Isaiah 29:3

3 I will surround you like a wall, and I will lay a siege against you with assault towers, and I will raise up siegeworks against you.

Isaiah 29:3 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 29:3

And I will camp against thee round about
Or as a "ball" or "globe" ^F15; a camp all around; the Lord is said to do that which the enemy should do, because it was by his will, and according to his order, and which he would succeed and prosper, and therefore the prophecy of it is the more terrible; and it might be concluded that it would certainly be fulfilled, as it was; see ( Luke 19:43 ) ( 21:20 ) : and will lay siege against thee with a mount:
raised up for soldiers to get up upon, and cast their arrows into the city from, and scale the walls; Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it a wooden tower. This cannot be understood of Sennacherib's siege, for he was not suffered to raise a bank against the city, nor shoot an arrow into it, ( Isaiah 37:33 ) but well agrees with the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, as related by Josephus {p}: and I will raise forts against thee;
from whence to batter the city; the Romans had their battering rams.

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FOOTNOTES:

F15 (rwdk) "quasi pila", Piscator; "instar globi", Gataker.
F16 Joseph. de Bello Jud. l. 5. c. 7. sect. 1. & c. 12. sect. 1, 2.

Isaiah 29:3 In-Context

1 Oh, Ariel, Ariel, town where David encamped! Year by year, let the festivals come around—

2 but I will oppress Ariel. There will be mourning and lamentation; she will be like an Ariel to me.

3 I will surround you like a wall, and I will lay a siege against you with assault towers, and I will raise up siegeworks against you.

4 You will be brought down; from the ground you will speak; from low in the dust your speech will come. Your voice will be like a ghost's from the earth; from the dust your words will whisper.

5 But your many enemies will be like fine dust, the terrible horde like passing chaff. Suddenly, in an instant,