ 1Ch 11:22. This use of the word to denote a hero is common in Arabic (see Bachart, “Hieroz.,” i. 3. 1).

If this be the sense in which it is used here, then it is applied to Jerusalem under the image of a hero, and particularly as the place which was distinguished under David as the capital of a kingdom that was so celebrated for its triumphs in war. The word ‘Ariel’ is, however, used in another sense in the Scriptures, to denote an “altar” Eze 43:15-16, where in the Hebrew the word is “Ariel.” This name is given to the altar, Bachart supposes (“Hieroz.,” i. 3. 1), because the altar of burnt-offering “devours” as it were the sacrifices as a lion devours its prey. Gesenius, however, has suggested another reason why the word is given to the altar, since he says that the word ארי 'ărı̂y is the same as one used in Arabic to denote a fire-hearth, and that the altar was so called because it was the place of perpetual burnt-offering. The name “Ariel,” is, doubtless, given in Ezekiel to an altar; and it may be given here to Jerusalem because it was the place of the altar, or of the public worship of God. The Chaldee renders it, ‘Wo to the altar, the altar which was constructed in the city where David dwelt.’ It seems to me that this view better suits the connection, and particularly Isa 29:2 (see Note), than to suppose that the name is given to Jerusalem because it was like a lion. If this be the true interpretation, then it is so called because Jerusalem was the place of the burnt-offering, or of the public worship of God; the place where the fire, as on a hearth, continually burned on the altar.

The city where David dwelt - David took the hill of Zion from the Jebusites, and made it the capital of his kingdom 2Sa 5:6-9. Lowth renders this, ‘The city which David besieged.’ So the Septuagint: Ἐπολέμησε Epolemēse; and so the Vulgate, Expugnavit. The word חנה chânâh properly means “to encamp, to pitch one’s tent” Gen 26:17, “to station oneself.” It is also used in the sense of encamping “against” anyone, that is, to make war upon or to attack (see Isa 29:3, and Psa 27:3; 2Sa 12:28); and Jerome and others have supposed that it has this meaning here in accordance with the interpretation of the Septuagint and the Vulgate. But the more correct idea is probably that in our translation, that David pitched his tent there; that is, that he made it his dwelling-place.

Add ye year to year - That is, ‘go on year after year, suffer one year to glide on after another in the course which you are pursuing.’ This seems to be used ironically, and to denote that they were going on one year after another in the observance of the feasts; walking the round of external ceremonies as if the fact that David had dwelt there, and that that was the place of the great altar of worship, constituted perfect security. One of the sins charged on them in this chapter was “formality” and “heartlessness” in their devotions Isa 29:13, and this seems to be referred to here.

Let them kill sacrifices - Margin, ‘Cut off the heads.’ The word here rendered ‘kill’ (נקף nâqaph) may mean to smite; to hew; to cut down Isa 10:34; Job 19:26. But it has also another signification which better accords with this place. It denotes to make a circle, to revolve; to go round a place Jos 6:3, Jos 6:11; to surround 1Ki 7:24; 2Ki 6:14; Psa 17:9; Psa 22:17; Psa 88:18. The word rendered ‘sacrifices’ (חגים chagiym) may mean a sacrifice Exo 23:18; Psa 118:27; Mal 2:3, but it more commonly and properly denotes feasts or festivals Exo 10:9; Exo 12:14; Lev 23:39; Deu 16:10, Deu 16:16; 1Ki 8:2, 1Ki 8:65; 2Ch 7:8-9; Neh 8:14; Hos 2:11, Hos 2:13. Here the sense is, ‘let the festivals go round;’ that is, let them revolve as it were in a perpetual, unmeaning circle, until the judgments due to such heartless service shall come upon you. The whole address is evidently ironical, and designed to denote that all their service was an unvarying repetition of heartless forms.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ariel. This word signifies the lion of God, and here is taken for the strong city of Jerusalem. (Challoner) --- It was destroyed by the Chaldeans, (4 Kings xxv.) and still more by the Romans, 40 years after. (Calmet) (Worthington) --- Ezechiel (xliii. 15.) styles the altar of holocausts Ariel. --- Took. Septuagint. The Hebrew means also "inhabited." (Haydock) --- Sion was called the city of David. (Calmet) --- The invasion (Haydock) of Sennacherib is here foretold (Forcr.[Forerius?]) two years before, chap. xxxi. 10.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Woe to Ariel! this word signifies a strong lion, or the lion of God; and is used concerning lion-like men, as it is rendered, 1Ch 11:22; and of God’s altar, as it is rendered, Eze 43:15,16, which seems to be thus called, because it devoured and consumed the sacrifices put upon it, as greedily and as irresistibly as the lion doth his prey. If the altar be here meant, it is put synecdochically for the temple, and the words may be rendered, Woe to Ariel, to Ariel of or in the city! or, and the city; for that conjunction is sometimes understood, as Isa 22:6; Hab 3:11. And so the threatening is denounced both against the temple and against Jerusalem. But he seems rather to understand it of Jerusalem, as may be gathered,

1. From the next words, which seem to be added by way of apposition, to explain what he meant by that obscure and ambiguous term,

Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, even to the city!

2. From the following verses, which plainly declare that this Ariel is the place which God threatens that he would distress and fill with heaviness, Isa 29:2; and lay siege against her, Isa 29:3; and that the nations should fight against her, Isa 29:7; all which expressions agree much better to Jerusalem than to the altar. And this city might be called Ariel, or the strong lion, either,

1. For its eminent strength in regard of its situation and fortifications, by reason whereof it was thought almost impregnable, both by themselves and others, Lam 4:12. Or,

2. For its lionlike fierceness and cruelty, for which she is called the bloody city, Eze 7:23; 22:2, and, in effect, Isa 1:15; 59:3; Jer 19:4; and for which her princes are called lions, Eze 19:2; Zep 3:3. Or,

3. In respect of the altar of God, which was erected in and confined to that city, and in which the strength and glory of that city did chiefly consist.

The city where David dwelt; the royal city, and seat of David and his posterity; which is here mentioned as the ground of their confidence; and withal, it is implied that their relation to David, and their supposed interest in the promises made to him and to his seed, should not secure them from the destruction here threatened.

Add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices; go on in killing sacrifices from time to time, one year after another, whereby you think to appease me, and to secure yourselves; but all shall be in vain.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

This chapter and the three which follow and complete the section, evidently belong to the very eve of Sennacherib's invasion of Judah in701 b.c.

1-8. Jerusalem is besieged and at the last extremity, but the enemy shall be suddenly discomfited.

9-24. Judah's infatuation at this crisis, contrasted with the very different and teachable spirit that shall mark its future.

1. RV 'Ho Ariel.' Ariel is a symbolic name for Jerusalem, meaning either (1) lion of God, i.e. hero (2Sa_23:20), the lion being the symbol of Judah; or (2) altar-hearth of God.

Dwelt] RV 'encamped.' Add ye, etc.] The meaning is that when the new year succeeds that which is now running its course, and the cycle of feasts has been completed, Jehovah will bring distress upon Jerusalem. Let them, etc.] RV 'let the feasts come round.'

2. And it shall.. Ariel] RM 'Yet it shall be,'etc. In spite of all, the name shall not be falsified. Jehovah will protect His sanctuary as indicated in Isa_29:6-8.

4. Out of the dust] so deep will be her humiliation. Thy voice, etc.] cp. Isa_8:1-9.

5-8. As in other prophecies of the same period, Isaiah foretells sudden and overwhelming disaster for the enemy (Isa_37:36).

5. Strangers] RV 'foes.'

7. Multitude.. nations] The Assyrian army was recruited from many nations. Munition] RV 'strong hold.'

9f. Here the prophet sets out the sins which brought upon Judah the punishment of invasion. Stay.. cry] RM 'Be ye amazed and wonder; blind yourselves and be blind.'

10. Hath closed, etc.] RV 'hath closed your eyes, the prophets; and your heads, the seers, hath he covered.' Even the prophets, who ought to be the nation's watchmen (cp. Isa_21:8), share the general infatuation.

13. The service of Jehovah is merely formal. Their fear, etc.] RM 'their fear of me is a commandment of men, learned by rote.'

14. Marvellous] because Jehovah acts contrary to expectation against His people (Isa_28:21).

15. The politicians who sought alliance with Egypt endeavoured to conceal their project.

16. Surely, your turning, etc.] RM ' Oyour perversity! Shall the potter be counted as clay? 'The potter stands for Jehovah, whom the politicians of Judah ignored in their schemes.

17. The future change in the aspect of affairs is expressed under the figure of physical transformation.

18. Reversal of Isa_29:10-12.

20. Terrible one] the foe without. The scorner] within (Isa_28:14).

21. For a word] RV 'in a cause': i.e. a case brought for judgment.

Reproveth] pleadeth; the reference is to the corrupt rulers who attempt to silenee those that plead for justice. The gate] the place of judgment.

23. There are alternative interpretations: (1) when the nation sees fresh generations growing up under the divine favour, it will serve God more perfectly; (2) when his children see the work of My hands, etc.

J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

THE SECOND WOE.

As the preceding chapter began with “the garlanded summit of Samaria,” so this opens with Ariel.

1. Woe to Ariel, to Ariel — Referring to Jerusalem, of course, but may mean, “Lion of God,” (1Ch_11:22,) or God’s champion, (2 Samuel xxiii, 20;) or, it may mean, “Altar-fire-hearth;” (Eze_43:15-16,) a tropical name, as Bochart supposes, (Hierozoicon,) because the altar devours sacrifices as the lion devours its prey. Gesenius finds the meaning of “fire-hearth” in the Arabic cognate word for lion. Delitzsch decides for this meaning, and the Chaldee paraphrase renders the repeated word, “O altar! altar!” Jerusalem is the place where altar fires are ceaselessly burning, and a woe is pronounced upon her, at least for a period.

Add ye year to year — One year to another; that is, go on heartlessly in your yearly sacrifices if ye will. Such dead formality is cause sufficient for a fearful visitation.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 1-4. A WARNING TO JERUSALEM. Expostulation is followed by threats. The prophet is aware that all his preaching to the authorities in Jerusalem (Isa_28:14-22) will be of no avail, and that their adoption of measures directly antagonistic to the commands of God will bring on the very evil which they are seeking to avert, and cause Jerusalem to be actually besieged by her enemies. In the present passage he distinctly announces the siege, and declares that it will commence within a year.

Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! "Ariel" is clearly a mystic name for Jerusalem, parallel to "Sheshach" as a name for Babylon (Jer_25:26) and as a name for Heliopolis. (Isa_19:18) It is generally explained as equivalent to Art-El, "lion of God;" but Delitzsch suggests the meaning of "hearth of God," or "altar of God," a signification which "Ariel" seems to have in Eze_43:15, Eze_43:16. But there is no evidence that "Ariel" was ever employed in this sense before the time of Ezekiel. Etymologically, "Ariel" can only mean "lion of God," and the name would in this sense be sufficiently descriptive of the Jewish capital, which had always hitherto been a sort of champion of Jehovah a warrior fighting his battles with a lion"s courage and fierceness. Dwelt; literally, pitched his tent an expression recalling the old tent-life of the Hebrews. (comp. 1Ki_12:16) And ye year to year; rather, a year to a year; i.e. the coming year to the present one. The intention is to date the commencement of the siege. It will fall within the year next ensuing. Let them kill sacrifices. The best modern authorities translate, "Let the feasts run their round" (Kay, Cheyne, Delitzsch); i.e. let there be one more round of the annual festival-times, and then let the enemy march in and commence the siege.

"Woe to Ariel!

The lesson of this section seems to be that even those nearest and dearest to God, who bear his name, who are in a certain sense his, are not exempt from suffering at his hands. Even Jerusalem, "the city where David dwelt" "God"s lion," his champion, his "mighty one was shortly to experience all the horrors of a prolonged siege, to be brought down to the dust to be distressed, weakened, humiliated. The memory of David would not save her; her name of "Ariel" would not exempt her. She would have to go through the fearful ordeal. The Christian may humbly ask Wherefore?

I BECAUSE, HAVING SINNED, SHE DESERVED PUNISHMENT. God cannot allow sin to go unpunished. His attribute of perfect justice requires that even for pardoned sin there should be a penalty. It is well for sinners when the penalty is exacted in this life. The sufferings of the inhabitants of Jerusalem during the siege were no doubt, in some measure, punishments.

1. For the national sin of unfaithfulness.

2. For the particular sins of the sufferers.

But this is not a full account of the matter. Jerusalem suffered also

II BECAUSE SHE NEEDED CHASTISEMENT AND WOULD BE THE BETTER FOR IT. Jerusalem was still undergoing her probation. There were hopes of her turning to God. Nay, she did from time to time partially turn, and her actual destruction was deferred for above a century after that of her sister, Samaria. The sufferings of the siege were in the main intended to bring the sufferers to repentance to humble proud hearts, to bend stubborn wills, to show the vanity of earthly supports and stays, and induce entire dependence and trust in God. "Ariel" was punished far more in love than in wrath. She was still to God "as Ariel." Her "woe" was not the final woe pronounced on the hopelessly impenitent, but the woe which, while it is grievous at the time of its infliction, "nevertheless afterward yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby". (Heb_12:11)

All the enemies of God have, some day or other, an awaking. The designs which they cherish, the selfish hopes in which they indulge, are mere dreams. Even when the dreams are realized the result is disappointing. No man ever yet found the pleasure of success equal to his expectation. If there is a little satisfaction at first, fruition soon begets satiety. "Vanity of vanities," says the preacher, "all is vanity." But, for the most part, the dreams are not realized. God arises, and his enemies are scattered; those that hate him have to flee before him. (Psa_68:1) The schemer finds himself baffled just when he thinks success most certain. Dishonesty is detected; the bubble of speculation bursts; unexpected obstacles arise; a sudden death or a sudden outbreak of war deranges the best-laid plans: the fortune just about to be made vanishes into the air, the dreamer "awakes, and his soul is empty all his hopes have passed away "at an instant suddenly." There is but one security against constant disappointment, which is to trust all to God, to have no will but his, no desire but that expressed in the prayer, "Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.

Concerning Ariel.

I VICISSITUDES OF ARIEL. The name is symbolic, perhaps signifying God"s lion." It was the city where David dwelt. The prophet bids the city enter upon the new year, and run the round of the feasts. The distress will come, and the city, true to her name, will be mourning like a wounded lioness; and yet her prowess will be seen. She will be beleaguered, the mound for the battering-ram will be set up; she will be abased, and her low voice will be like the muttering of a ghost from the under-world. Then a sudden change will occur, and the multitude of foes will be dispersed like dust or chaff in the wind. After the noise as of thunder and earthquake and hurricane, menacing absolute extinction of the city, the vast host will disappear like a dream and vision of the night. They too will dream of conquest, as a hungry and thirsty man dreams of meat and drink; and their hope will melt with the morning light.

II THE BLINDNESS OF THE PEOPLE. Those who listen are astonished at a prophecy which nothing in the past appears to warrant. The prophet takes occasion to explain the cause of their blindness and stupefaction, and to warn them that they may find this their fixed condition. They are responsible for this state, he seems to imply when he says, Astonish yourselves!" Blind yourselves!" Some strange prepossession causes them to act like men intoxicated; their reason reels and staggers. A deep sleep is poured upon them; their eyes are closed, and their hands wrapped up in Oriental fashion. The result is they cannot see the truth. The vision and the faculty divine," so bright and eminent in the prophet, is not recognized for what it is. His words are like a sealed book in the hands of a reader. He can read, but cannot loose the seals of the book, which is so far like that described in Rev_5:2. Or again, if a book, though open and legible, be handed to one that cannot read, the result is the same. It may be a large tablet, with large characters, like that in Isa_8:1, so that the passer-by, if he can read, may catch the meaning; but what if he cannot read? It is the same as if the writing were non-existent.

1. Seeing truth is like seeing the meaning of what we read. All see something in the book some little more than that it is a book; some can extract a certain superficial sense from the signs, and are asleep towards the deeper and central meaning. That meaning must be lived out by the

2. Absence of spiritual intelligence infers guilt. Men will not see, because the sight is too painful, or some other sight is more pleasurable and more easy to take in. Moral obtuseness is another word for want of conscience, or for inertness of conscience. J.

The city of God.

"The city where David dwelt" was undoubtedly Jerusalem, the "city of God." It is here called Ariel; i.e. , according to some, the hearth or altar of God. This fact, taken with the prophecy itself, may remind us

I THAT THE CITY OF GOD IS THE PLACE WHERE GOD DWELLS. It is where his hearth is the "place of his abode" where he is at home with his people, where they are "at home" with him. The true Church of Christ, the ideal Christian family or society, is that company which feels that God is with it of a truth, which realizes and rejoices in his presence.

II THAT THE CITY OF GOD IS THE PLACE OF SACRIFICE. The "altar" of Old Testament times has forever disappeared now that the great Sacrifice has been presented, now that the way into the holiest is open, now that nothing stands between the Divine mercy and the penitent and believing soul. But still the city of God is the place of sacrifice; for still every true servant of Christ is continually engaged in offering up "spiritual sacrifices" unto God. These are the offerings of praise, (Heb_13:15) of consecration, (Rom_12:1) of kindness; these (Heb_13:16) and such as these are "acceptable to God". (1Pe_2:5)

III THAT THE CITY OF GOD IS A PLACE OF REVERENT AND JOYOUS COMMUNION. "Add ye year to year," etc. (ver. 1); i.e. let the festivals go round from year to year. The prophet is thought to have spoken ironically, as if he would say, "Go on with your solemnities, but they will avail you nothing." However this may be, we may be sure that when Jerusalem was what Jehovah meant it to be, it was a city in which sacred festivals brought the people of God into holy and happy communion with one another and with their Divine Ruler. And when that which is now the counterpart of the city of God is what its Lord meant it to be, it is a place where human souls mingle in sacred fellowship, and where they all unite in reverent and happy intercourse with the Father of their spirits, with the Savior of their souls.

IV THAT THE CITY OF GOD MAY RE A PLACE OF DIVINE JUDGMENT. "Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow," etc. (vers. 2-4). When the Church, the society, the family, or the individual soul needs Divine correction, Goal will send his chastisements. The Author of its peace will be the Source of its sorrow.

1. It (he) will be as a besieged city, as a city against which the agents of God are encamped, shut in, circumscribed, reduced to privation and distress, made to feel its feebleness, driven to cry out for help.

2. It (he) will be humiliated. Thou shalt be brought down," etc. (ver. 4). Nothing so much offends God as pride, haughtiness of heart, presumption; and when this is manifested by his people, they may expect to be abased to the very dust, until their spirit has been renewed and they have learned humility under his correcting hand.

V THAT THE CITY OF GOD IS THE OBJECT OF THE DIVINE DELIVERANCE. (Vers. 5-9.) When God arises to deliver his people, his visitation may be:

1. Unexpected. (Ver. 5.) When the Son of man cometh, will he find his people expecting his appearance? (Luk_18:8)

2. Overwhelming. (Vers. 6, 7.) It will (may) be as if all the elements conspired to work his will.

3. Attended with bitterest disappointment to his foes. (Ver. 8.)

1. See to it that this severe correction be not called for; that it is not brought down by worldliness, by formality, by selfishness, by pride, by discord, by indulgence.

2. If the hour of correction should arrive, let immediate repentance bring on at once the time of deliverance. C.

Divine corrections through temporal distresses.

This subject may be treated in the larger spheres of nations, classes of society, or Churches, and applications may be made to individual experience. God"s ways in the world of men are designed to reveal the mystery of his ways with each man. That impression which we are now gaining concerning the constancy and inexorableness of law, godly people have long had concerning the constancy and inexorableness of the Divine dealings. What God has been to one man, he has been to many, he has been to all. What God has been here, he has been there, and he has been everywhere. It is a law and order with him that he should correct men for their faults by means of temporal distresses. The calamities that come to men and nations are no accidents. In them God is working for righteousness. The term Ariel is one of Isaiah"s favorite symbolical names. It stands for Jerusalem. The prophet exclaims, "Alas for Ariel!" because of the wrong-headedness and the willfulness which were leading its rulers away from reliance on Jehovah to confidence in Egypt. The word "Ariel" means "God"s lion," but it is not easy for us to recognize the appropriateness of the figure. Some think it may mean the hearth , or altar of God, and then the reference to "sacrifices" in ver. 1 is seen to be appropriate. Henderson, feeling that the figure of Jerusalem as a lion, devouring the flesh Of many sacrifices, is very strained, accepts the figure of "hearth or altar," and says, "The reference is to Jerusalem as the center of the Jewish polity, where alone it was lawful to sacrifice to Jehovah". (Isa_31:9) In favor of the translation, "Lion of God," it maybe noticed that the lion was the emblem of the tribe of Judah. The historical reference of these verses is to the coming attack of Sennacherib"s army, which would be a distress to Ariel, but would not involve her ruin. It would be a providence with the evident design of warning and correcting. It is matched by many circumstances in individual lives which are distressing rather than afflicting or overwhelming.

I PARTICULAR EVILS IN ARIEL. Perhaps the point of reproach here is the insincerity attending the reformation which Hezekiah instituted. There is an important difference between a reformation which starts from the people and reaches to affect the throne, as in the case of Nineveh in the time of Jonah; or as in the case of the German Protestant Reformation, which was in the heart and purpose of the people before Luther found it voice; and a reformation which starts from the throne and tries to carry the people with it, as in the cases of Hezekiah and Josiah. There is the grave danger of the people"s acceding to the wish of the sovereign, and the example of the court, apart from their own convictions. This was the particular evil of the time which needed correction. There were signs of religious awakening which were insincere. How insincerity in the leaders was shown in the efforts of a considerable party to turn from Jehovah and negotiate for help with Egypt! Still, we may observe the prevalence of insincerity, and the fact that distresses" are just the fitting corrective of this evil.

II THE DELUSION OF KEEPING UP SACRIFICES IN ARIEL. An important part of prophetical work was the denunciation of sacrifices and religious rites when the soul of meaning was lost out of them, and they expressed no devotion, no thankfulness, no love, and no consecration. (see Isa_1:11-15) Here Isaiah intimates that increasing the number of festivals and multiplying sacrifices could not deceive God or hide from him the real moral and religious condition of the people. Keeping up the formalities of religion is often successful in deceiving men, but it never deceives God. This is his absolute condition, "They that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

III THE FORMS IN WHICH ARIEL MIGHT BE HOPEFULLY DISTRESSED. The Mosaic system had established the idea that men would be sure to get good things by being good. This was founded in truth, but it involved men"s having right ideas of what are "good things," and what is "being good." Men made it mean that they would be sure to get temporal blessings if they made large outward show of goodness. And therefore temporal distresses and anxieties were precisely the things that would awaken men to a sense of their mistake, and to a worthier apprehension of Divine claims. Temporal safety and blessing did not attend such goodness as theirs, and so they were led to suspect their goodness. So we, finding our religion fail us in the evil day, are brought to see that formal religion never can be acceptable unto him who "desires truth in the inward parts.

IV THE ISSUE OF DIVINE DEALINGS WITH ARIEL. Here we must distinguish between the issue which God designs, and for the accomplishment of which the means he uses are appropriate, and the issue which is actually attained in consequence of man"s resistant willfulness. One of the saddest things in all human lives is the contrast between the results of distressful dispensations and the gracious designs contemplated by God in sending them. Corrections that fail to humble succeed in hardening. R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The temple and city of Jerusalem destroyed, ver. 1-6. Her enemies insatiable, ver. 7, 8 Their senselessness, ver. 9-12. And deep hypocrisy, ver. 13-17. These scorner and oppressor being cut off, the rest shall be converted, ver. 18-24.

The city - The royal city, and seat of David and his posterity. Set them - Go on in killing sacrifices from time to time, one year after another, whereby you think to appease me, but all shall be in vain.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

“Woe to Ariel (or alas for Ariel), Ariel, the city David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts revolve.” All interpreters agree that Ariel is here a name for Zion or Jerusalem, although they greatly differ in the explanation of the name itself. There are two explanations between which interpreters are chiefly divided. One of these makes it mean lion of God, (i.e., a lion-like champion or hero) (2Sa 23:20 Isa 33:7) here applied to Jerusalem as a city of heroes which should never be subdued. The other hypothesis explains it, from an Arabic analogy, to mean the hearth or fire-place of God, in which sense it seems to be applied to the altar by Ezekiel (Eze 43:15-16) and the extension of the name to the whole city is the more natural because Isaiah himself says of Jehovah, that his fire is in Zion and his furnace in Jerusalem (Isa 31:9). The city David encamped is an elliptical expression not unlike the Hebrew one, in which the relative must be supplied. Here again there seems to be a twofold allusion to David’s siege and conquest of Zion (2Sa 5:7) and to his afterwards encamping (i.e., dwelling there (2Sa 5:9)). Most interpreters explain the words ‘add year to year’, as simply meaning, let the years roll on with the accustomed routine of ceremonial services. The last phrase let the feasts revolve, corresponds exactly to the one preceding, add year to year.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Prophecies of Isaiah (1846–1847; New York: Scribner, 1870–1878) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ariel "Lion of God" = Jerusalem.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Woe Upon Ariel

v. 1. Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, a name signifying either "lion of God" or, more likely, "mountain of God," the city where David dwelt! which is still distinguished by that fact. Add ye year to year, another year to the present year; let them kill sacrifices, so that another cycle of festivals will be completed, that is, after the end of the present year another full church-year would elapse, but then the catastrophe would surely strike Jerusalem.

v. 2. Yet I will distress Ariel, at the time indicated, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow, sighing and groaning; and It shall be unto Me as Ariel, Jerusalem would prove herself a place where the judgment of the Lord would be carried out.

v. 3. And I will camp against thee round about, the enemies carrying out His plans in their siege of the city, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, with fortifications fully manned, every soldier determined to take the city, and I will raise forts against thee, earthworks or entrenchments.

v. 4. And thou shalt be brought down and shalt speak out of the ground, as though covered with earth, her voice faint and hollow, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, muffled and hard to understand, and thy voice shall be as of one that has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, like that of a ventriloquist imitating the speech of spirits, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust, as one would imagine the voice of a dead person to sound out of the grave. Note the heaping of the expressions to emphasize the intention of the Lord. But the time of tribulation would not last long.

v. 5. Moreover, the multitude of thy strangers, of the enemies of Zion, shall be like small dust, utterly crushed, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away, carried off by the wind without a trace to show that they were there; yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly, the destruction coming upon them in a moment.

v. 6. Thou, Jerusalem, shalt be visited, but graciously, with a view to deliverance, of the Lord of hosts, the mighty Commander of the heavenly armies, with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire, all the forces of nature being employed by the Lord in overthrowing the haughty invaders.

v. 7. And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, the mount of the Lord, typical of His holy Church, even all that fight against her and her munition, her mountain fortress, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision, with nothing tangible to boast of, with no victory won.

v. 8. It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth, the dream being so very vivid; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty, no real food having passed his lips; or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, with his thirst unquenched, and his soul hath appetite, he is still longing for a cooling drink. So shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion. They had thought it would be an easy matter to conquer Jerusalem, but they find themselves bitterly disappointed. The whole attempt of Assyria upon Jerusalem would be as if it had not been, would he as empty and unreal as the fabric of a dream. The same will finally be true of all the enemies of the real Mount Zion, of the Church of God. But since the people of Jerusalem would not accept the words of the prophet in firm faith, in glad acclaim, therefore he continues with sharp reproof.

v. 9. Stay yourselves and wonder, stopping in foolish astonishment and unbelieving amazement; cry ye out and cry, rather, "blind yourselves and become blind," said of those who deliberately harden themselves against the influence of the joyful message brought to their attention; they are drunken, but not with wine, a spiritual paralysis having taken hold upon them; they stagger, but not with strong drink, their intoxication being due to their spiritual stupidity. And since they were thus closing their hearts against the influence of the Lord, He would punish them with that same stupidity which they were cultivating.

v. 10. For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, with which they were stupefied, and hath closed your eyes, blinding them against the light of understanding; the prophets and your rulers, the seers, hath He covered, the very leaders who were supposed to teach the people were afflicted with blindness.

v. 11. And the vision of all, that which was revealed by the vision of the true prophets concerning all things, is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, of a roll of parchment sealed so that the writing is not visible, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I cannot, for it is sealed, and unless the roll is opened, it is impossible for the writing to be seen;

v. 12. and the book is delivered to him that is not learned, an illiterate person, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I am not learned. In either event, the writing will not be revealed, the teaching of God is hidden from them, just as it is from the hearts and minds of all such as harden their hearts against His teaching.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Isa 29:8

The general truth taught by these words is this: wrong-doing promises much, but it certainly ends in bitter disappointment. The good to be gained by sin is seen and tasted and handled only in dream. It is never actually possessed, and visible disappointment is the bitter fruit of transgression.

I. The very nature of sin suggests this fact. (1) Sin is a wandering from the way which God has appointed for us—the way which was in His mind when He made man—the only way which has ever been in His mind as the right way. There is no adaptation in nan’s real nature to any way but one, and that is obedience to a Father in heaven, the result and fruit of true love for that Father. (2) Sin is a practical withdrawing from the protection of Divine providence. It thus wounds, sometimes instantly, and always eventually, the transgressor himself. It is as when a hungry man dreameth, and awaketh, and behold, he is faint.

II. Look at a few recognised facts about sin. (1) The angels who kept not their first estate left their own habitation. So far as we can understand the matter they sought freedom, but they found chains. They sought light; they found darkness. They sought happiness; they found misery,—as when a hungry man dreameth and eateth, and awaketh and finds himself famishing. (2) Our first parents, in yielding to the first temptation, sought equality with God; but they soon found themselves fallen below the natural human level. (3) The general history of sin is found in epitome in the life of every sinner. In families and churches and nations, in societies of all kinds, we see illustrated the truth that sin everywhere, by whomsoever committed, is the occasion of most bitter disappointment.

S. Martin, Penny Pulpit, No. 621.

Isa 29:11-12

I. There is something of truth in the representation that the Bible is a sealed book. We always regard it as a standing proof of the Divine origin of the volume, that it is not to be unfolded by the processes which we apply to a merely human composition, and that every attempt to enter deeply into its meaning, without the assistance of its Author, issues in nothing but conjecture and confusion. The Bible is addressed to the heart, not merely to the head. Revelation is designed not only to convey to the intellect a few definite notions of things which its own sagacity is unable to discover, but to act upon the affections, and win them over to the service of God. The very fact that unless the Holy Spirit explains the Bible it is impossible for the student to enter into its meaning, may be seized on by those who seek an apology for neglect; and men may retort upon an adviser who says, "Read this, I pray you," by asking, "How can we, since on your own showing the book is sealed?" The Bible is a sealed book to all who interpret it by their own unaided strength. But "if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him." Hence the key is within reach. You are taught how the flame may be kindled by which the seals shall be dissolved. Can it, then, be any justification for the neglect with which Scripture is treated that any of its statements overpass our unassisted comprehensions?

II. If one great body of men excuse themselves by pleading that the volume is sealed, another will take refuge in their own want of scholarship. Here, again, the excuse is based on a truth; but yet it in no degree justifies neglect. The well-educated man has undoubtedly advantages over the uneducated, when both are considered as students of Scripture. The poor may be deterred by positive inability from reading the Bible, and thus be dependent upon their children or neighbours for acquaintance with its chapters; and even where there has not been this total want of common instruction, and the poor cottager is able to read the Bible for himself, it is not to be questioned that he will find many difficulties which never meet the better educated. Here comes in with fresh force all our preceding argument in regard to the office of the Spirit as the interpreter of Scripture. If the understanding of the Bible, so as to become morally advantaged by its statements, depend on the influences of the Holy Ghost, it is clear that the learned may search much and gain no spiritual benefit, and the unlearned may read little and yet be mightily profited. The instant you ascertain that the book cannot be unsealed by mere human instrumentality, but that an agency is needed which is promised to all without exception who seek it by prayer, you place rich and poor on the same level, so far as "life eternal" is concerned, which is the knowing God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent.

H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2129.

References: Isa 29:11, Isa 29:12.—Old Testament Outlines, p. 191. Isa 29:13.—J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 2nd series, p. 40. Isa 29:13, Isa 29:14.—Pulpit Analyst, vol. i., p. 207. Isa 29:18.—S. Baring-Gould, One Hundred Sermon Sketches, p. 115. Isa 30:1.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ix., p. 103.

The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Woe to Ariel

Here "Ariel" represents the people who live in the city of Ariel. AT: "How terrible it will be for the people of Ariel" (See: Metonymy)

Ariel

This is another name for Jerusalem, and it means "altar." If possible translate this as "Ariel" rather than "Jerusalem" since the meaning of "Ariel" is important in Isa 29:2. (See: How to Translate Names)

David encamped

"David dwelled" or "David lived"

Add year to year; let the festivals come round

"Keep celebrating your festival year after year." This is an ironic statement. Yahweh tells the people to keep celebrating their festivals where they sacrifice to him, but he knows it will not prevent him from destroying them. (See: Irony)

But I will besiege

The word "I" refers to Yahweh. This represents Yahweh causing an enemy army to besiege Jerusalem. (See: Metonymy)

she will

Here "she" refers to Ariel, which represents the people of Ariel. AT: "the people of Ariel will" (See: Metonymy)

mourning and lamenting

The words "mourning" and "lamenting" mean basically the same thing and emphasize the intensity of mourning. AT: "they will mourn deeply" (See: Doublet)

like Ariel

Translators may add a footnote that says, "The name Ariel means 'altar.'" (See: Simile)

translationWords

woe

David

festival

siege

lament

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Woe, Ariel Jonathan renders: Altar of the Lord. Ezekiel, too, called it that, as it is said (43: 16): “And the altar (וְהָאֲרִיאֵל) twelve [cubits] in length,” [because of the heavenly fire that lay like a lion atop the altar, as we learned in Tractate Yoma (21b)]. Our Sages, however, explained it in reference to the heichal (the Temple proper), which was narrow from the rear and wide in the front.

the city wherein David encamped The altar that was built in the city wherein David encamped [from Jonathan].

add year to year And always your sins are continuously increasing until your sacrifices are cut off (יִנְקֹפוּ), an expression similar to (supra 17:6): “like the cutting (כְּנֹקֶּף) of an olive tree.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Ariel. Jerusalem. According to some, Ariel is the name of Jerusalem, on account of the altar therein, which is called הראל and also אריאל Harel and Ariel (Ez. 43:15, 16); for the letters אׄ הׄ וׄ יׄ interchange; according to others, on account of her planet being the lion; but this is absurd.

קרית The city; it is in the construct state; supply אמת of truth, or some similar word: the city of truth,

where David hath dwelt; or the city, where David dwelt, since the whole sentence, with the past tense of a verb, can in this case be considered as a noun in the genitive governed by a preceding substantive; comp. בראשית ברא in the beginning, when God created, etc. (Gen. 1:1); תחלת דבר וגו׳ the beginning of the Lord’s speaking to Hosea (Hos. 1:1).

ספו Add. Comp. לספת to add (Num. 32:14).

חגים Sacrifices.

ינקפו Will cease. It is a neuter verb. It can also be rendered: they shall kill, ינקפו being explained to be a transitive verb with the omission of the subject (הנקפים the men that kill); comp. ויאמר ליוסף and one said to Joseph (Gen. 48:1)

Ibn Ezra on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0); and “Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.