Isaiah Chapter 29

From The Open Bible Project

29:1 Woe to Ariel! Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts come around;

• (a) Or Ariel: the Hebrew word Ariel signifies the Lion of God, and signifies the Altar, because the altar seemed to devour the sacrifice that was offered to God, as in (Ezekiel 43:16).
• (b) Your vain confidence in your sacrifices will not last long.

29:2 then I will distress Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation. She shall be to me as an [16] altar hearth [See Isaiah Footnotes 16].

• (c) Your city will be full of blood as an altar on which they sacrifice.

29:3 I will encamp against you all around you, and will lay siege against you with posted troops. I will raise siege works against you.

29:4 You will be brought down, and will speak out of the ground. Your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will be as of one who has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech will whisper out of the dust.

• (d) Your speech will be no longer be so lofty but abased and low as the very charmers who are in low places and whisper, so that their voice can scarcely by heard.

29:5 But the multitude of your foes will be like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless ones like chaff that blows away. Yes, it will be in an instant, suddenly.

• (e) Your hired soldiers in whom you trusted, will be destroyed as dust or chaff in a whirlwind.

29:6 She will be visited by Yahweh of Armies with thunder, with earthquake, with great noise, with whirlwind and storm, and with the flame of a devouring fire.

29:7 The multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night.

• (f) The enemies that I will bring to destroy you, and that which you place your vain trust in will come at unawares even as a dream in the night. Some read as if this was a comfort to the Church for the destruction of their enemies.

29:8 It will be like when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his hunger isn't satisfied; or like when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and behold, he is faint, and he is still thirsty. The multitude of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion will be like that.

• (g) That is, he thinks that he eats.

29:9 Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.

• (h) Muse on this a long as ye like, yet you will find nothing but opportunity to be astonished for your prophets are blind, and therefore cannot direct you.

29:10 For Yahweh has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and he has covered your heads, the seers.

29:11 All vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is educated, saying, "Read this, please;" and he says, "I can't, for it is sealed:"

• (i) Meaning, that it is all alike, either to read, or not to read, unless God open the heart to understand.

29:12 and the book is delivered to one who is not educated, saying, "Read this, please;" and he says, "I can't read."

29:13 The Lord said, "Because this people draws near with their mouth and with their lips to honor me, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught;

• (k) Because they are hypocrites and not sincere in heart, as in (Matthew 15:7,8).
• (l) That is, their religion was learned by man’s doctrine, and not by my word.

29:14 therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden."

• (m) Meaning, where God is not worshipped according to his word, both magistrates and ministers are fools and without understanding.

29:15 Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from Yahweh, and whose works are in the dark, and who say, "Who sees us?" and "Who knows us?"

• (n) This is spoken of them who in heart despised God’s word, and mocked at the admonitions but outwardly bore a good face.

29:16 You turn things upside down! Should the potter be thought to be like clay; that the thing made should say about him who made it, "He didn't make me;" or the thing formed say of him who formed it, "He has no understanding?"

• (o) For all your craft says the Lord, you are not able to escape my hands any more than the clay that is in the potter’s hands has power to deliver itself.

29:17 Isn't it yet a very little while, and Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be regarded as a forest?

• (p) Will there not be a change of all things? Carmel is a plentiful place in respect to what it will be then and may be taken for a forest, as in (Isaiah 32:15) and thus he speaks to comfort the faithful.

29:18 In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness.

29:19 The humble also will increase their joy in Yahweh, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

29:20 For the ruthless is brought to nothing, and the scoffer ceases, and all those who are alert to do evil are cut off--

29:21 who cause a person to be indicted by a word, and lay a snare for the arbiter in the gate, and who deprive the innocent of justice with false testimony.

• (q) They who went about to find fault with the prophets words, and would not abide admonitions, but would entangle them and bring them into danger.

29:22 Therefore thus says Yahweh, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: "Jacob shall no longer be ashamed, neither shall his face grow pale.

29:23 But when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in the midst of him, they will sanctify my name. Yes, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

29:24 They also who err in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will receive instruction."

• (r) Signifying that unless God gives understanding and knowledge, man cannot but still err and murmur against him.